If you have ever wondered how to generate excitement around your video game using YouTube, we would like to share a few hints from the makers of Call of Duty: Black Ops ...
If you have ever wondered how to generate excitement around your video game using YouTube, we would like to share a few hints from the makers of Call of Duty: Black Ops. They included the ability to upload gameplay video clips directly from the game to YouTube using the YouTube upload APIs. This fourth, and final installment of Google I/O 2011 session videos covers a game-focused presentation entitled “Your Game + YouTube = Instant Community” by Jarek Wilkiewicz from the YouTube Developer Relations team, Doug Muir, Technical Director from Activision, Cliff Samaniego and Kenji Arai from the YouTube Strategic Partner Management team.

The presentation gives an overview of YouTube platform features relevant to the gaming audience and highlights the benefits that integrating gameplay video uploads can bring into your title. The session also covers the good, the bad and the ugly of the integration project that Black Ops team had undertaken on a compressed timeframe. Finally, we show a couple of examples of user-generated gameplay video clips from Blacks Ops.

Since hindsight is 20/20, especially as it relates to software projects, the presentation also features a small demo of OAuth 2.0 for Devices authorization flow. OAuth 2.0 for Devices streamlines authorization process for embedded devices such as gaming consoles. While the technology was not yet released at the time of Activision’s integration, it is now in Beta. Another example of technology not initially introduced in the integration is WebM/VP8 encoding. If you watch the video you will learn about why the video clips were restricted in size and how WebM helps with solving this issue.

The full video of the session is embedded below, and you can find the slides here.



Cheers,

—Jarek Wilkiewicz, YouTube API Team

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While the YouTube embedded single-video player has seen a number of improvements in the past few months, the embedded playlist player has lagged behind—until now. We’re happy to introduce a completely rewritten embedded playlist players, ready for inclusion on any of your web pages that needs to display a series of videos in the same player. The new embedded playlist player has a user interface that should be familiar to anyone using our current single-video player. Take a look at the example below:
While the YouTube embedded single-video player has seen a number of improvements in the past few months, the embedded playlist player has lagged behind—until now. We’re happy to introduce a completely rewritten embedded playlist players, ready for inclusion on any of your web pages that needs to display a series of videos in the same player. The new embedded playlist player has a user interface that should be familiar to anyone using our current single-video player. Take a look at the example below:




Any developer can try out the new playlist player right now by appending the version=3 URL query parameter to the URL they’re currently using for an embedded playlist player. For example, if you’re currently specifying http://www.youtube.com/p/E46798C874B35B7F?fs=1 in your <object>/<embed> tags, using  http://www.youtube.com/p/E46798C874B35B7F?fs=1&version=3 will play back the same playlist in the new player.

Alternatively, you can just wait until next week. We plan on making the new version of the embedded playlist player the default on July 20, and at that point existing URLs will automatically trigger the new player.

We do encourage all developers to take the opportunity to test the new player with an explicit version=3 in advance of that change—while we don’t anticipate any issues with using the new version, if you do notice anything that is amiss, you can let us know in the YouTube API Google Group.

Cheers,
—Jeff Posnick, YouTube API Team

Update (April 2013): The YouTube.com/create program is no longer available.

YouTube.com/create is a platform for third-party applications that enable users to create videos. The idea is simple. The third-party application runs in an HTML iframe on YouTube. The user creates a video with the application, and then the application uploads the video to YouTube for the user to watch and share.

Many different types of applications are already listed at YouTube.com/create. One True Media is a simple video editor. GoAnimate lets you create custom animations. Stupeflix lets you mix pictures, videos, maps, text, and music into a story. Xtranormal lets you turn anything you type into a fully-animated CG movie. Who knows what other developers have in store for YouTube.com/create?

Here’s one example of a company that decided to integrate with YouTube.com/create and experienced a signficant growth in traffic:



To list your application on YouTube.com/create, you’ll need the following:

Update (April 2013): The YouTube.com/create program is no longer available.

YouTube.com/create is a platform for third-party applications that enable users to create videos. The idea is simple. The third-party application runs in an HTML iframe on YouTube. The user creates a video with the application, and then the application uploads the video to YouTube for the user to watch and share.

Many different types of applications are already listed at YouTube.com/create. One True Media is a simple video editor. GoAnimate lets you create custom animations. Stupeflix lets you mix pictures, videos, maps, text, and music into a story. Xtranormal lets you turn anything you type into a fully-animated CG movie. Who knows what other developers have in store for YouTube.com/create?

Here’s one example of a company that decided to integrate with YouTube.com/create and experienced a signficant growth in traffic:



To list your application on YouTube.com/create, you’ll need the following:

  • The name of your application (max 60 characters).
  • A description of your application (max 50 words).
  • A 120x120 icon. The icon will display with rounded corners.
  • A tutorial video (hosted on YouTube).
The application itself must meet the following requirements:
  • It must support Google federated login using OpenID.
  • It must post the resulting video to YouTube. The application should upload the video on behalf of the user using OAuth2 or AuthSub.
  • It must provide branding within the user interface if the user is required to upload assets (to make it clear that the upload is going to the third-party application, not to YouTube).
  • It must not show ads within the iframe. However, the freemium model is acceptable, providing the base level of functionality is useful.
The application must run within the context of a 960px-wide iframe that will display on YouTube. The iframe does not limit the vertical space that your application occupies. For best appearance, your application should have a white background.

When you are ready to submit your application for inclusion on YouTube.com/create, submit it to the YouTube Project Gallery using the hashtag #create, and YouTube will contact you via email.

For more information about integrating with YouTube’s API, check out our developer documentation and join us on our mailing list!

Cheers,
—Shannon -jj Behrens, YouTube API Team
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