Mars Sucks (and so does gaming on Google Earth)

Gamasutra has posted a report by an Intel team tasked with investigating the gaming potential of Google Earth. The team designed a prototype game, Mars Sucks, and in doing so, discovered the shortcomings of Google Earth as a foundation for games. Put simply, in a game where players must seek out and destroy alien spacecrafts, the devs couldn't program a point-n-click shooting action. How can it get any more limited than that?

Still, gaming on Google Earth is very much a work-in-progress, and to that end, the Intel team is kindly offering up the Mars Sucks source code, along with a list of development resources. Get to work.