Google’s Chrome Experiments project just unveiled two free new mobile video games aimed at slot-car-racing and Skee-ball fans.
“We spend huge chunks of our lives on our phones and tablets,” wrote Iain Tait, a Google Chrome creative director, in a May 28 post on the Google Chrome Blog. “And since life shouldn’t be all work and no play, we’ve created two new Chrome Experiments—Roll It and Racer—that let you play with other people using phones, tablets and computers running Chrome.”
Roll It is a modern-day version of the classic boardwalk Skee-ball game that players can play using a browser on their phone, desktop or laptop computer, wrote Tait. Players using Chrome on a smartphone can aim and roll the ball with a flick of a wrist, while Chrome on a computer renders the 3D graphics as if the player is playing on an actual Skee-ball alley.
The Racer game lets players build slot-car-style race tracks, which can then align across up to five mobile screens that are used by friends who have joined the game. “Touch your screen, and your car speeds across all the phones and tablets, not just your own,” wrote Tait. “This shows a hint of what’s possible when Web experiences are designed for a multi-player (and multi-device) world.”
The Roll It and Racer games “use the latest in Web technologies and keep themselves synchronized using WebSockets, which allows data to be sent between multiple devices and servers at any time,” wrote Tait. “Developers interested in learning more should stay tuned to the Chromium blog for documentation on how we made both games.”
Chrome Experiments began in 2009, when Google unleashed the project as a showcase for creative Web experiments for its Chrome Web browser. The projects are contributed by people around the world. Most of the experiments are built with the HTML5, Canvas, SVG and WebGL.
“We think JavaScript is awesome,” the site states in its online site introduction. “We also think browsers are awesome. Together, they can do some beautiful, magical, crazy things. And that’s why we created this Website.”
The idea, according to Experiments, is to try new things and see how they go. “We hope the projects on this site provide inspiration for anyone interested in experimenting creatively with the Web. And we hope they show how the Web has become faster, more fun and more open—the same spirit in which we built Google Chrome.”
A wide variety of other projects can be found and tested on the Experiments Website and participants can add their own projects, too.
“All of the work here is user-submitted, so naturally we’re looking for more,” the site states. “If you’ve made something fun and fast in JavaScript, please send it in. We can’t post everything, but we’d love to see it.”
To submit an Experiment, participants can visit the site and fill out some details, including whether the project is designed for desktop or mobile browsers, the name of the project along with a link to it, the author’s name and screenshots of the work. A description of the work and of the technologies and computer languages used in it are also required.
Optional information that can be submitted includes the author’s city and country, a YouTube video of their experiment, their Google+ profile ID and their Twitter handle.
Participants need to ensure that their experiment works in Google Chrome before submitting their work.