'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' news: Google celebrates with new game

Google

In line with the upcoming release of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," Google came up with a browser-based game to ease the agony of waiting.

Google worked with Disney's LucasFilm to come up with a new browser-based game called "Lightsaber Escape." The highly addictive game only needs a desktop and a smartphone to use as a lightsaber to play the game.

Players need to click the official "Google Lightsaber" game page on their desktop. Then the website will provide a personalized link to connect the smartphone to the game.

Once the link is open on the smartphone, the website will require the players to configure the smartphone by holding it in a vertical position. After the completion of the configuration process, the smartphone will start responding to the players' movements.

The gameplay of "Lightsaber Escape" is very simple. Players need to do an on-rails action by moving along a specified path and try to avoid the incoming laser blast fired by Stormtroopers while attempting to run away from an Empire Star Destroyer. Players also need to remove one wave of troops before moving to the next one.

To develop the web-based game, Google used a Chrome Experiment with the help of Industrial Light & Magic, the same visual effects studio that worked on the "Star Wars" movie. It used the WebGL for the 3D graphics, as well as the WebRTC and WebSocket to establish real-time communication between the smartphone and the desktop.

While the "Lightsaber Escape" is made as a Chrome Experiment, this game could work on other browsers as well.

The game is released days before J.J. Abrams's "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" debuts on theaters on Dec. 18.

The film, which stars Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Lupita Nyong'o, Oscar Isaac, John Boyega, Andy Serkis, and Domhnall Gleeson, is the seventh installment from the legendary sci-fi movie franchise.