

Google Earth as game engine for ship simulator - dinther
http://www.planetinaction.com
PlanetInAction.com today released a free browser based ship simulator that is build around the Google Earth browser plugin. A very exciting show case for what can be achieved using the Google Earth API. A review and video can be found here http://www.gearthblog.com
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stratomorph
I like Google Earth as a platform, at least the general idea, mostly because
of the unlimited zoom. Games like Sins of a Solar Empire benefit greatly from
the ability to see arbitrarily large swathes of territory at once, while games
with a more limited zoom, or none (like my old favorite Command & Conquer: Red
Alert) are much harder to develop a coherent mental big picture for.

I noted they plan to expand: _"Ships" will become a small module in a much
bigger game concept for which we seek investors._ I wonder what that will be?
I thought a cool game would be a multi-player Cold War-type sub-hunting game,
where American frigates and submarines strive to track Soviet subs, and vice
versa. The big "zoom-out" would include last-known positions and IDs, if
known, surrounded by an ever-growing ring of possible range, until the target
is reacquired. I don't know if such a game would actually be fun, and it would
definitely take patience. Knowing that another human was controlling the
submarine you seek and trying to predict his movements would be at least be
diverting, I think.

