How Google transforms smartphones into lightsabers

Google has teamed up with the special effects whizzes behind Star Wars: The Force Awakens to create a promotional browser game with some interesting new features.

Lightsaber Escape is short game in which players fight their way out of a Star Destroyer using nothing more than the fabled weapon of the Jedi – but the difference is you control it with your mobile.

Logging into Chrome through your smartphone connects the mobile app with the browser game and taps into the phone’s accelerometer to direct the in-game lightsaber.

Google has a full write-up on how it created this title on its developers site, including samples of the project code and details on the tools it used, including Polymer, WebComponents, THREE.js and more.

The combination of these tools enabled Google to create a high-performance experience across multiple types of smartphone. Check out the full case study here.