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When people open Google.com, the tech company’s Doodle team has a few seconds to hook a visitor into engaging with their games, illustrations or historical facts. This Halloween, Google is inviting people to play an online multiplayer game similar to the arcade and classic phone game “Snake.”
Like “Snake,” the new Google Doodle lets players move around a map, accumulating pixels that follow their character and grow longer. To join, anyone can click on the Doodle to form two teams of four players with other strangers from the Internet and try to collect as many “spirit flames” as possible, using a mouse to move a small ghost. As a twist, teams can steal flames from each other. After a two-minute time limit, the team with the most flames wins.
It’s a version of a 2018 doodle called “The Great Ghoul Duel” that was one of Google’s most popular. This time, Google has added new maps, new characters and a new startup. Players can also earn small hats for their characters as achievements. The original plan was to bring back the Google Doodle in 2021, but it ended up being delayed a year. The Googlers cited issues related to the number of people expected to visit the site and play their multiplayer game.
“It was just about making sure the servers were reliable enough to launch with the huge amount of interest,” said Jacob Howcroft, Google Doodle’s lead engineer, in an interview with The Washington Post.
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Making a Halloween Google Doodle for the Internet posed challenges in addition to server issues: Kids also use Google, so the Doodle couldn’t be too spooky or scary.
“You want it to stay very strictly in the fun zone,” said Nate Swineheart, chief creative officer of the Google Doodle. “One of the initial proposals for a new level was to make an abandoned amusement park. The art for it was really fun and really fun, but it was a bit of a game. And then we’re also coming out of the pandemic and the idea of abandoned things is maybe not the funnest tone.”
The Google Doodle team added a level set in a museum at night.
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Despite similarities to older arcade games like “Snake” and “Pac-Man,” Google Doodle employees insisted it was inspired by popular, more elaborate multiplayer games like Nintendo’s “Splatoon,” the battle game online “League of Legends” and independent adventure game “Journey”.
“The unlikely inspiration was ‘Journey,’ which does a great job of having a multiplayer aspect that rewards you for being with other people,” Swineheart said. “So we’ve added this buddy bonus that if you travel with someone else, they’ll reward you with more spirit flames to encourage cooperation.”
Googlers also learned about how “League of Legends” has a power-up system, where players get stronger over time, and Splatoon’s quick team strategy.
Swineheart said Google’s Halloween Doodle mimics “League’s” much more complex progression system where players level up their champions, earn gold and buy items over time.
“When you collect 50 flames, you can go faster, then you can go through walls,” Swineheart said. “As you play, your power increases, as a reward.”
Swineheart said that making the chain of spirit flames lengthen and follow players, making it easier to steal from the opponent, was a mechanic inspired by “Splatoon 3’s” battle mode, where players can be followed by a trail of clams He said the “high-risk, high-reward” game “balanced very well.”
“But it didn’t come from ‘Snake’ at all. It never would,” he said.
The Google Doodle runs from October 30th to October 31st.