Project on ice...

Well I knew this point would come, but I didn't think it would be so soon. Tank has evolved from a solid block simulation to a playable multiplayer game within a matter of months. It's my first pet project, and it will still be semi-active, but for now, I am putting Tank on ice.

I've decided to take a break from development of this particular game. I am itching to try new stuff. I want to learn about AI, bitmap-based text, new effects. There are so many elements involved in the creation process that I am starting to feel a little bogged down. The whole idea of me doing this was to get away from the feeling of stagnation, and up to this point I believe I've achieved that. From the joyous realisation of working out a routine, to the hair-pulling frustration of near punching the monitor, I've been through some extremes with this game. I think it's been a great project to get me back into coding, and I've learned a lot. Skills, I hope, which I can use in other, more original projects. I have plenty of ideas swimming around in my head.

I know it's bad practice to leave a thing like this unfinished, and I really do intend to come back to this at some point (unless someone wants to adopt it and continue development), but for now I have a real need to move on. Useful lessons have been learnt over the last couple of months, but so many corners remain unturned. I feel that now is the time to venture out and look around those corners.

I'll be blogging about it here again when I get something going, but for now I'll sign off with a few screenshots of Tank (Click the images for larger versions). The game made it to version 0.9a, nearly v1.0, but not quite. Fully playable, but in need of some bolt ons. I did what I set out to do. I created a game.

Hunting for enemies...

A near miss...

Shockwave...

Game Over!!

Multiplayer home-made server..

To be continued....