Map of the Dead: A Screen Overlay'ed Shoot 'Em Up!

Wednesday, October 31, 2007 at 12:57:00 PM

It's that time of year again: the leaves turn orange and fall off the trees, and I can no longer turn on the TV without fear of stumbling upon a trailer for some ridiculously gory horror movie sequel. The TV used to be a safe, happy place filled with frolicking Care Bears. Someone out there clearly decided that my couch-filled evenings weren't filled with enough near heart attacks, and that all sorts of demons should thus invade my commercial breaks.

Well, two can play this game. Remember the nice, safe, happy Google Map? Not anymore! Welcome to Map of the Dead: a game where zombies spawn on the map and just keep walking in that creepy zombie way until you give them a clear shot in the brain. Aim through the reticule, press spacebar to shoot and arrows to move around. Click the screenshot below to try it out.


Of course, this game takes advantage of some neat Maps API features: the just released GScreenOverlay* that can be used like KML's ScreenOverlay to place images on the map (used here for the reticule and logo), and the GKeyboardHandler class to let users use the default Google Maps keyboard shortcuts to navigate the map (used here for the panning movement).

*Documentation for GScreenOverlay is forthcoming. Check back in a few days, or check my code to see how I used it!