About What The Duck

What The Duck is an innovative, browser-based arcade shooter that brings retro gaming into the modern artificial intelligence era. Instead of using a traditional mouse, keyboard, or physical light gun, players use their webcams and physical hand gestures to interact with the game in real-time. By utilizing advanced computer vision models, the game tracks the player's index finger as a virtual pointer and detects a "flick" motion to simulate firing.

How to Play

To begin playing, you must grant the browser permission to access your webcam. Once the camera feed is active, point your index finger directly at the screen to control the crosshair. To shoot, simply flick your thumb and index finger upward. You start with 3 lives and 3 shots per round. If the target escapes off the top of the screen, you lose a life. The game gets progressively faster and more difficult as you advance through the levels.

AI-Generated Targets

The core feature that sets What The Duck apart is the integration of generative AI. Before starting a round, players can type any concept or idea into the custom prompt box (for example, "a flying slice of pizza" or "a mischievous monster"). The game communicates with a cloud-based AI model to instantly generate a custom 8-bit, 11x16 pixel art sprite based on your exact text prompt. This unique sprite is then injected directly into the game engine, becoming your new target for the round.

Privacy & Technology

Your privacy is our top priority. All video processing and hand-tracking happen locally on your device inside your web browser using Google's MediaPipe framework. We do not record, store, or transmit your video feed to any external servers. The only data sent from your browser is the text prompt you enter to generate your custom AI pixel art.