First test build To my kids 4 October, 12:07

The over-the-shoulder camera and the whole town

4 October, 07:55 to 11:51

A red tank seen from behind and above in a street of tall buildings and palm trees — Over the shoulder, in the whole town.

I played the first build that morning and asked for two big changes. The camera looking down from above became the over-the-shoulder view the agent had offered at the start. The arena was far too small to be fun, so the fight moved into the whole Resort Town demo scene, about 144 by 120 metres of streets, plazas and alleys.

Then I went through the town prop by prop and said how each kind should behave, and the agent built it. By midday it had also written a tool that makes a private download of each build, and the first test build went out to my kids.

In this build

The over-the-shoulder camera, with the mouse aiming the turret.
The whole resort town as the battlefield, with the tanks scaled to fit it.
Palm trees and street lights shake at a bump, fall to a shell or a fast ram, and stay down.
Fire hydrants fly off and leave a jet of water.
Light props get shoved aside. Cars and concrete barriers are heavy and slow the tank right down.
The camera rises over the tank when a wall squeezes it, and hides palm canopies that block the view.
The lobby shows each player's tank on a spot-lit pedestal.

Two small tanks on grass, seen from high above — The first camera, for comparison.

A map of the resort town from above, with its streets, plazas and parks — The new battlefield from above.

A tank tearing down a street on a Speed Burst, past a knocked-over street light — A street light after a tank hit it.

The lobby, four tanks on pedestals above the players' cards — The lobby with its pedestals.