Game Description

Tanklike is a nostalgic top-down 2D arcade shooter with a roguelike twist for to up four players.

Navigate your tank through hundreds of levels - or make a hundred yourself. Your tank and munitions improve with every room defeated.

Key Game Features

• Local multiplayer for up for four players.

• Strategic, almost puzzle-like tank maneuvery that can turn frenetic in a heartbeat. One moment you’re carefully placing a shot between boxes and the next you’re driving into fire, shooting down enemy bullets and dodging mortars.

• Bullets will ricochet off of walls at predictable angles and they’ll keep ricocheting if you put points into that stat. But some enemy tanks can ricochet their shots as well.

• A streamlined, robust level editor that anybody can use. All the official levels were made using the level editor. This was my first level editor and I think it went well.

• Unlockable weapons like the Machine Gun or Flamethrower that behave very differently than the standard tank gun and require a different style of play.

• A procedurally generated dungeon that balances risk and reward, allowing players to challenge optional harder rooms for improved stats and synergistic abilities.

In high school, a friend and I played the shit out of Wii Play Tanks. We loved the simplicity combined with the need for teamwork and preparation.

That same friend and I revisited the idea 15 years later and created Tanklike. We wanted to marry the classic tank shooter with the progression and pace of modern roguelikes.

Though it was never completed, I consider Tanklike my best game. I owe a lot of that to my partner on the project. Having a second mind to offer alternate perspectives made a huge difference in game design and development.

Tanklike is initially simple, with approachable depth. It requires quick thinking and careful planning. The world adapts well to the number of players and encourages teamwork. The sounds are pleasant, the soundtrack by Gisula is catchy, the colors are bright and the graphics are easy to read.

Everything is clean and balanced and simple and I’m proud of myself for not going overboard. In my other games’ development, I always had at least a moment where I thought to myself “Is this even fun?” I never thought that with Tanklike; it’s always been fun.

When I have the opportunity to revisit this project, I would love to finish the Tankery. The Tankery was a place where you’d raise baby tanks. You go out in dungeons and bring back food. What you feed them changes their appearance and stats and you can like battle them and when they’re fully grown you can play as them in a real dungeon. It was bizarre and unnecessary and the best part of the whole game and nobody has seen it except us because it was slated for a few updates down the line.

The Steam integration needs completion as well.

“Nice little top down shooting tank game with a bunch of upgrades and levels to play . . . ”
   - Steam User FatMac