Interland
View the case- Brand
- Year
- 2017
- Objective
- Other
- Industry
- Tech & Telecom
- Mechanic
- Mini-Games
- Platform
- Web
Objective
Google needed a flagship, install-free centerpiece for Be Internet Awesome, its digital-literacy program built to teach elementary and middle-school kids five online-safety principles in a way teachers and parents could actually use in class and at home, with content meeting ISTE education standards. Because the program couldn't afford to lose kids over hardware, it also had to run smoothly on school Chromebooks, tablets, and older phones.
Solution
Players start on a map and pick any of four floating islands in any order. In Kind Kingdom they platform through a level, handing out hearts and blocking trolls; in Reality River they hop across hexagonal stepping stones, answering true-or-false prompts about scams and phishing to avoid falling in; Tower of Treasure has them race up a tower collecting password characters while dodging hackers; and on Mindful Mountain they angle mirrors to steer a message to the right recipient. Controls are just arrow keys and space bar, or a tap on mobile, and the story and voiceover carry the explanations rather than on-screen text. Finishing an island ends in a short quiz and a title like "You're Internet Kind" or "Alert," and clearing all four earns a personalized Certificate of Awesomeness.
Results
Be Internet Awesome, built around Interland as its core interactive piece, reached 1,000,000 US second-through-fifth-grade students, with classroom kits deployed to 10,000 schools nationwide.
- 1
The player opens Interland to a welcome screen inviting them to start (on mobile, first prompted to rotate into landscape), then lands on a world map showing four floating islands, each with its own name and motto. The player picks any island to enter, in any order.
- 2
Before each island's challenge begins, a short control screen explains the level's inputs: arrow keys to move, spacebar to jump or act, holding up while pressing left or right to long-jump, or taps on touchscreens.
- 3
On Kind Kingdom, the player controls a platforming character climbing toward the top of the island, collecting hearts along the way and delivering them to downcast characters to cheer them up. Bullies spreading negativity approach these characters, and the player blocks their path and banishes them with an orange megaphone (a stand-in for a "report" button) that sweeps them off the island through a tunnel of rings.
- 4
Each island closes with a short fill-in-the-blank quiz on its topic; picking the wrong answer prompts the player to reconsider before the correct one clears the level. A completion screen awards a themed title and offers to replay the level, view learning material, or continue to the next island — this pattern repeats after every island.
- 5
On Reality River, the player crosses a river by hopping across hexagonal platforms, each presenting a message, link, or claim to judge as real or fake, sometimes against a timer, with hints available. Correct calls advance the player toward the far bank while wrong ones push them back, and finishing the crossing earns the "Internet Alert" title.
- 6
On Tower of Treasure, the player runs and jumps across three floors collecting pieces of personal data — lowercase letters, then uppercase letters and numbers — to assemble a password while dodging hackers who can scoop up anything dropped in a collision. The level ends with the player choosing the strongest of several candidate passwords to secure the tower, earning the "Internet Strong" title.
- 7
On Mindful Mountain, the player receives incoming messages and images and aims a beam through mirrors using the arrow keys, firing it with spacebar to route each item to the right audience: Parents, Friends, Public, a private Lock Box, or Trash. Misdirecting a message exposes something private to the public, while correct routing progresses the player toward the "Internet Smart" title.
- 8
After completing all four islands, the game shows an "Epic Win!" screen, asks the player to enter their first name, and lets them claim a personalized, downloadable Certificate of Awesomeness.
