HOLIDAYS, festivals and adventures have been cancelled due to the global pandemic but you can now see the world while hunting down snowmen in a game developed by a Darlington space engineer.
Avid treasure-hunter Shaun Whitehead, a space engineer and archaeologist who has sent robots to explore the Great Pyramid, prevented himself from going stir crazy in his Low Middleton home by building virtual treasure hunts on Google Street View during the first lockdown.
The 54-year-old, who now runs game studio OnionWorx, wanted to give people "a sense of freedom in their own homes" and has launched a second game based on Google Maps.
The seasonally-inspired game lets you splatter snowmen with snowballs all around the world, completing levels to move onto the next location.
Mr Whitehead, who worked with his US-based business partner Wade Van Landingham on the games, said: "I could not suffer through another Covid lockdown. The most frustrating thing is that we can't go anywhere.
"In the US, people were putting teddy bears in their windows to create a trail for children out on walks to spot, just giving them some sort of entertainment. That's what we wanted to do while allowing people to explore the world and places they wouldn't normally.
"We can create weather and effects, and add objects and sounds into Street View, so with Christmas coming up, we wondered whether we could make it snow, build snowmen, and throw snowballs.
"At first I wanted to put the snowmen in places where it’s normally cold and icy, like Shackleton’s Hut in the Antarctic, but then we realised that it would be more fun to make it snow where it normally wouldn’t, such as Abu Dhabi and on the canals of Venice.
"All we want to do is bring a bit of festive cheer in these challenging times.
"Players launch snowballs at snowmen, and once you have splatted all of the snowmen in one location, you are transported to the next. Splat them all, and you are awarded with a virtual badge."
Mr Whitehead grew up in Darlington and moved away for space and robotics work but was "drawn back" some years ago.
His space company Scoutek Ltd is working with Teesside University to develop a rocket – a StratoBooster, which ascends on a meteorological balloon – to launch small-scale satellites known as femtosatellites.
He said: "I’ve been involved in some exciting missions and projects, but our larger computer game concept is the most exciting and potentially world-changing thing that I have ever done."
Mr Whitehead, who has enjoyed treasure hunts and quests since he was young, hopes to continually build on Street View to create fully immersive experiences.
He says this is a "tiny demonstration" of what can be done, with the end-goal of gamifying the internet - like Pokemon Go but on web pages.
The game can be found at www.foobirds.com under Christmas Tour, while a Northern Echo-inspired site can be found here: www.foobirds.com/northernecho.php
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