Tanks: All Aboard!

Tanks: All Aboard! was my second project in Unreal Engine. Compared to my first project, Robot Obstacle Course, there were improvements in nearly every aspect. I created a much more cohesive experience with a variety of locations and enemies.

The player is a tank who has left its military base to go on an adventure. It will explore a forest, a city, a desert and a graveyard before returning home. In each area, the tank will encounter enemies and other hazards that can cause harm, but will grant points if destroyed. Travelling between each area is done by train, which starts moving when the player comes aboard and will stop once it reaches its destination.

Skills Developed from this Project:

• Pickups: In the level are pickups that can either grant the player health or equip a different weapon. I improved them visually by adding a glowing light and making them float.

• Weapons + Projectiles: For the first time, I made the player character able to shoot projectiles that can destroy enemies. There are multiple different weapons that can be used, and each of them fire projectiles with different properties, such as size, speed, spawn rate and the damage that will be caused. I made each type of projectile slightly visually different so that it is clear which effects they will have. 

• Enemy behaviour: Enemies in Robot Obstacle Course were mostly stationary and only damaged the player on collision. However, I improved on this by giving enemies in this game more movement and the ability to fire projectiles. The projectiles are either shot in a straight line, or will be aimed directly at the player as they move through the level. The enemies can also move towards the player's current location, chasing them down.

• Points + Collision: Since destroying an enemy grants the player points, I had to take care over the collision settings of each actor in the level to make sure that only the player hitting them would add points to the total score. 

• Level design: I wanted to make each area of the game distinct from one another, and did this through colour schemes and details. Compared to Robot Obstacle Course, I added more decorations and even designed the enemies in such a way that they would create a clear scene.