Giant Tank
Download the game and its documentation - Download (89KB)
This game requires the free Scratch player and environment to run.
Commentary
Giant Tank is an antiwar game. Giant Tank depicts a battle between a soldier with a rifle and a tank. You are not the tank.
Giant Tank uses the language of games – action and simulation – to produce an anti-war message. The character designs may be products of modern warfare, but they are not specific to a particular conflict or nationality. The tank is an abstraction of the brutal machine of war; the soldier is an individual on the losing end of a tragic battle of unequal force. In such a situation, can we really believe the officer's instructions - and the game rules they suggest - that 'it will take many bullets to win'?
Giant Tank is inspired by the classic Atari game Combat as well as the fictional unwinnable game Snakes and Foxes in Robert Jordan's THE WHEEL OF TIME. It also draws on the work of Gonzala Frasca and Shuen-shing Lee. Giant Tank was built using Scratch by MIT and will require the Scratch player to run. The scenario is based on many instances of mechanized vs foot soldier combat in film and literature and its horrific and frightening consequences.
