You’ve probably not only heard of Squid Game, Netflix’s violent survival game, but probably also binge-watched it. Perhaps one of the reasons the series is so successful is that it centres around classic childhood games, and one that sticks in everyone’s heads is probably “Red Light, Green Light.”
While it’s a harmless hilarious game you can often see on Korean TV programmes, the version in Squid Game is extreme. Here, adults in green tracksuits have the length of the song being played to move forward and stop before the doll turns. The ones who don’t stop in time get shot down.
Red Light, Green Light AR Filter
By now you’re probably familiar with the green track suits that the players wear in the show, and now you can play the game yourself (or with friends) with this new “Red Light, Green Light” AR (augmented reality) filter on Instagram. It was created by Eugene Soh, aka Dude (@dude.sg), who’s no stranger to viral AR filters – he developed this game in only 3 days in Spark AR!
To use the “RedLite, GreenLite” AR filter on Instagram, flip the camera to selfie mode and tap the screen to start.
You’ll see the familiar scene of the playground with the giant animatronic figure in the background. Your face will be superimposed onto a figure with the iconic green tracksuit. You’re running towards the doll backwards so your face will be visible (a suggestion by the creative director, Angela Kwek) and you can see your expression even when you’ve been “pew pew’d”.
The goal is to run from the first green line to the second without dying. You’ll be running backwards towards the doll. Blink to move your character forward, and stare to stop moving when the line turns red and the doll turns towards you.
Just how popular is Squid Game?
Thanks to the huge popularity of Squid Game worldwide, AR filter has been massive hit since it was released, clocking in at a whopping 88.8 million impressions on the first day, with users all over the world, including Brazil and Mexico. Currently it’s reached over 450 million impressions and counting.
Since its release, Squid Game has been all over the news, with fans crazy over this fight-to-the-death show. While this format is nothing new – a similar concept has recently been explored by Netflix’s adaptation of the Japanese manga Alice in Borderland – the popularity of Squid Game has been so explosive that South Korean Internet service provider SK Broadband has sued Netflix to pay for costs from increased network traffic and maintenance work because of a surge of viewers.
