Ultra Tank-chan! is a space-combat-sim developed by Uguusoft in 2009. It is Uguusoft’s first actual game, as well as our first venture into 3D development, and it only took two months to go from paper to launch! (And that includes all time needed to learn how OpenGL works)
Ultra Tank-chan! is developed exclusively against Debian–based GNU/Linux systems, but it is fully functional under both Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac OS X 10.5.
Summary
Ultra Tank-chan! is a space-combat-sim in the vein of Volition’s FreeSpace series, with some influences from Bandai-Namco’s Ace Combat games.
Ultra Tank-chan! is notable for the number of players it supports (96 over 6 teams in the official release), its drop-in/drop-out multiplayer design, its low system requirements (it runs extremely well on an Asus eee 900, which is even more impressive when considering that the entire game was written in Python), and its quirky, likely unique, art style, which has been described as “an epic space battle in a lava lamp.”
Gameplay videos
- Three players and gradient-shading; everyone’s warming up
- Two players and cel-shading; Arashi’s still getting the hang of it
- Two players and cel-shading; demonstrates that the keyboard is quite usable
- Two players and cel-shading; shows just how scary a missile-free ship can be
Project information
Ultra Tank-chan! is hosted on Google Code, http://code.google.com/p/utc/, which is where you should go if you want to play it, read its manuals, guides, and other documentation, or build a new game using its engine.
All releases may be found on, and should be downloaded from, the Google Code download page. But, just in case Google Code goes down, the most recent releases are available from uguu.ca, too:
- UTc!-client-1.1.1 (tar.bz2) (sha1)
- UTc!-server-1.1.0 (tar.bz2) (sha1)
- UTc!-api-1.1.0 (tar.bz2) (sha1)
Reception and opinions
Ultra Tank-chan! has been published on the following sites, so you might want to check their feedback sections if you’re wondering what others think:
Feedback
If you’ve found UTc! fun, please let us know. We loved developing it, and we’d really like to hear ideas about how it can be made better.
Credits
- Programming, statistics, art design, 3D models, 2D artwork, HUD elements, model-mapping, playtesting, Debian/Ubuntu support
Arashi
- Statistics lead, sound effects, model-mapping, playtesting, Microsoft Windows XP support
randomwords
- Model-mapping lead, Mac OS X support