control a dinosaur with your tongue. no really. stick your tongue out and watch the magic happen ✨

imagine flappy bird met chrome's dinosaur game and they had a baby that's controlled by your tongue. that's steve the freakysaur. using computer vision and AI-powered face detection, this game lets you jump and duck by sticking your tongue out (or just use your keyboard if you're boring 😛).

it's a mashup of three games in one:

• 🦕 classic dino endless runner (dodge cacti and birds)
• 🐦 flappy bird clone (navigate through pipes)
• 👯 two-player competitive mode (battle your friends with your tongues out)

the webcam watches your face in real-time, detects when you stick your tongue out, and makes your dino jump. it's ridiculous. it's amazing. it's exactly what the internet needed.

🌐 try it online: freakysaur.vercel.app

• 👅 tongue-controlled gameplay - opencv + mediapipe detect your tongue in real-time
• 🎥 live webcam preview - see yourself looking absolutely ridiculous while playing
• 🎯 direction detection - tongue pointing up/down/left/right for advanced controls
• ⌨️ keyboard fallback - for the tongue-shy among us
• 🎨 pixel-perfect collision - mask-based detection just like the classics
• 🏃 progressive difficulty - gets faster as your score increases
• 🎭 smooth animations - running, jumping, ducking, and dying in style
• 👫 multiplayer mode - compete head-to-head (tongue-to-tongue?)
• 🔄 duo tongue restart - both players hold tongue out for 3 seconds to quick-restart
• 📊 score tracking - beat your personal best

you'll need python 3.8 or higher. that's pretty much it!

1. clone this bad boy

   git clone https://github.com/diwenne/freakysaur.git
   
   cd freakysaur

2. set up virtual environment (recommended)

   python -m venv .venv
   
   
   # on macOS/Linux:
   
   source .venv/bin/activate
   
   
   # on Windows:
   .venvv\Scripts\activate

3. install dependencies

   pip install -r requirements.txt

4. grant camera permissions

   • on macOS: System Preferences → Security & Privacy → Camera → allow Terminal/your IDE IDE
   • on Windows: Settings → Privacy → Camera → allow apps to access camera
   • on Linux: usually just works™

single-player dino runner:

python game_dino.py

flappy bird mode:

python game_flappy.py

two-player battle:

python game_dino_2p.py

disable tongue control (keyboard only):

python game_dino.py --no-tongue

single-player dino:

• 👅 stick out tongue = jump
• ⬆️ space/up arrow = jump
• ⬇️ down arrow = duck
• ESC = quit

flappy bird:

• 👅 stick out tongue = flap
• ⬆️ space/up arrow/mouse click = flap
• ESC = quit

two-player mode:

• player 1 (top lane):

  • 👅 tongue = jump
  • ⬆️ space/up arrow = jump
  • ⬇️ down arrow = duck

• player 2 (bottom lane):

  • 👅 tongue = jump
  • W = jump
  • S = duck

• special: both players hold tongue out for 3 seconds = quick restart 🔄

• make sure your face is well-lit and visible to the webcam
• the game needs to see your full mouth to detect tongue
• open your mouth wide when sticking tongue out for best detection
• the game has a 120ms debounce, so rapid tongue flicks won't work
• duck under flying birds in dino mode!
• in multiplayer, round ends when either player dies
• higher scorer gets to control the world speed in multiplayer

tongue_jump/
├── game_dino.py            # single-player dino runner
├── game_flappy.py          # flappy bird variant
├── game_dino_2p.py         # two-player competitive mode
├── tongue_switch.py        # single-player tongue detection engine
├── tongue_switch_2p.py     # multi-player tongue detection engine
├── requirements.txt        # python dependencies
├── assets/                 # game sprites and images
│   ├── Dino/              # dinosaur animations
│   ├── Bird/              # flying enemy sprites
│   ├── Cactus/            # obstacle sprites
│   ├── Flap/              # flappy bird assets
│   └── Other/             # UI elements (track, clouds, game over)
└── .venv/                 # virtual environment (create this)
create this)

the tongue detection uses a multi-stage computer vision pipeline:

1. face detection - mediapipe finds your face and 468 facial landmarks
2. mouth isolation - extracts just the inner lip area (20 landmarks)
3. color detection - hsv color space filtering for red tones (tongue)
4. noise reduction - median blur + morphological operations
5. threshold calculation - if red pixels > 6% of mouth area = tongue detected! 👅���
6. direction classification - compares tongue centroid to mouth center
7. debouncing - 120ms cooldown prevents false triggers
8. state management - threaded capture for smooth 60fps gameplay

all running in real-time at 60fps while the game runs in the main thread. pretty neat!

• 🎯 won daydream at Hack Club Daydream
• 👀 200k+ LinkedIn impressions - people love watching others play with their tongues out
• 🦖 built with mediapipe's 468-point face mesh detection
• ⚡ runs at smooth 60fps with threaded camera processing
• 🎨 pixel-perfect collision detection
• 🌈 supports macOS, Windows, and Linux

dependencies:

• pygame 2.5.2 - game engine and rendering
• opencv-python 4.9.0.80 - computer vision and image processing
• mediapipe 0.10.14 - face mesh and landmark detection

performance:

• 60 fps game loop
• threaded camera capture (30 fps)
• 900×820 window (260px webcam preview + 560px game panel)
• progressive difficulty scaling
• graceful camera fallback if detection unavailable

physics:

• dino gravity: 2500 px/s²
• dino jump velocity: -900 px/s
• flappy bird gravity: 1000 px/s²
• flappy bird flap velocity: -400 px/s

camera won't open:

• check camera permissions for terminal/IDE
• close other apps using camera (zoom, teams, etc.)
• try --no-tongue flag to play with keyboard only

tongue detection not working:

• ensure good lighting on your face
• face the camera straight-on
• open mouth wide when sticking tongue out
• adjust frac_threshold in tongue_switch.py if too sensitive/insensitive

game running slow:

• close other applications
• update graphics drivers
• reduce window size (edit source if needed)

import errors:

• make sure virtual environment is activated
• reinstall requirements: pip install -r requirements.txt

this is a weird art project / game hybrid. if you want to make it weirder, feel free to fork it and go wild! some ideas:

• add sound effects (especially tongue sounds)
• more tongue gestures (roll tongue = power-up?)
• online multiplayer (tongue battles across the internet)
• mobile version (front-facing camera gameplay)
• different dinosaur skins
• power-ups and collectibles
• leaderboards
• tongue speed detection for variable jump height

do whatever you want with this. make cool stuff. make weird stuff. just credit me if you show it off!

built by a crazy person who thought "what if i controlled games with my tongue?" and then actually did it.

powered by:

• mediapipe (google's amazing face detection)
• opencv (computer vision workhorse)
• pygame (game dev made easy)
• chrome's dino runner (inspiration)
• flappy bird (inspiration)
• way too much caffeine ☕

made with 💚 and 👅 | if you play this in public, don't blame me for the weird looks you get