Tag Archives: lively

Google made a few pebble-sized splashes when it waded into the videogame industry with Lively, but as with anything Google does, it won’t remain obscure for long. At the Austin GDC, the ubiquitous online company announced the next step in its plan to expand Lively: opening the gates to game developers.

For now, Google plans to provide developers with Lively’s API and go from there, but in time, Google creative director Kevin Hanna noted, the hope is that Lively will become “invisible” – like Java, Flash, or HTML.

“Google has already been in 3D world space, if you think of like Google Earth – a tool a lot of us use every day,” he concluded. “Google in 3D space and online space is here to stay as much as any online company.”

Somehow, we doubt that’s very reassuring for those online companies.

Thanks, GI.biz.

By Nathan Grayson

Today, Google launched Lively, a pseudo-game that is essentially the result of the equation in the headline.

The “game’s” main bullet point seems to be “self-expression,” as it sets its sights on avatar customization and room creation. Based on the number and variety of rooms already available, it seems Lively is quite versatile.

Currently, Lively will only run on Windows in Internet Explorer or Firefox, leaving proud Mac users without a place to call Home.

That joke doesn’t work so well here.

By Nathan Grayson