Wanted to drop a quick note that our good friend and excellent indie game designer/developer Cliff Harris has announced the beta launch for his new game Gratuitous Tank Battles.
As RPS notes, the game is a mix of RTS, simulation, and tower defense. It’s set as if World War I never came to an end — with trench warfare evolving through means of mechs, lasers, and more.
Those who pre-order through the official site will gain instant access to the current beta release and all subsequent builds. Have a look at the game’s shiny new trailer:
It’s the tower defense part that makes me cautious. I absolutely don’t enjoy that genre outside of PvZ. Also Gratuitous Space Battles wasn’t much fun to me either since it has the same problems that TD has, once you’re done preparing you’re just sitting there bored while the game plays itself.
I can understand that sentiment, but then again AI War has been said to have a healthy dose of tower defense in it. The thing with GTB is that it looks to keep you engaged the whole time you’re playing, plus you can play as the aggressor or the defender.
Plus it has the adaptive AI option, rather than pre-scripted, which is totally what I had planned to do when I made a true TD game of my own someday (this was before the glut of those on the market).
I’ve not tried GTB yet — simply haven’t had time — but I’ve been keeping in touch with Cliff all through the development of this one, and I think he’s got a winner there. Looks quite fun to me, and not really like a tower defense game in the sense you’re worried about. But I could be wrong!