Race Against Chime: Big Ben game celebrates the 150th anniversary of the famous clock

Yep that's right, the famous clock has certainly been round the block a bit. Happy Birthday Ben! At Preloaded we were commissioned by Parliament to create an educational but fun game to celebrate its 'sesquicentennial'. We pitched the idea that you would play the character of Little Ben, and have to swing on a rope before the clock face, in order to clean it in time for the anniversary celebrations, and they saw the potential for a fun and challenging game immediately.

You start at midday, and there are twelve levels in all, each lasting a minute each, with the celebrations beginning at midnight. To start with, there's relatively little dirt to clean, but soon you'll have most of the face to contend with, as well as birds and gusts of wind all out to hinder your progress.

In between each level, simple true or false questions impart interesting facts about the great clock. If you answer correctly, you're able to start the level with an XL bucket, which can save you valuable seconds.

I did the majority of the art and design work on this, illustrating the background and the clock face, as well as the interface design and the majority of the animation. I also had lots of fun creating the sound effects, which help to reward or reprimand the player as they progress.

You can play the game here.