Softrace game scoops $275k Android Developer Challenge prize
GPS racing is go go go!
Congratulations to developers Staffan and Thomas Kjellberg, who've just scooped one of the top prizes in Google's Android Developer Challenge contest with their game Softrace.
The contest was launched by Google to stimulate innovative applications for its mobile Android platform. Yesterday, the company announced which ten apps had scooped $275,000 top prizes, and which ten had received the runners-up $100,000 prizes.
Softrace was the only game in the first category. It's a GPS racing game, where users actually physically do the racing.
It involves running or cycling while using your Android handset's GPS capability to track how far and fast you go, and compare that with rivals either in real-time, or asynchronously.
"Some races run along predefined tracks while others allow you to run anywhere in the world, in any direction," says the app's official blurb. "It is like a computer game, except that you are not controlling the player, you are the player."
Sounds fun. Meanwhile, one game scooped a $100,000 prize. Rayfarla is a bunch of music-focused mini-games, some of which use motion-sensing controls.
It also lets you make music of your own using virtual instruments. Find more about that app here.
Both will presumably be available in Google's Android Market store, which was also unveiled yesterday.
