For some time now there have been fierce Tank Battles tournaments occurring in our studios. Guided by my courage alone I decided to brave the fearsome mass of excited developers to ask one of them some questions about this game.

Sara: Why did you decide to make Tank Battles?

Developer: Here at Gameloft, we wanted to revisit an older but very popular gameplay style for consumers.

Sara: And what is Tank Battles exactly?

Developer: Tank Battles features World War II tanks that face off against each other in hopes to blow the other to smithereens. You can play against the AI or co-op with a friend in Campaign Mode to overcome 50 maze and paint ball-like levels. There’s also a fun multi-player option also allows two to four people to challenge each other in Death Match modes or Capture the Flag mode.

Sara: Seems like a lot of fun :)

Developer: Nothing beats blasting through walls with rockets, scorching enemies with flame throwers and carefully calculating the trajectory of bullets to win battles.  The controls are simple: the left stick moves your tank and the L2 and R2 buttons are used for firing. The aiming guide is highlighted when you hold down the L1 button and comes in extremely handy when you’re trying to stealthily eliminate enemies on the field. To reduce the waiting time when a player dies, we added a new feature: Gun Turrets! When you’ve lost all your lives, you still can play and help your partner win the game.

Sara: What an enthusiasm, are you a fan?

Developer: Totally! As soon as an early version of Tank Battles was installed on our PS3 test kit, it quickly became the most popular attraction in the Gameloft Studio. Everyone who passed by was drawn to the game’s colorful graphics and intuitive gameplay. During a recent office gathering, Tank Battles was main party attraction. Crowds gathered and stood in line to watch folks challenge each other and have the chance to play themselves.

Sara: And when will we have the opportunity to try it ourselves?

Developer:  It’s already available on PSN at $9.99. You’ll like it, Tank Battles captures all the youthful fun you can imagine.

Sara: Can you tell us more about Tank Battles development?

Developer: We initially started off by drafting a few futuristic concept styles (human vs. alien invasion).

We considered using a 2D background, but quickly found that it did not provide the effect we wanted, so we added a real terrain.

We tried a lot of different ideas like creating a child-like environment that featured tanks made from cardboard, rivers and lakes made from pipes and obstacles from toys left behind.

But truth is none of those styles matched what we wanted to create for audiences. So we decided to take a different approach and create a semi-realistic graphical style with cartoonish tanks.

We then fined tuned it even more and decided to remove the cartoony aspects to provide more realism with the graphics.

We finally liked the look and feel of the terrain but were still uncertain about tanks. We thought that realistic tanks inspired from the WWII era would be a nicer touch. So we began drafting a few concepts.

Ultimately, all the graphic aspects tied in well together and gave us a foundation for what we wanted to bring to the PS3.

A few weeks ago I had the chance to listen to a panel at a local book festival that included author Ethan Gilsdorf talking about his book Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks. The book explores and celebrates fantasy and gaming cultures and the people involved in them. Gilsdorf is a self-proclaimed geek and was happy to sit down and answer a few questions relating to his geekiness, gaming, and why he chose to write a book about such an interesting subculture.

Nate: Thanks for taking the time to chat with me about your book. I may be a little biased, but it’s such a great topic to talk about! You must get asked this a lot, but would consider yourself more of a fantasy freak or gaming geek?

EG: While I used to be a hardcore Dungeons & Dragons player (OK, maybe addict?), nowadays I seem more attracted to fantasy movies and books than gaming. Perhaps it’s because I don’t have the time to immerse myself in role-playing games, or I just haven’t connected with a group of friends who also like to game. This is one of the topics I talk about in my book and I’d say in general, I tend towards “escaping” into a fantasy realm like Tolkien’s Middle-earth more so than playing Xbox or World of Warcraft. Besides, I never had all that good hand-eye.

Nate: I saw on your website you are full of Geek Pride. What was the geekiest thing you did while researching this book?

EG: I would have to say dressing up in costumes to participate in live-action role-playing games (LARPs) and events for the Society for Creative Anachronism (or the SCA, a medieval re-enactment group). For the LARP, I dressed in a blue monk’s tunic and wore a belt and carried a mace (and a reporter’s notebook). For the SCA’s biggest event, 12,000 folks dress in medieval garb for two weeks and camp in period tents. I hung out in the hot sun in an itchy brown tunic I’d made myself. Maybe the fact that I sewed it, and a matching medieval man-purse (to carry my reporter’s equipment secretly in the medieval world) was the geekiest thing I did. No, wait, I think me flying to New Zealand and traipsing around for three weeks on a quest to see as many of the Lord of the Rings filming locations might count as the geekiest thing. I even took pictures of my Lord of the Rings figurines in various locations, and made geeky fan movies. Hmmmm. I flew my freak flag pretty proudly on that trip.

Nate: That. Is. Amazing. Now that you are on tour promoting your book, how do you find time for these geeky/completely awesome activities?

EG: Yes, the tour is pretty much all I’m doing these days it’s all-encompassing, and it’s all powerful. Mwwahh hahah! So, at the moment, a lot of my nerdly ways are being fulfilled vicariously by interacting with others. One of the joys of being on tour and traveling across the US, is meeting so many other fantasy freaks and gaming geeks. I’ve spoken to so many folks who are dying to share their stories of how they got into gaming or what role fantasy plays in their lives. That said, I did recently attend a special screening at Radio City Music Hall of the first movie in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Fellowship of the Ring, complete with live accompaniment by an orchestra and choir, some 300 musicians in total, who played Howard Shore’s rousing and moody score in front of the hall’s massive screen. When Elijah Wood, Howard Shore and Billy Bowd came on stage after the movie, we all got more than our share of geek moments.

I would like to thank Ethan Gilsdorf for taking the time to speak to this gaming and give a little insight into his fantasy worlds. For more information, to pick up a copy of Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks, or to enter his Great Geek Giveaway, visit his site.

Author Ethan Gilsdorf showing his geek pride

Have you ever thought to yourself while playing your favorite video game, “I would really like to know random facts about things that happened during the production of this game”? I thought so. And, who am I to keep you from your heart’s desire? I sat down with the Producer of Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego to get you some fun facts.

Nate: Carmen is a pretty worldly game. How many different languages are used during game play?

Producer: There are 36 different languages used in the game.  If you pay attention during a playthrough you would be able to greet people in those 36 languages.

Nate: Wow, looks like I should have played more video games in high school instead of going to Spanish. Anything else we can learn from playing?

Producer: Much of the text is randomly generated from fun facts about cities to odd antiquities one may find in a given region so the possible combinations are close to limitless.

Nate: How long does an average playthrough take?

Producer:  Well, the development team’s record playthrough time was 20 minutes, but I think that most people would have trouble completing the game in less than an hour and a half. However, in order to see the same case twice, you would have to play through the game over 10,000 times.

Nate: That’s amazing, something tells me I won’t be seeing all the cases any time soon. Anything else you can tell us about the team during the development that might shock our fans?

Producer: No pizza was consumed during the development of Carmen.  I believe that may be a game industry first.

Nate: Really? No pizza? I feel like there is always pizza being ordered in the office.  Out of curiosity what did you eat the most?

Producer: If I remember right, sushi was the most eaten food.