Death Tank's Ezra Dreisbach Interview

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Eurogamer: So here we are in 2009 and Death Tank's coming back via Xbox Live Arcade. With the 360 now over three years old, what took you so long? Surely XBLA and Death Tank is a bit of a no-brainer? What was the process in getting the new game developed and published?

Ezra Driesbach: Well, I've been working on it for all those three years. That is a very long time, by far the longest game project I've ever worked on. Maybe it's because the absence of a publisher means the absence of concrete deadlines and that would make any project expand to fill all available time.

Some of that time I spent on some pretty time-consuming experimental explorations. Some of which made it into the game, and some which didn't. I also spent a long time developing a Halo-style party matchmaking system. There's not a whole lot of content in DT, but I explored every avenue I could think of to try to make everything good. That's what really took the time up.

Eurogamer: Why Xbox Live only? Is there any reason you didn't favour PSN?

Ezra Driesbach: I've got to make money, or no more making games. Xbox Live is still selling the most, right? That's the main reason it's first, but I'm sure not unhappy about it. Xbox 360 is really great and Microsoft has been great to us as well.

Eurogamer: So was this an individual undertaking, or was there a team behind this new version? Is XBLA a viable vehicle for solo programmers in the industry?

Ezra Driesbach: I'm the only programmer on Death Tank, but working with artists from Snowblind has made a huge difference. Solo guys can certainly make a game good enough for XBLA, but unless you've got some genius idea like Tetris, you're really going to want some artists to work on it too.

Eurogamer: The Live Arcade version transitions from single-console party gameplay across to Xbox Live. How has the gameplay been adapted and improved, and how do the new version's local gameplay options stack up against online play?

Ezra Driesbach: Make no mistake, this is still a game you most want to play multiplayer. But there are now a couple options for single-player play. For one, you can add AI tanks to the game to play solo, or fill out your low player situation. The other is Arcade Mode: a fixed series of levels like an arcade game. There are a few different types of tanks that drop in, plus a flying enemy and platforms you have to jump jet onto. Stuff like that.

Death Tank in action.Video in higher quality on EGTV

The main changes to the core gameplay are some control changes in reaction to the new controller. The Jump Jets in particular are changed significantly. Pulling the analogue triggers together starts the jets, then individual triggers rotate the tank. I like this change a lot. It allows more freedom of action in the air, for example, flying upside down and shooting enemies below and you can really wipe out with some hilarious crashes.

The biggest real improvement is the team game mode. Teams are pretty fun.

Eurogamer: You talked earlier about spending a lot of time on experimental stuff. Has any of this manifested at all in the new game?

Ezra Driesbach: Well, by "experimental stuff" I mean like the simulation of the sand blowing across the dunes in the desert level. That one worked out. Then there's other stuff I made like an offline volume smoke renderer. That one worked good for making the smoke trails, but I also spent a lot of effort trying to make it render little movie clips I could use for explosions. That didn't work so well.

Eurogamer: Okay, it's sell-your-game time. For the uninitiated, what makes Death Tank still relevant today and graphics aside, how have you improved it since the original Saturn version?

Ezra Driesbach: There are not many types of multiplayer action games that have the depth necessary to sustain competitive play among advanced players. There are first-person shooters, real-time strategy games, fighting games and just a few others. Death Tank is completely different from these games and we played it at Lobotomy for hours every day until it had the same kind of depth. If I've done my job right, the XBLA game retains it.

I've wrapped this gameplay in the best networking I could make so that Death Tank will work as well as possible over packet-losing or high-latency connections. Also, it has the same kind of "party" system as Halo (among others), so you can easily join with your friends to enter matchmaking or play custom games.

Before, to play Death Tank you needed to have some obscure hardware and a lot of friends willing to show up at your house. Those few that could play it loved it. We loved it at Lobotomy. This release makes that experience available to everyone.