FinalTanks – Java 2D Tank Shooter Game (Swing + AWT)

FinalTanks is a 2D tank-shooter game built in Java using Swing, AWT, and Java’s concurrency utilities. It features real-time rendering, keyboard/mouse controls, moving enemies, and physics-based projectile shooting. This game was built as part of a university assignment and functions as a proof-of-concept demo for 2D game programming, graphics rendering, and event-driven input in Java.

Features

🎮 Gameplay

• Player-controlled tank with:

  • Keyboard movement (arrow keys)
  • Mouse-aimed turret rotation
  • Left-click shooting
  • Right-click to switch turret mode

• Enemies with basic AI movement (patrol behavior)

• Collision detection between bullets and enemies

• Game-over state handling

• Real-time FPS-based game loop (fixed update and render rate)

🎨 Graphics

• Fully rendered with Swing + AWT (Graphics2D)
• Triple-buffered rendering using BufferStrategy
• Image-based sprites:
  • Tank body
  • Tank gun (two modes)
  • Enemy tank
  • Bullet

⚙️ Architecture

• OOP design with dedicated controllers:
• GameState – stores and updates game logic
• GameLoop – main loop (update + render)
• GameFrame – rendering surface and asset loading
• BulletController, EnemyController – entity managers
• Event-driven input system:
  • Custom KeyHandler
  • Custom MouseHandler

🚀 Performance

• Custom game loop running at 30 FPS
• ExecutorService (CachedThreadPool) for threaded gameplay
• Minimal input latency (mouse + keyboard)

🧠 Concepts Demonstrated

This project showcases several important software-engineering and game-development concepts:

🎯 Core Java Skills

• Java SE
• OOP (Encapsulation, Composition, MVC-like game structure)
• Custom event handling (keyboard & mouse)

🎨 Graphics & Animation

• Graphics2D rendering
• Rotation transformations
• Image sprite drawing
• Implementing a triple-buffered renderer with BufferStrategy

🕹️ Game Development Concepts

• Game loops
• Entity controllers
• Collision detection
• Player input processing
• AI movement patterns
• Angle calculations for aiming (atan, sin, cos)

⚙️ Multithreading & Concurrency

• Using ExecutorService for running the game loop
• Thread-safe design for rendering and updating
• Understanding of timing and scheduling (FPS control)

📁 Software Design Practices

• Modular structure (controllers, model, rendering separated)
• Sprite resource loading
• Real-time state management

📁 Project Structure

src/
 ├── Main.java
 ├── GameFrame.java         # Window + rendering + assets
 ├── GameLoop.java          # Main loop (update/render)
 ├── GameState.java         # Game logic & input state
 ├── Bullet.java
 ├── BulletController.java
 ├── Enemy.java
 ├── EnemyController.java
 ├── ThreadPool.java
 └── Resources/
      └── Images/
           ├── tank.png
           ├── tankGun01.png
           ├── Enemy1.png
           ├── Enemy2.png
           └── ...

How to Run

Install Java 8+ Clone repo Ensure Resources/Images folder exists in the root directory Compile and run:

javac src/*.java
java -cp src Main

📚 Project Origin

FinalTanks was originally developed as a university project to explore the fundamentals of 2D game development in Java. It serves as a proof of concept demonstrating real-time rendering, basic game physics, input handling, and multithreading. While not intended as a full commercial game, it showcases core software-engineering and game-loop mechanics using Java Swing, AWT, and concurrency utilities.