Posted by Aaron Kemp, Software Engineer

Eight months after its inception in the Google Waterloo Office, Ships Wars has reached the Silicon Valley.  On Thursday, September 13th, Google San Francisco and the Wallet team welcomed 25 local programmers to show off their skills as they coded their own spacecraft to do battle in a virtual universe.

After a brief explanation of the rules, participants, nourished by a bevy of snacks and beverages, coded for 1-1/2 hours, using test runs and their on-the-fly problem-solving skills to control the direction and speed of their ships before unleashing them for head-to-head battle in final competitions.  The evening ended with a tour of the Google office as thousands of battles ensued.  After replays of the worthiest battles, results were displayed and prizes, including a Xoom tablet, were given to the top three winners of the most battles.  Check out a few more photos from this exciting event.

Participants hard at work gearing up for battle

Since the inaugural event last January, Ship Wars has been taken on the road to four total locations: Waterloo, Pittsburgh, Mountain View and now San Francisco.  The game has moved entirely to the cloud and has been played by professional and student audiences alike.  Future battles are confirmed, focusing on Front End Engineers in Google’s New York office on October 9th and on Test Engineers in our Kirkland office on October 24th.

Interested in having a Ship War strike near you?  Contact the Google Events Team to suggest a battle zone or to learn more about other Google events in your area.