Google Maps Platform: Travel Game: Google Earth is your gameboard

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Travel Game: Google Earth is your gameboard

maandag 9 mei 2011

By John Taylor, Lead Game Designer, Travel GameThis post is part of Who's at Google I/O, a series of guest blog posts written by developers who are appearing in the Developer Sandbox at Google I/O.

Travel Game is the first online social game powered by Google Earth, and the first game of its kind to provide players with real, free travel rewards. Currently in beta testing, Travel Game is being unveiled for the first time at Google I/O 2011. Travel Game was conceived by Jeff Katz, a technology and travel industry veteran, and founding CEO of Orbitz, Inc.

Touristo and Skydiver, our first two titles, provide players with the experience of sky diving over the Earth and navigating a Touristo vehicle through exotic locales via Google Earth’s virtual 3D globe. To take advantage of the awesome imagery, terrain, and 3D models available in Google Earth, we built a custom framework that ties into several Google APIs, including Google Earth, Google Maps, and even Google’s currency converter API.

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<itemPath>assets/images/blank.png</itemPath>
<longitude>-157.8459651634087</longitude>
<latitude>21.31249095467307</latitude>
<imageRadius>.0000018</imageRadius>
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industry expertsCome see Travel Game in the Developer Sandbox at Google I/O on May 10-11.John Taylor has been designing and developing software for 20 years for companies like Electronic Arts, Lucas Learning, and the Disney Channel. Before that, he circled the globe a few times and worked as a writer and film editor.Posted by Mano Marks, Google APIs team