Google's popped games into the "doodle" slot of its homepage before, but the new Halloween-themed treat you can play right now is easily the most fun diversion devised by the search/tech/ads/everything giant yet. That's right, I said it: I don't think Pac-Man is all that fun even if you're playing on the streets of your hometown . But I digress. The new Google Doodle game is called The Great Ghoul Duel, and it's an online multiplayer game about a bunch of ghosts floating around and stealing souls from each other. You can play on a desktop or mobile device by heading to Google.com and clicking or tapping the colorful icon near the top of the page. It's quite fully featured, with automatic matchmaking, private lobbies so you can play with friends, bots to fill in empty player slots, and multiple maps. Also, the ghosts are cute as haunted buttons. Team Purple or Team Green? 🙀 We have to admit, this lineup's pretty grape. #Halloween #GoogleDoodle → https://t.co/SHbC3tPVv3 pic.twitter.com/ZnkXqlBOHPOctober 30, 2018 See more Playing the Great Ghoul Duel feels like a cross between slither.io and Capture the Flag: your ghostly duty is to roam around the map and collect little glowing Spirit Flames. Collected flames follow along behind you in a glowing trail, and if you pass through a member of the opposing team's trail you'll steal flames from behind the point you touched. You also get a few for passing through a teammate. Whichever team banks the most flames by depositing them back at their base after two minutes wins; bank enough at once and you'll even get handy power-ups like magnetism or wall-clipping. Let me tell you, if you ever want to feel good about your ability to play video games, just compete against a bunch of people who probably don't play many video games. Sorry not sorry for taking all your spirits, green team. I needed that "Polter-Heist" award.<doc-sep>Google's Doodles — near-daily re-imaginings of the company logo — have become so elaborate in recent years that it was only a matter of time until the company turned the Doodle into a full-fledged, multiplayer game. So, this Halloween, we've got the Great Ghoul Duel. The game is a simple but playable arcade in which you, a ghost, team up with other ghosts to collect "Spirit Flames." To play, move around with arrow keys, collect little flame thingies, which add up behind you, creating a tail of sorts. Bring them to your base to collect bonuses such as a speed boost. Whichever team has the most of these when the game timer's up, wins. Yeah, I'm not very good at this game. Image: Stan Schroeder/Mashable/Google To make it more interesting, you can also steal Spirit Flames from the competition by touching their tail, which allows for some tactical decisions: Are you going to collect the flames, or are you going to specialize in stealing them from the competitor team? The best part of the game is that you can actually play with friends and family. At the start of the game, click "Host Game," and you'll get a special invite link that you can send out. A maximum of 8 players can play at the same time. Check out the game here, and check out other Google Doodles over here.<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 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.