pigeon on the pole — shake it!
drag left or right to push · tap shoo to shake the pole
asking for your camera…
find your centre
hold your arms out, like you're holding the pole
- both hands in the picture, arms out to the sides
- hold them level for a second — that is your centre
- then dip a hand to push that way, or lean your whole body
stand back until both hands are in the picture.
paused
he'll wait. he has nowhere else to be.
you looked down.
he tipped, and nobody stopped him.
0
0 m walked
best 0
new best!
world board
top 100 · one row per walker, their best run
Don't Look Down — the webcam game where your arms are the balance pole
There is a rope strung between the roofs of two skyscrapers, and a hundred metres below it the city has disappeared under a sea of cloud. Somebody has to walk across. He has a long pole to balance with, and the pole is your arms: hold them out in front of your webcam, and when he starts to tip, lean the other way.
How to play
| What you do | Camera | Keys |
|---|---|---|
| Push him left | dip your left hand, or lean your body left | A or ← — tap for a nudge, hold for a hard push |
| Push him right | dip your right hand, or lean right | D or → |
| Shake the pole | rock your arms like a see-saw, fast, three or four times | space |
| Pause · mute · restart | P · M · R | |
He walks on his own. Your whole job is keeping him upright. On a phone or tablet, drag left or right anywhere on the screen to push, and tap shoo to shake the pole.
The rules, such as they are
- Lean against the tip. The gauge at the bottom is how far over he is. When the needle swings right, push left — and the other way round. Left alone, a small wobble becomes a big one.
- Don't over-correct. A hard push in a calm moment throws him the other way. Small, early pushes beat big, late ones.
- Gusts are announced. An arrow appears on the side the wind is coming from, the flags on the towers turn, and you hear it arrive from that side. Lean into it before it hits.
- Pigeons are weight. From stage 2, pigeons land on the ends of the pole, and every pigeon pulls that end down. Shake the pole to send them off — it is worth points, too.
- The middle of the rope moves. A rope swings most at mid-span and not at all at the anchors, so the hardest part of every span is the middle.
- Every roof is a checkpoint for your score, not your life. Reach the next roof and the stage is cleared, but one fall ends the walk.
- Every span is longer. The ropes get longer, the wind gets stronger and more frequent, and he gets less forgiving about being tipped.
Scoring
Every metre across a rope is worth 10 points, times your steady multiplier, which climbs toward ×3 while you keep him close to upright and drops back to ×1 the moment he wobbles hard. Clearing a stage is worth 300 points times the stage number, every pigeon shaken off the pole is 75, and dragging him back from the edge of a fall is a SAVE worth 200. Your best is kept on this device, and a walk good enough for the top 100 can be posted to the world board under a name you choose once.
Questions
Does my camera go anywhere? No. The pose model runs inside this tab, on your machine. No frame, no landmark and no video ever leaves your browser, and nothing is recorded.
Do I need a camera at all? No. The keyboard plays the whole game against exactly the same physics — the keys make the same push your arms do.
Can I sit down? Yes. The game only needs your shoulders and hands. If it can see your hips as well, leaning your whole body counts too.
Can I hold a real stick? You can — a broom handle works — as long as your hands stay far enough apart for the camera to see the tilt. Hands close together make a short, jittery pole, so the game leans on your shoulders instead.
Which way is "left"? Yours. The preview is a mirror, so your left hand is on the left of the screen, and dipping it pushes him to the left of the screen.