Tiny Tank Warfare (Updated Google Play Beta now out!!)

Game Title: Tiny Tank Warfare (Not yet final) - WebPlayer** Beta:

Quick Update:

Google play store listing(inBeta):
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.FerociousPandaStudios.Tanks

Webplayer available(Older Version of the game) : http://www.indiedevcentral.com/WebBuildNew/

Controls :
Keyboard+mouse:
WASD - move tank
mouse - point and shoot
Q,E - cycle weapon

Gamepad(I use Xbox 360)
Left joystick- move tank
right joystick- move hub/gun
right trigger- shoot
left/right bumper- change weapon.



I am currently in the process of finishing tiny tanks (or so I have been trying to convince myself for the past several months). The game is based on defeating enemy tanks who are part of an evil invasion, it was inspired by wii tanks, although i believe i have built considerably upon that inspiration co create my own work.. When finished I am aiming for there to be 100 levels or more in this game across four worlds. This is my first attempt at creating a game (I am working Solo on this project) and I have to say it has been an enjoyable process, of course also a little frustration at times.

This is what I have completed so far:

-Theme for all four worlds
-90 levels
-All game objects for each level(sounds,models,textures etc)
-Basic menu

This is what needs to be done:

-10 more levels to design
-More slick and informative menu
-Screen to show performance(accuracy, lives-lost etc) in a level if the player wins
-menu music and in game music
- graphics and visuals need overhauling

I NEED YOUR OPINIONS:

What I am thinking of adding(not sure about these yet as I think I keep delaying the finalisation of this project due to addition of new objects and features that I think of almost every day):

- Adding a "boss" level after 10 normal levels to keep game-play interesting. Although I think having 4 worlds should keep the game interesting at the moment.

Background:
I have been dabbling with this project for the past three years. It started out as a learning project with the aim to publish on the indie section on the Xbox 360. I however decided that it would be better to switch to unity so I could potentially publish on multiple mobile platforms and also to gain experience in using unity. Your opinions whether negative or positive are important. Have a look at the video previews I have posted if you would like and let me know what you think. I will be making follow up posts soon, back to designing, debugging and "menu-ing".

I will be adding credits to the artwork and sound files that I used in my game on my next post( Just looking through now).

-The two videos show a snapshot of the current Gameplay, the screen recording quality is not that good, I will try to get some better preview videos.

Gameplay Preview:

 

In the video, the tank seems to be jerking a bit too much when turning, other than that it looks pretty good!

 

Ahh, I will slow down the turn speed so that it looks a bit slower for the player. For the enemies I use lower behaviour frame rates to run the AI on mobile,I will try to increase it to smooth out the turning of enemies. Thanks

 

Added in new barrel Obstacle, needs some fine tuning. Hopefully i can get a unity-web version out soon for trial.

 

without shadows under blocks that move vertically it will make it really hard for the player to determine if they can fit under.

 

Thanks raider, I will add some shadows to the barrels, hopefully it wont impact too much on performance. Whilst in this level the barrels are mostly near the ground I guess I could elevate parts of the terrain to make the player have to go under them. Thanks.

 

I didn't see the barrel one. The breaking sound for them is horrible for what it is, hope it is a placeholder! Also when they break they need to do something more. Currently it is confusing why they go away at first.

 

oOH you mean the moving blocks, gotcha, I just added the shadows to them too. Thanks. The barrels have a little more work that need to be done.

- I have just fixed the barrel explosion and disappearance.
-Working on a sound-effect for when they break(that horrible glass break sound was a place holder ).

Thanks very much for the feedback. Will update soon.

 

Web Player Beta:

Hi everybody, Just an update, I have just uploaded a beta version of the game to my skydive. You need a controller with joysticks to move the tank at the moment, I use my Xbox controllers. I will add in some keyboard controls today. the navigation of the menu's you can use your mouse/touch screen. Here are the controls for the 360 controller.

left joystick- move tank
right joystick- move hub/gun
right trigger- shoot
left/right bumper- change weapon.
Click on the Lives label in the top left to switch the camera view.

WebPlayer Link:
http://learningcsharp.co.uk/Upload/WebPlayer/WebPlayer.html

-- All Worlds are unlocked for testing--
Any comments/feedback would be appreciated, thank you.

 

Just Added in Keyboard and mouse support to the webplayer.
w a s d to move tank and point and click to shoot. Still supports Joysticks as well.
Hopefully it runs properly. Will be launching an apk soon for android.

Webplayer : http://learningcsharp.co.uk/TankGame/WebPlayer.html

 

ReeRoo - very impressive work for a solo dev!

I really hope this game does well, simple and fun. Very intuitive on how the game works!

 

I like it, i played it for 30 minutes or so! keep up the good work;

-Jamcount;

 

Good work !
It reminds me a game i made in the past, War of TinyTanks. It was mainly like the Wii Play tank game.
I abandonated it because of lack of motivation. Do you were inspirated by the Wii Play Tank game ?

 

Thanks for the Comments everyone, glad to know that the controls are intuitive and easy to use, I just need to add in mouse scroll wheel to change weapons. I am happy to hear that you played it for 30 minutes Jam count I really enjoy making this game .

Cyrien5100- Thank you, Yes that's exactly where the idea came to me from I am quite glad that noticed that. I almost gave up on this project too if it wasn't for unity actually. I loved Wii tanks because it was so fun and I couldn't find it anywhere so I made a 2D version but that didn't feel right so I changed to 3D, I added in different worlds and dynamic/interactive obstacles to give variation to levels. How far did you end up getting? would be interesting to see your take on the game . all of the work on your threads look pretty sweet I will be checking out your fx4indie package when you get it done.

 

Here is an old video of the game :

It was an online game (using photon network), and i made the 10 first levels (+boss) before stopping.

 

That's really awesome! , really takes me back. I like that you have stayed true to the original graphics style. Its soo cool that you added on-line game-play for it. I am thinking of adding a survival mode where the enemy and environment evolve. Not sure I am ready to take on on-line game play right now though.

-Just did a little update on the lighting to sort out the lighting for tank shadows.

 

If you need help with networking just tell me, I know enough to network a game like the one you are developing. You can probably easily do it yourself, but if you need help you know where to go. Keep up the good work.

-Jamcount;

 

Very good job

 

Thanks very much i3d studios. And @Jamcount I will most certainly be keeping that in mind when I get round to implementing online gameplay, thank you . And the same goes, if you need any help on any of your projects I wouldnt mind too.

 

I don't like so much that enemy tanks have the same color as mine and also the shots of purple tanks. But the control, graphics and game concept are cool! Keep it up!

P.S.: You could include a few special weapons.

 

Hey Chemaxmax thanks for your feedback, I will change the player tank model and colour and also bullet colours so that they don't confuse the players. Should update in a few hours.

About the special weapons, I forgot to say this but if you click Q and E you can cycle between four types of weapons.

Weapon 1- normal bullet
weapon 2- rebounder bullet(bounces off walls)
weapon 3- triple bullet(slower fire rate but bullets move faster like a shotgun)
weapon 4- Airborne missile (launches bullet over the wall) at the moment this only works with the mouse or touch-screen.

Changing weapons(you can test this now):
keyboard - Q AND E
Xbox controller- Left Bumper AND Right bumper

Next Web-player update will have :
- New "player tank" colour and model
- Different colour scheme for player bullets
- Controls on the web page.
- Add the special weapons as power ups so you don't get given them all, but you can test them all now if you like.

Hopefully this will clear things up

Thank You very much for your feedback, Gonna go work on those recommendations now . Will post back soon.

 

Quick update, I have uploaded with some changes from the last set of comments.
-New player tank model
-Different renderer for player bullets(Still needs some tuning)
-Minor menu changes
-added track trail marks to all tanks
-added mouse scroll to cycle weapon

Currently have to finish
-Sort out how to introduce different weapons,
at the moment i am thinking of giving the player a new weapon as they progress and they can choose between the unlocked weapons.
-Also thinking of placing coins in the wooden boxes and when you kill an enemy which the player can then use to potentially buy a new weapon. What do you guys think about that?

-Still need to go through overall Game-play progression from level 1-100 and continuous polishing
-I also need to set a deadline for this project so I can motivate myself to complete it.

Webplayer Link: http://learningcsharp.co.uk/Upload/WebPlayer/WebPlayer.html

 

I was going to make a remake of the original game from the PS1 , I forgot the name of it but the is literally like a clone... good memories. anyways..looking good

 

Ooh i see what you mean, i didnt realise there was a ps1 game with the same title, i just checked it, will probably change the title before launch. This game was inspired by wii tanks, i enjoyed playing that so much, so i thought i would make my own tank fighting game, with different worlds and obstacles. @leoarmstead I hope you enjoyed playing it.

Added New MainMenu Backdrop .Menus still needs a fair bit of work though.

 

The new tank design is cool and I like the different kinds of shots. One thing, what's the use of the "hovercraft" power up?

 

Thank you very much I am glad you liked it, I forgot to disable the hovercraft power-up in world 1-3. That power-up is for world 4(the space world) it allows you to fly across platforms in space,so you can avoid the jumping blocks obstacle. Will have to focus on the following things for the next update I think:

- Streamline level progression(still needs work on the last two worlds).
- power-ups need to be tweaked so that some of them don't last as long.
- Better display of player Stats (particularly) in the won screen maybe fireworks or some sort of celebration for completing a level with all lives.

Will update soon, any more suggestions and questions are appreciated

 

Finally getting round again to some more level design, need to bash out 20 more levels for the final build for world 3. I think I will remove world 4 for now and focus on that as an update as there is so much more I want to add to that world. Here is a new obstacle I have added, The player will need to use TnT which can be pushed around by the tank to blow up a rockfall in their path. will have to think of some challenging ways to obtain the TnT from the enemy/environment.

 

I've added some more obstacles, including a gate activated by a switch and jumping blocks that can move around within a certain range.

 

Cool! But that metallic box seems to be so light You should increase its weight to avoid throwing it so far and spin when you collide whit it.

 

@Chemaxmax Thanks Just had a look at your other games, gonna give sheet ninja a try. Will add those recommendations now and see how it works, also trying to get an apk build so I can start beta testing on android and hopefully move to release soon .

Currently also working on reducing my APK build size for my android project, was 75mb now 55mb(needs to be 50mb). I have just finished writing a script to find all of the used assets in the build that are taking up space, output them to an excel file and then sort them by size so you can find the space hogging culprits to get down to 50mb. It should have been easier to do this in unity, anyway if anyone is interested in using it I will post the script (have a little cleaning up to do). It works differently from the unity editor log in that it shows the compressed size of the asset which is the only thing that really matters when publishing as that determines the size of the apk(i think).

 

It's so great to hear that! I hope it works on my smartphone cause isn't so good

 

oh this is too addicting!

 

@Cheburek Thank you , the aim is to make something people enjoy. I am very happy you did. Hopefully i can get it in beta so that I can test it on different android devices soon. Work on the last few levels for the first release is progressing smoothly (LvL-21-23):

 

Hey everybody, well those that are interested. I have finally finished my first android beta and its in the play store. I just need to finish off the upgrade system for the tank so players can unlock different weapons and tank upgrades. When that's completed hopefully i can move it to release. Also currently looking at a sifferent guiskin style for the menu's.

Anyway here;'s a link to the Google group for the beta testing:
tinytankwarfare@googlegroups.com

Google play store listing:
https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.FerociousPandaStudios.Tanks

If any of you wouldn't mind having a look at it and seeing how it runs on your devices that would be great. thank you.

 

Quick update, havent done this in a while. hopefully i can get back on track after a few weeks away. But i have added an upgrade system that uses coins that players can obtain from shooting the crates in the game along with good gameplay tactics such as high accuracy. Player can upgrade engine size, weapon, and use spare to get power ups such as shield and nitro boost.

 

The idea of upgrade the tank is so interesting. Upgrades will affect on how the tank looks?

 

hey @Chemaxmax yea I haven't finished that bit off yet, I have the upgrade model attachments finished off, just have to hook it up to the upgrade system.

I realised that the beta link that I made available in the past month was not working for everyone in beta mode on Google play. So if anyone is interested here is a link to the beta in google play that should work, feedback would be awesome thanks.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.FerociousPandaStudios.Tanks

 

I've tried the beta and I found a bug When I shoot to any point of the stage the "joystick" (movement controller) returns to its initial position, so sometimes the tank stops and I have to grab the "joystick" again. I'm working so I'll play longer when I get home

 

Very addicting! I love it. Probably getting on my phone.

Some things I would like to point out, as a normal player and artist.

Sometimes the walls do not work:



I think the 3D looks fine and interesting, but the 2D (UI) art is ewwwww.
Also, this looks very amateur and boring in my opinion:


To be honest, when I see this, I immediately think this is one of those beginner apps I would never click - and this game is not!
But maybe that is just me.

Please, don't take the criticism personal and keep up the good work!

 

Hey @Chemaxmax, thanks for taking a look at it . I will take a look at that bug now (was in work earlier too). I found a major bug in world 2 that should be fixed in the next update (some enemies wouldn't shoot at the player). Just a quick question though, may I ask what device you are using to play the game on? Will hopefully help me narrow down the problem. Thanks again for looking at it.

Will keep ironing out some of the little issues that are appearing along with implementing the new changes to the upgrade system and hopefully a better looking UI.

 

@hurrdurivan Thank you very much for your Constructive criticism, I completely agree with you on all of those points. I hope to overhaul the UI, icons, layout as soon as I can, my focus has primarily been on the game-play mechanic. I am by no means an artist, but hopefully I can come up with something simple and professional, it all looks quite oddly and horribly stitched together at the moment. its funny that you said those comments as I was typing a reply to chemaxmax(above) I am now moving it up my list of priorities .

I have to say the app icon is pretty(very) amateurish but I am for some reason glad that you pointed this out frankly " I immediately think this is one of those beginner apps I would never click ". I guess in the chaos of trying to get the game finished i negated to think of the all important first impressions and the fact that i would probably not give that icon a second look. Thanks again, hopefully i can get things looking a bit more ship shape soon and post back. I am glad you enjoyed the Gameplay.

 

I use a junkphone It's a ZTE V807 with android 4.1.1

 

I don't know anything about this project. Is it still in progress?

 

Hey @Chemaxmax I have been so busy lately , and the coding has been quite slow and a bit painful with several bugs and scaling issue. I have had to completely change the ui system and scripts. The reason was that i moved from unity's built in UI system to NGUI. It is much simpler now for me to edit the UI. I am nearly at the stage where i would like to say i have finished my first game, i will of course still be updating it after this. I have just finished a stable build that I am currently uploading to Google play. The UI stuff has taken so long that i still have several other items that i need to add to the game.
The last thing on my list is to add the tank upgrade models to the upgrade system so that the tank changes when the player adds a new weapon or bigger engine.

I know you dont really play games on your phone but here's you can check out the new ui if you want here:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.FerociousPandaStudios.Tanks

I will try to get another webplayer build for feedback, but it will take a while for me to switch build platforms in unity(as you know this can be painfully slow when you have to reimport nearly all of your assets).

 

- Still here working on some stuff. Will Post a more comprehensive update tomorrow. But Since my last Update I have add a lot of new major and minor changes, here you can see two laser turrets and a missile turret. I also added a lot of changes to the menus and the player and enemy lives show at the top. Also some changes to textures, still tweaking lighting etc. Let me know what you guys think, whether its negative or positive.Thank You .