Old Spice hacks Instagram with 'Choose Your Own Adventure' game

Do you have fond memories of 'Choose Your Own Adventure' games? Well, Old Spice has resurrected them by weaving its brand into Instagram through the use of tagging.

Traditional 'CYOA' games tended to be in book form, with readers playing an active role in deciding the plot's outcome - which often involved fantasy or science fiction elements.

Old Spice's spin on the game lets users search for tags, which lead to new Instagram accounts that one by one reveal the story, with the use of retro monsters, robots, and superheroes giving the game a retro, light-hearted feel. 

Give the game a go here and tell us if other brands should make their own.

Now you can play 'Dumb ways to die'

Following on from the success of its 'Dumb ways to die' campaign for Melbourne Metro, McCann Australia has produced an iPhone and iPad game built along the same idea.

The game, developed in collaboration with local developer Barrel Of Donkeys, has been the No. 1 free app in Australia for a week, and is charting in 79 other countries.

The concept of turning the viral advert into a game was to continue to encourage younger people to be careful around trains, and avoid dying in a dumb way, as you try to save the characters from the video from their fate.

The game is free from itunes.

Location guessing game for endless fun

Another company has taken Google's Street View and created something wonderful, this time it's a game. GeoGuessr is a location guessing game, perfect for travel addicts.

The game is pretty simple; you are dropped in a location on Street View and by clicking around you use the map interface in the top right corner to guess where you are, the closer your guess is to the actual location, the more points you get.

You get dropped in 5 locations each game and you can move around as much as you like.

Why not have a go for yourself here.

Google Chrome experiment creates perfect time-waster

Google's latest innovation in time-wasting fun is the Chrome World Wide Maze, and it isn't an April Fool's joke.

Coming from Japan, it is a browser experiment that turns any Web page of your choosing into a 3-D maze. You guide a marble via a smart phone synced with your computer (and, of course, installed with Chrome for Mobile for this to work properly). The aim is to collect 'power-ups' whilst completing the maze, and avoiding falling off.

The mobile-phone-as-game-controller idea has promise and isn't much different from the Wii U's current setup. It isn't the first time Google has played with this idea previously releasing Chrome Super Sync Sports and hopefully won't be the last.

Take a look at the promotional videos below.

Looking for love? Doughnut company has the answer

If you're looking for love this Valentines Day then Krispy  Kreme may have the answer: they have once again released their Love Roulette game on their Facebook page and website.

The game is a bit of fun, matching you with one of your Facebook friends, regardless of gender, preference or relationship status (we were matched with married people and those of the same gender on some attempts), and then it offers you a voucher to get a free doughnut when you buy one of their new Valentines Day doughnuts.

A clever idea to help promote their new doughnuts and inspire you to buy one for that special person in your life!

Play the game on Facebook here or the website here. Enjoy!

Creative Distraction - Draw a stickman

If like us, you're back at work this week, then you may find this a welcome distraction.

This site has two interactive episodes and a game which allow you to express your creativity, even if you are not the most artistic of people.
The idea is simple, you start by drawing a stickman, and it develops from there into your very own animated story.

Why not give it go here.

A little 'Hangman' distraction with the Guardian

If you fancy a little distraction then check out The Guardian's weekly Hangman game - simple, vintage fun!

Click here to get started.

Olympics Opening Ceremony Fun

At no time does The Think Tank condone excessive drinking however this Olympics Opening Ceremony Drinking Game is great fun.

Something to keep you occupied tonight!

Issued by truelad.com

The amazing musical jelly game

Be prepared to be amazed by musical jelly - if science kits did this when I was a kid I may have taken more notice in chemistry lessons.

Raphaël Pluvinage and Marianne Cauvard have developed Noisy Jelly, a game that allows players to create their own musical instrument out of jelly.

Using a mini chemistry lab, players make their own set of jellies using water, agar agar powder and a series of molds. The jelly shapes are then placed on the game board, and can be manipulated to create sound.

The video for the project has not been edited for sound and needs to be seen and heard to be believed...

A must for design and typography enthusiasts

Here's a great gift for any design and typography enthusiast - a limited edition Scrabble set that comes in a beautiful solid walnut storage case with drawer and a six-panel solid walnut, magnetized gameboard lined with slip free cork.

The solid walnut tiles feature a variety of different and exciting fonts and each limited edition set is signed and numbered.

There are only 1,200 available and when we posted this there were only 99 reminaing so you would have to be quick.

This very stylish game is available from Winning Solutions in the US.

See your world turn upside down with Google Maps

This is a great video produced by Venables Bell & Partners to promote Google and its host of mapping services by creating an oversized labyrinth game as a handcrafted, real life version of Google Maps.

This was built by VB&P and 1st Ave Machine and  the video shows players navigating around a complex city scape - dropping into burger joints, barbers and other palces along the route.

This is very clever and a must see.



Plus, if you like this then also take a look at the previewed Google maps game which lets you play the labyrinth game online.

Have fun!