AOL announces video turn-based social game, 'Clucks'

AOL is launching a mobile social game where players will make short videos of themselves describing a word, before sending it to friends to have them guess the word.

Clucks is AOL's take on the game Taboo, where players have to describe a word to their friends without using the word itself. Players are also given five "forbidden" words that they are not allowed to use in their description.

Using Nuance's Dragon voice recognition technology, Clucks players record a 12 second video of themselves describing a word while avoiding the five forbidden words and then sending it to their opponent. The opponent must then guess the word while their reactions are recorded for an "action-reaction" video that they can then share with friends. Players vie for points, called "clucks" – the more words they guess correctly, the more points they earn.

The Nuance Dragon technology also spot-checks players to ensure that they don't give away the answer or use any of the forbidden words in their description.

"No one has captured the trend for social video sharing in mobile gaming yet," said Sol Lipman, VP of Mobile First at AOL. "By leveraging the fun of short-form videos, integrating Nuance's Dragon voice recognition to deter cheating, and partnering with Viddy to enable sharing, we have created a first-of-its-kind app that's fun and different."

Clucks is available on iPhone now.