Tanky-Tank

Tanky-Tank is an arcade-style, top-down, tank combat game. Features include LAN/internet multiplayer, six unique playable tanks, A.I. players, four different game modes (free-for-all, team, capture the flag, and juggernaut), collectible powerups, and a user-friendly map editor.

I am the creator, lead designer, and sole programmer of the project. Tanky-Tank is written in C# using DirectX and OpenGL. All of the software systems, including graphics, audio, input, gameplay, networking, serialization, graphical user interface, physics, particles, scene graph, A.I., and pathfinding were all written by me from scratch on top of the base C# and DirectX/OpenGL libraries. Though I spent a lot of time "reinventing the wheel", it was a great and valuable learning experience.

Tanky-Tank is designed to be a fast-paced arcade game with a strong tactical maneuvering element. The tanks are fast and have a high power-to-armor ratio, keeping the battles fast and frantic. As in reality, tanks in the game have much less armor on the rear than they do on the front, meaning it's to your advantage to position yourself behind enemy tanks to expose their rear armor, and also to prevent your enemies from hitting your own rear armor.

I started Tanky-Tank in 2005 in my spare time as a sophomore in college to teach myself network programming. It proved to be immediately fun. I was quickly joined by several other enthusiasts who contributed art and design ideas, and we continued to work on it in our spare time until it was finished in 2009.

The first few versions of Tanky-Tank were very simple: The landscapes were bare grass and the player could only choose one type of tank. Soon water, mud, and lava tiles appeared, but they did not visually blend with each other, making the maps look jagged and artificial. Over time, a custom "tile blending" engine (inspired by Warcraft 2) was developed to make the maps look more professional. More types of tanks arrived as well, followed by game modes, powerups, and A.I. players.

Credits: myself (programming, lead design, effects art, sound), Rich Dominelli (design, tank art, music), David Billingsley (design, terrain art, tank art, A.I. design, music), Alex Wilson (design, U.I. art, effects art)