Artillery Game Tutorial: Part 1 - Introduction

Introduction

Welcome to the first in a series of tutorials that I hope will help new developers and fans of the genre. When I first started to learn about computers and even before I got serious about programming, one of the first PC games I ever owned was a shareware game called 'Scorched Earth'. It was a cleverly designed game where you were in a tank against up to 9 other tanks on a landscaped 2D screen, and the main idea was to try to destroy all of them and be the last one standing to win the round. Do this for a chosen number of rounds and whoever has the highest score at the end, wins the game.

In addition, you had many nice features where you could buy all kinds of different weapons and items to aid you in fighting. This money was earned as you played and destroyed other tanks for points. Different tank types, fuel to get around, levels of computer AI, randomly generated yet configurable land and many other things that made this an exciting, addictive and extremely fun game. The 'Artillery Game' genre was born, and I was hooked!

You may have also played a more recent game that is based on the same concept of game play called 'Worms'. It also falls under this genre. It has had several sequels that have been leading the way of this type of game adding new things in each edition of the series.

Throughout this tutorials series I will be teaching how to design an Artillery Game yourself. It will feature the basics of the game play and then move on to the many neat features and systems you see within these great games.




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