Duck hunt for Google Glass shows prospects of device as game platform

Two mobile developers have created “Glass Hunt,” a “Duck Hunt”-style shooter game for Google Glass that shows the high-tech eyewear’s potential as a gaming platform.

Google has been selling the device to selected users and is expected to release Glass to the general public next year. Like other devices, Glass runs apps, called Glassware, that users can install on their devices.

“Glass Hunt” is one of the first games to arrive on the platform and it could prove popular thanks to its simplicity and the fact that it’s inspired by and is similar to “Duck Hunt,” an ‘80s classic for the Nintendo Entertainment System.

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The game was released this weekend and is available to download for free online.

To play, Glass users say “OK Glass. Go Hunting” and the device will launch the game. Users then see a cartoon field and target discs that fly around.

To shoot, users move their heads to line up the cross hairs. The point of the game is to hit as many targets as possible before missing five, but as the game goes on, the targets move faster.

The current record appears to be 127. But users who will want to try to beat that mark may not want to play the game in public. Android Central has a GIF showing what users look like playing “Glass Hunt,” and it’s not pretty.

Jason Malashock, an independent mobile developer, said he and his buddy Derek Johnson decided to make the game after being accepted into the Glass developer program.

For their first Glass app Malashock and Johnson wanted to make something that would let them see what Glass was capable of.

Johnson suggested a “Duck Hunt”-style game seeing as it’s “something everyone is familiar with from their childhood,” Malashock told The Times.

Malashock said he thinks Glass is an ideal platform for games.

“While ‘Glass Hunt’ is a proof of concept, there is some magic around the ability to play games fully hands-free,” he said. “When Glass is with you all the time, you won’t even need to take out your phone to fill time in line, on the subway, on a plane, or anywhere else you end up having some time to kill.”

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