Earlier this week, we posted a story about a game called Google Guns, which lets you engage in tank warfare using Google Maps as your battleground provider. Just enter a location, and battle in any real-world setting courtesy of the Google Maps API.

There was one problem. It was called Google Guns, and used the Google logo to display the name. Google wasn’t thrilled about that, and contacted developer Walewijn den Boer. He took the game down as to avoid copyright violation. He gave us the message he got from Google, which said:

“We noted that you are using our brand name and stylized your website in a way that is likely to create confusion as to whether your game is associated with or sponsored by Google. Section 8.4(b) of our API terms explicitly prohibits misuse of our Brand Features in this manner.”

At first, den Boer didn’t think he’d bother to post the game again under a different brand, telling WebProNews, “It was just a personal project of mine. As a designer I like to constantly develop my skills by doing little projects of my own, in this case I got inspired by Google Map’s 45 degree angle view and decided to make a basic strategy game using only HTML and javascript. I learned a lot in the proces and had a lot of fun obviously.”

“I wanted to use the Google layout to give the game an interesting context, else it would just be a rather boring Command&Conquer clone,” he added.

However, he has had a change of heart. “I got a massive response to the game,” he tells us, so now it’s back, under the title, “Geo Guns”.

I don’t think Google will have a problem with that, though the game does still recommend Google HQ as the first suggested battleground.

Anyhow, if you want to play it, it’s back up.