Today, we’re kicking off a two week sprint for Google+ Hangouts!
With the Google+ Hangouts API out of preview, Google asked us to take a look and see what we can hack together. What excites us is the possibility of building games and toys on top of a baked-in social platform with multi-user videochat.
In this two week sprint, we’ve tasked ourselves with translating the classic game of treasure hunt into a fun, fast-paced social experience mashing-up Google Street View and Google+ Hangouts.
The idea is to drop the members of a hangout in to an exciting location somewhere in the world, for example, the Palace of Versailles. The location data is served up via Google Maps Street View, which now takes you inside some of the most famous buildings in the world.
Once everyone is on location, they’ll be asked to locate a unique piece of art or object as quickly as possible. Clues along the way will give everyone an idea of where to head next. The first person to virtually locate the piece of art or object inside that location wins!
Technically speaking, it’s a beast to develop a game in two weeks. The team of developers at Use All Five have to write all the game logic (who’s present, who left, everyones map location, etc.), as well as synchronize data between Hangout members.
If time permits, we have a few tricks up our sleeve and hope to include them.
Follow us on Google+ (or Twitter or Facebook) for up-to-date progress reports and blog posts detailing our process and solutions. We plan on posting code snippets and demos as we go, and would love to have you join in.
