Google is getting in the Halloween spirit with a first-of-its-kind Google Doodle that’s both interactive and competitive. The Great Ghoul Duel Up to eight people can compete in a multiplayer, interactive Google Doodle. Users can either host a game and invite people they know, or get matched up in a game with randomized players around the world. The goal of “The Great Ghoul Duel” is for teams to collect as many spirt flames as possible within two minutes. Opposing teams can steal each other’s flames with a swipe, and use power-ups that get stronger as more flames are collected. Considering it’s Google’s first-ever multiplayer Doodle it’s rather ambitious. There are even several different maps to compete on, and it all runs on Google Cloud. Other Halloween-Related Search Features Google also highlighted some other Halloween-related search features on its blog today, such as a list of commands that Google Assistant can respond to. They include: “What should I be for Halloween?” “Get directions to the nearest pumpkin patch.” “Add Halloween candy to my shopping list.” “Trick or treat.” (Enjoy a spooky experience with sound effects and guest appearances from famous monsters.) “Share facts about monsters.” “What does a werewolf sound like?” “What does a ghost sound like?” Last week Google also acknowledged several spooky Google Maps images that have been circulating the web and debunked the theories surrounding them. Advertisement Continue Reading Below Google is never one to pass up the opportunity to celebrate a holiday and it went all out for Halloween this year.<doc-sep>If you don’t want to be distracted today, steer clear of Google. Tuesday’s Google Doodle celebrates Halloween with a multiplayer interactive game — the first in Google Doodle history. Players can invite up to seven friends to join them in The Great Ghoul Duel, in which two teams of four compete to collect as many “wandering spirit flames” as possible in two minute bursts of spooky fun. Or you can just team up with random strangers. To enable multiplayer gaming, the Google Doodle team used systems running on the Google Platform, including Open Match — an open source framework for matching up sets of players around the world. Google users are finding the game pretty addictive: The Leadership Brief. Conversations with the most influential leaders in business and tech. Please enter a valid email address. * The request timed out and you did not successfully sign up. Please attempt to sign up again. Sign Up Now An unexpected error has occurred with your sign up. Please try again later. Check the box if you do not wish to receive promotional offers via email from TIME. You can unsubscribe at any time. By signing up you are agreeing to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Thank you! For your security, we've sent a confirmation email to the address you entered. Click the link to confirm your subscription and begin receiving our newsletters. If you don't get the confirmation within 10 minutes, please check your spam folder. Write to Ciara Nugent at ciara.nugent@time.com.<doc-sep>The Google Doodle for Tuesday, October 30 celebrates Halloween with an interactive, gaming twist. Marking Google’s first-ever multiplayer interactive game Doodle, the Halloween game, called the Great Ghost Duel, pits users around the world against each other in two teams as they try to amass as many points as possible. Here is all you need to know about the Halloween Google Doodle game including what is it, how to play it and win it, and what is a Google Doodle. The Google Doodle for Tuesday, October 30 celebrates Halloween with a multiplayer game What is the Halloween Google Doodle game? Powered by Google Cloud, the game is called the Great Ghost Duel and is the search engine giant’s version of Trick-or-Treat. Users team up as either green or purple ghosts and compete to collect as many ‘wandering spirit flames’ before the moon sets in two minutes. ‘Today’s annual Halloween Doodle marks a wickedly exciting milestone: our first-ever multiplayer interactive game Doodle, powered by Google Cloud! Join in as ghosts around the world gather to play their own version of Trick-or-Treat: The Great Ghoul Duel!’ the search engine wrote in a post. To make the game possible, Google had to create new systems that would enable multiplayer contests. This included the integration of Open Match, a scalable, open-source matchmaking system that Google Cloud co-founded. In a first for Google Doodle, the Great Ghost Duel is a multiplayer, interactive competition How to play the Great Ghost Duel Getting to grips with the game is relatively straightforward. Users play as either green or purple ghosts to collect as many spirit flames for their side in two minutes. To move around the map, use the arrow keys. As you collect more wandering spirit flames, which will be blue, they will start to form a chain behind you. The more you get, the longer the chain-link gets. However, with that come risks. Flames can be collected around the map or stolen off the end of the opposing ghost’s chain-link, meaning you’re just as vulnerable if your tail gets too long. The points are only counted when you deposit the collected flames at your base. The more you deposit in one go, the better bonuses you get. Bonuses include a speed boost and night vision. How to play with family and friends A fun feature of the game is the option to play with family and friends. At the start of a new game, click ‘Host Game’. A special link will be generated that you send out to the people you want. You can send the link to as many as seven people. What is a Google Doodle? The Google Doodle for October 30 celebrates Halloween. The team involved in the making of the Doodle game include Art Lead Nate Swinehart; Producer Colin Duffy, UX Design’s Diana Tran and Doodle Team Leads Jessica Yu, Brian Kaas and Ryan Germick. Google Doodles are traditionally small illustrations or animations that appear in the Google logo on the search engine's homepage. Today’s Google Doodle multiplayer game is a first for the tech giant. The first time a Google Doodle was used was in 1998, when Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin visited the 1998 Burning Man Festival. To commemorate their trip, the founders drew a stick-man standing behind the second ‘o’ in the Google logo. Recent Google Doodles include celebrations of World Teacher Day, Fred Rogers, German Reunification Day and Google’s 20th birthday.<doc-sep>
The world’s biggest search engine is getting into the Halloween spirit today with a special playable Google Doodle. While Google has busted out game Doodles in the past (including for Halloween 2016), this is the first time the information giant has made a multiplayer game that players can jump into with other people online. Think of it as the opposite of Slither.io. The rules of Trick-or-Treat: The Great Ghoul Duel are simple. You play a cute apparition picking up “spirits” and bringing them back to your base for points. All non-deposited spirits will trail behind you, like a tail. The trick is that anybody who touches your tail can steal your unbanked spirits — but you can steal other people’s spirits, too. As you score points, spirits may give you powers like speed boosts, or the ability to walk through walls. Games only last two minutes, but that’s enough time for all sorts of shenanigans. Like Overwatch, the Doodle gives out commendations and titles at the end, depending on your performance. “In a Doodle first, players can choose to host a game with up to seven friends and family via a custom invitation link OR just play with randomized players around the globe,” reads the blog post announcing the game. “The team built several systems to enable this multiplayer gaming, all running on the Google Cloud Platform, including integrating Open Match, a highly-scalable, open source matchmaking framework cofounded by Google Cloud and Unity.” You can play it here; just click on the picture. Pro-tip: you can rack up a quick high score by waiting in the middle area and sniping your rivals to score points… or when everyone else is doing that, find the side of your base that no one’s using, and gather spirits at your leisure while everyone else is sniping each other.