LAS VEGAS—You grip the weapon tightly, waiting for your opponent to make the first move. Suddenly, there's movement: You fire off a few rounds and then hone in on the kill. Bam! Your rival has been dusted.
This is no spaghetti Western shoot-out. It's Dustcloud, a game of street-style laser tag tied to an app and social network. The weapons are dusters, which shoot electronic bullets called speks. You can disarm your opponent's duster with a spek, which freezes their weapon and boosts you to the top of the Dustcloud leader board—the game's social networking aspect.
Dustcloud uses Bluetooth to tie the dusters to the game's iOS and Android apps. Your smartphone can find other Dustcloud players in your vicinity, and you can challenge them to an old-fashioned duel (or what Dustcloud calls "geo-combat").
The game was tested in the streets of Prague before launching its Kickstarter campaign at CES. Dustcloud needs $100,000 by Feb. 17 to begin shipping the $45 dusters. The cost also includes the Dustcloud app and a log-in to the social network. If Dustcloud is successful, its founders want to expand into wearables like headsets with graphic displays to up the game's ante.
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