Adela, Andrew, Ari
Authors
Michael Brough
Smestorp (personal website)
Glitch Tank (presskit)
Context
Released 22 December, 2011. The developer treats himself as an artist. Makes esoteric, glitchy little games with self-generated problems/constraints.
Development
Digital board game with randomized actions cards, and constraints
Inspirations: Shot Shot Shoot, RoboRally, Exuberant Struggle
For the iPad originally (?) Can be played on iOS, Android
“Glitch Tank was developed as part of Kompendium, an album of small 2-player games (and is available for free on PC and Mac as part of that). But it turned out to be a much better fit for a touch-screen, so it was developed into a standalone game adding AI, different modes, and a variety of rare events and map features.” (Glitch Tank: Presskit)
Gameplay
Modes: Real time or turn-based
2 players, or VS AI.
Somewhat randomly generated color scheme: confusing for your player/actions
Honestly everything is confusing for the first couple of tries. The game barely explains itself (it has a help page but it’s not very informative nor readable) however it speaks through gameplay.
Both players have access to four moves which are given randomly. Using a move replaces it with a new random move.
There is one rare move which allows a player to move two additional times.
There is one super rare move which allows a player to rotate the entire playing field 180 deg.
The most noteworthy move that you can be given allows you to spawn a mini tank. All mini tanks are affected by your moves the same way the main tank is. A mini tank can also spawn more mini tanks.
Getting the minitank move early is very strong, especially in real time.
In real time, if too much button mashing is being done, the tanks overheat. The developer is open to player suggestions about changing the occurrence of this.
5906 ERTH@$^U(DF_B)BI)$KP feature ???
Reception
10/10, however it was only downloaded 100-500 times on all platforms. It has 5.0 stars on the iTunes app store and 16 ratings across all versions.