While I am personally horrible at video games (it’s actually kind of embarrassing how terrible I am—just sad, really) I do enjoy playing them, and I definitely enjoy the strides the video game industry is taking to make their games more immersive and realistic. This is why I was so excited to learn about Dustcloud, the very first never-ending, live-action RPG. And I mean that literally: you play the game while going about your everyday life, with flesh and blood people you meet on the street, and you never really stop.
Play Geo-Combat at your office using DustCloud guns
Using those, the game’s handheld “guns,” called Dusters, you essentially become a virtual assassin in your every day life. While the game won’t quite get you up to the level of Ezio Auditore da Firenze, it gets you close to super-spy levels: there’s a lot of sneaking involved. Like a high-tech version of laser tag, the guns use “Speks” or invisible and harmless bullets using RF signals and have LEDs that register the hits and damages you’ve taken. Each Duster is loaded with six glowing Speks, which you can use at any time of day to stealthily take down your enemies. The use of RF signals means that rather than aiming directly at a target, you just need to be in line of sight. And by downloading the game’s accompanying app for both Android and iOS, you can keep track of your gameplay at all hours.
Dusters use Bluetooth LE to connect with your smartphone, which then notifies you if you have taken hits and keeps track of your statistics, as well as the whereabouts of any other players. As anybody around you could be playing the game, called Geo-Combat, at all times, you’re going to have to be on your game.
This should be you every day once you get a Duster
If you don’t want to join the world-wide game, you can set it up for just you and your friends offline—but sneaking around your office or the grocery store kind of sounds more fun, doesn’t it?
Developed by Howard Hunt, Dustcloud debuted at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and is currently looking for funding on the crowdsourcing site Kickstarter. Hunt has 34 days left to reach his goal of $100,000, and has so far raised $18,129 on the site. Contributors to the fund will be first in line to receive their Dusters—it only takes a $45 dollar pledge to get a Duster, the app and an “Agent login” that gives you the game status of a “Dustbird” when the game hits consumer shelves.
The game is essentially a newer, high-tech and globally-inclusive game of laser tag. And if you don’t find that awesome, you need to re-examine your priorities in life.
Source Techcrunch
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