Here’s my brain dump for the tank game. I included my notes from last section as well. The most important observation to me is that you probably want to enable players to use 3rd person view in a non-simulation setting, or have a hassle-free 1st person view (aiming reticle, turret rotation indicator, and not much else). Tanks are quite claustrophobic and you really can’t see all that much when sitting in one. The other interesting thing is that you can substitute tanks for mechs in most arcade game settings, which sounds like an interesting modification to make to the game at some point (however you’d need mech models and all the animations for them then).
tank games notes:
– there’s a sliding scale of sim (e.g. Panzer Elite, Panzer Commander) vs. arcade game (e.g. WoT, War Thunder, Armored Fist series)
– lots of WW2, some post cold war modern (M1 Tank Platoon 2)
– tank/mecha intersection: one could argue that MechWarrior Online and many other mecha games are pretty much arcade tank games with generous application of Awesome But Impractical and Rule Of Cool
– multiplayer or singleplayer? multiple player crew in one tank?
– crew needs to be abstracted. tanks usually have 4 or 5 crew members, depending on era and type. for an arcade game, only the driver and gunner are really interesting, for a sim experience the commander’s job needs to be included
– solo or part of a hierarchy: again, milsim vs arcade shooter. the latter allows happy driving around solo, the former must find a way to implement platoon coordination and combined arms in a fun and convincing manner
– 1st/3rd person view (sim/arcade)
– tracked movement: tanks do not quite behave like cars.
– turret rotates independent of hull
– ballistics, penetration, damage, malfunctions: down the simulation rabbit hole again
– customization/progress: unlocking tanks, equipment, ammo, purely cosmetic stuff, …
– terrain & weather
gdd:
.concept
driving around a landscape in a tank, scoring more tank kills than other players in a free-for-all or team-based battle. no simulation, just shooting stuff until it explodes.
.rules
win & lose: score limit, probably.
tanks are destroyed after taking a certain amount of damage inflicted upon them by other players’ tanks.
tanks are supposed to move in a realistic fashion:
- they have turret rotation independent of the movement direction
- they accelerate and decelerate rapidly
- they should not be toppled by terrain collision or impacts because 60 tons are not nudged easily
- they can climb certain angles and wade certain water depths
tanks fire shells:
- armor piercing sabot and/or other rounds (HE, HEAT, …) with different damage characteristics
- impact angle, velocity, and location affect penetration and effectiveness of the shot
the game takes place in an arena setting:
- landscape containing hills, trees, bodies of water, buildings etc
- landscape is confined into a rectangular space by impassable terrain on the edges
.requirements
…3d
tank model(s)
landscape objects (houses, bridges, trees, …)
water
…2d
tank textures
house textures
terrain materials
menu background(s)
buttons
…fx
particles (burning dead tanks, explosions on impact, treads throwing up dust, …)
…audio
cannon firing
machine gun firing?
hits (glancing, penetrating, non-penetrating, …)
engine
explosions (ground, tank, water, …)
menu sounds
announcer (game start&end, kills, …)
music pieces (menu, in-game, post-game, pre-game, …)
…ai
spotting
tactical positioning (front towards enemy, angling, hull-down positions, …)
path finding
aiming (needs difficulty settings from “can’t hit the broad side of a barn” to “aimbot 9001”)
…multiplayer
?