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ThinkTanks XBox

Name:	Joe Maruschak
Date Posted:	Apr 12, 2005
Rating:	4.5 out of 5
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ThinkTanks for XBOX live arcade is nearing completion. I am pretty stoked as when we were first asked about if we wanted to do it, I was very nervous. I was not sure we could take a game that was designed for the PC and transfer it to the xbox (with a controller to control the tanks instead of keyboard mouse).

I was not 100% sure we would come up with something that worked well.. let alone make a game that was fun to play.. but, my fears were unfounded.

The game works great with xbox dual stick, and I (and most of the other team members) think that ThinkTanks xbox is more fun to play, and is a much better game in all regards.

Neat additions to the game are the new locking reticle.. you use the right stick to move the turret, but when you get over an enemy tank, the reticle locks, and you can let go of the stick and start blasting away. If you want to change targets, you can grab the stick and yank the reticle off the tank and onto another one. Kind of hard to explain, but it feels quite intuitive when you use it, and the effect is somewhere between aiming and selecting targets..

there were a lot of subtle art upgrades. Mark McCoy created a new shell which is a little bit slicker and much more 'console'. We also added 3 new tanks to the game.

Not to get too sappy, but I really am jazzed about our 'new' team members. John, Mark, and Matt have really taken things to the next level. I feel lucky to know these guys and I honestly feel that it is a privilege to know them and to get to work with them everyday.

As this titles finishes up, and is in an almost done state, I have that feeling again of how great it feels to get a project done.

It also feels like a important milestone for our company and for me personally. I have always dreamed of seeing something I had a hand in designing ending up on the console. It may be xbox live arcade, but I get jazzed everytime I start it up. It feels great to see the fruits of years of labor and sacrifice on the TV screen. It is a great feeling, and it feels like the start of great things in our future.

I don't want to sound too much like a cheerleader, but you can do what we have done. Focus on making a good game, make sure it is an achievable goal, and if you make something good, good things will happen for you.

dRacer is starting to shape up as well. Lots of new stuff going in every day, and pretty soon the full team will be able to devote themselves to getting it done.

Check out the latest: dRacer Movie

please forgive the placeholder art.

Those of you who played it at the IGC know that it is fun, now we just need to devote ourselves to the process of polishing it up, adding all the little things that need to be added, and grinding off rough edges. Right now we are in the roughest (and to me, the funnest) part of game development. The prototype is done, and we are not yet at the slog of just adding assets to finish.. now we are at that point where we have the core, it is good, and we need to carefully look at what the game needs to be, decide on the required features, and massage it from something that is good until we get great.

The process we used on ThinkTanks and ThinkTanks xbox seems to be working for us, so we are going to keep using it. A couple of people have asked me about how we approach development, and one of these days I may try to sit down and write an outline of how we approach it and my thoughts on game development in general. Would there be any interest from the community in this?

Recent Blog Posts

List:	11/07/06 - Focusing development by way of bootstrapping 10/20/06 - New Human 2.0 09/30/06 - The Finish Line 09/03/06 - Value of a Thing 06/18/06 - The shape of things to come 06/11/06 - Starting a Studio: Things we did right 06/02/06 - You Can Do it! 09/05/05 - The importance of theme

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Stephen Zepp (Apr 12, 2005 at 16:44 GMT) Resource Rating: 4

Quote:
The process we used on ThinkTanks and ThinkTanks xbox seems to be working for us, so we are going to keep using it. A couple of people have asked me about how we approach development, and one of these days I may try to sit down and write an outline of how we approach it and my thoughts on game development in general. Would there be any interest from the community in this?

Most absolutely!

And it is really amazing about how TT is progressing to the console...nothing against GG, but Marble Blast, being a GG product, doesn't really "count" when it comes to an Indy dev company making it to console in my personal perspective...it's GG after all!

Joseph Euan (Apr 12, 2005 at 16:45 GMT)

Congrats on getting ThinkTanks on xbox... it's an awesome game (I played it for ages at the GDC :p)

And good luck with dRacer, the vid looks cool... can't wait to try it out.

Adam deGrandis (Apr 12, 2005 at 16:47 GMT)

Congrats to you and the rest of the team! Im glad things are shaping up. Oh... and dRacer looks AWESOME. :)

Anton Bursch (Apr 12, 2005 at 16:48 GMT)

Edited on May 21, 2005 06:17 GMT

Edward Gardner (Apr 12, 2005 at 16:48 GMT)

I am looking forward to dRacer.

Now that Lore Invasion is done and out, I can say I really liked it when i played it at IGC :)

I think it's a "must have" title.

Phil Carlisle (Apr 12, 2005 at 17:03 GMT)

Nice plan Joe! yayy for the little guy! :)

Chris Labombard (Apr 12, 2005 at 17:04 GMT)

I would ABSOLUTELY love to hear your views on game development and how you approach it.

Teck Lee Tan (Apr 12, 2005 at 17:05 GMT)

Congrats on getting Thinktanks this far! :) DRacer looks like it could be a lot of fun. The tracks look interesting, and the handling looks like lots of fun. :)

Michael \"Evic\" Wales (Apr 12, 2005 at 17:56 GMT)

Glad to hear ThinkTanks is going good, it's encouraging to hear of an indie progressing beyond the PC market.

Of course, we would love to hear your opinions and strategy for game development - would probably be a very educational read for a lot of us.

As for dRacer, yes it looks great and fun, but so does Ridge Racer, Midnight Club, and Need for Speed. What exactly is going to set dRacer apart from these already successful names within the genre? I'm not trying to be crass (spelling?), and I honestly haven't looked into dRacer much. Just trying to get your creative juices flowing... :)

Greg Findlay (Apr 12, 2005 at 18:08 GMT)

Looks like you've really nailed the feel of speed for dRacer. The pacing looks great. What sort of art style were you going for with this? Are the cars placeholder as well or do they have the style your going for? The amazing thing is, the way the gameplay looks right now you could probably get away with really anything for art; from realistic to cartoony. Good job.

Pascal Bos (Apr 12, 2005 at 18:47 GMT)

Wow this is so cool

Michael Cozzolino (Apr 12, 2005 at 18:57 GMT)

Congratz Joe and BT crew. Looks like you guys did an awesome job.

Brett Fattori (Apr 12, 2005 at 18:59 GMT)

Everything in dRacer is currently placeholder. We've been working on the core infrastructure of the game to get it nailed down. There's a ton of work that went into developing the supporting tech to make it strong and flexible. On top of an already great engine, we have built a very extendable architecture. Up to this point, dRacer hasn't been so much a game as it's been a tech demo -- or even just a prototype. When developing a game, having an idea seems to be important but being open to change is even more important -- something I've been learning while working with these guys.

So, when it comes to how will it look, what will set us apart, and all that gobbledy gook, it's still up in the air. We've yet to really talk about the future of the game, we just know that we've got a good thing going. Oh, and we have one thing those franchises don't have... we're not bound by some corporate bottom line. :-)

- Brett
Edited on Apr 12, 2005 19:02 GMT

Canon (Apr 12, 2005 at 19:00 GMT)

great !
congratulations for porting TT for XBOX live arcade Joe !
and yes, i'm VERY interested to know how one of the best team of the community works !

Christophe
Edited on Apr 12, 2005 19:02 GMT

Jay Barnson (Apr 12, 2005 at 19:16 GMT)

Fantastic!

I've been wondering what you guys have been quietly laboring away on. The game looks fantastic.

Paul Dana (Apr 12, 2005 at 19:54 GMT)

Couldn't have happend to a better group. Good luck BT.

Stephen Clark (Apr 12, 2005 at 20:09 GMT)

Many many congrats to you guys! As I'm sure y'all know, but I will repeat anyways, you guys pushing and exploring torque helps us all. Hope its a profitable experience!

-s

Weston (Apr 12, 2005 at 22:12 GMT)

Nice job Joe!

Jeremy Alessi (Apr 12, 2005 at 22:29 GMT) Resource Rating: 4

When's the game going to be launched on XBL? I'll be one of your first customers ;) Additionally, I love all your .plan's so anything you write would be useful to me.

Frogger (Apr 12, 2005 at 22:44 GMT) Resource Rating: 5

Ahh! The brains are staring again!

Have fun on the Xbox!

CB (May 31, 2007 at 20:10 GMT)

Its all very nice to see GG take Think Tanks to another platform , but It sure makes all of us vet PC platform players feel left out to dry. We have a close nit community and is supported by our own site www.planetthinktanks2.com, that we continue to ask you at GG to link the demo to. We created that site when the original went down for good. As Think Tankers and PTT2 members we support all new players and as a group promote TT in a lot of different game forums. We would like some recognition of our site and would like to see you expand TT PC platform version to keep the interest for the years to come. This is truly a great game and us die hard players will never lose interest in it. Help us help the game.

Thank you,
CrapBlaster
T Tanker since its first year.

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