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Variations on a Tank Press Kit

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jcfmurphy edited this page Apr 27, 2018 · 14 revisions

Distribution

The game is available on itch.io, or can be downloaded directly from these links:

Fact Sheet

  • Developer: Joshua Murphy
  • Contact Email: jcfmurphy@gmail.com
  • Release Date: April 26, 2018
  • Platforms: Windows, Mac
  • Price: Free
  • Languages: English

Description

Variations on a Tank is a collection of three tank shooter prototypes built as iterations on Unity's popular TANKS! game tutorial. The collection also includes the original TANKS! game for reference.

Hide in the Darkness

Two players switch back and forth between being the predator and the prey in a dark maze. The prey can hide in the darkness, but cannot shoot. The predator can shoot, but is lit up and easily visible. Each shot leaves behind a light, but only a few lights can exist at once, so there are always places to hide.

Tanks Miserables

This single-player game casts you as the king tank fighting against a uprising. The revolutionaries are non-violent, but they are singing a powerful song. As their volume rises, your reign weakens. You can "defend" yourself by shooting or running over the revolutionaries to destroy them.

Tanks 2D!

Your tank has been flattened in this single-player game where you drive on the surface of a cube. Portals around the edges of each face transport you to an adjacent face. Your shells, however, move directly from face to face. Figuring out how to navigate the cube is part of the challenge. If you drive and shoot too wildly, you might just end up shooting yourself!

Features

Hide in the Darkness

  • Two-player combat
  • Real-time lighting and shadows
  • Aesthetic influenced by German Expressionism
  • The deep-seated knowledge that we are all prey to death, and darkness will not hide us

Tanks Miserables

  • Single-player combat
  • The player takes damage based on the volume of the enemies' song
  • Rousing soundtrack from Les Miserables
  • The feeling of unjustly fighting for survival against a just enemy

Tanks 2D!

  • Single-player combat
  • Challenging gameplay
  • Dizzying navigation on a space-cube
  • Nobody had thrown up, yet

Video

Screenshots

History

I developed this collection for a student project in game design, working under Pippin Barr in the Computation Arts program at Concordia University. The games were developed in Unity as modifications of a popular game tutorial called TANKS!.

Hide in the Darkness

This prototype was focused on modifying the very functional lighting and camera movement of the original TANKS! game. My aesthetic inspiration came from German Expressionism, particularly the use of chiaroscuro lighting and skewed geometry. The gameplay was inspired by the film Wait Until Dark, in which a blind woman (Audrey Hepburn) hides in the darkness from a thug (Alan Arkin), but is nearly caught when a fridge light reveals her location.

Tanks Miserables

This prototype was focused on making the game's audio more interesting and integral to the gameplay. My initial concept was to fight an enemy using a song, but my gameplay ideas for this concept were uninteresting. Eventually I realized that defending against a song was far more interesting. Inspired in part by Kenneth Anger's Scorpio Rising, I knew i wanted the game to center around a popular song with powerful associations. I eventually settled on the song "Do You Hear the People Sing?" from Les Miserables, as its associations with the French revolution provided a compelling setting and gameplay. Casting the player as the tyrant king fighting against nonviolent revolutionaries adds a nice ambivalence to the game, as the player is tasked with violently stamping out an inspiring and uplifting song. The player loses to a rousing chorus, but wins in silence.

Tanks 2D!

This prototype was focused on 3D objects and 3D space. The original TANKS! is a "3D" game, but the gameplay is entirely two-dimensional. I decided to emphasize this gulf by using tank sprites instead of 3D models, and placing them on the surface of a cube. Now the tanks move in all axes of a three-dimensional space (further complicated by the portals), but the gameplay is still two-dimensional because it is bound to the cube's surface. _Portal _and _Antichamber _were important inspirations for the idea of re-arranging 3D space and problematizing navigation. Super Stardust HD inspired the setting and the idea of having the gameplay rotate around a 3D object.

Additional Links

  • The developer's process journal
  • The code repository
  • The original TANKS! tutorial
  • Inspirational references for Hide in the Darkness (refer to the section labeled "Joshua Murphy's Lights, Camera References")
  • Inspirational references for Tanks Miserables! (refer to the section labeled "Joshua's Sound References")
  • Inspirational references for Tanks 2D! (refer to the section labeled "Joshua Murphy's 3D Objects References")

About the Developer

Joshua Murphy is a recent graduate of Concordia University, finishing his studies in April, 2018. He received a BComm in Business Technology Management, with minors in Data Intelligence and Game Design. He also has a previous BFA in Film Studies, and works full time as a film projectionist. He is a hobbyist game developer and avid gamer. He has a dog and two cats.

Credits

  • Joshua Murphy: Everything not in the original TANKS! tutorial and not listed below
  • Christoph Peters et al., Unity Technologies: the TANKS! tutorial
  • Pippin Barr: Overseeing development, providing inspiration, playtesting

Out of the Darkness:

Tanks Miserables!:

  • Stone Wall Texture
    A dog's life software. "18 High Resolution Wall Textures." Unity Asset Store.

  • Wood Furniture
    Lef. "Free Furniture Set." Unity Asset Store.

Tanks 2D!:

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