Crank Tank on Gamasutra

Andrew Genualdi was recently interviewed by Gamasutra, discussing the New Arcade collab final project Crank Tank he created with fellow MFADT student Henry Lam and product design undergrad Jaeseong Yi.

The aptly named Crank Tank was created by three students at The New School. It looks sort of like Combat for the Atari 2600 if you, with a top-down view of two tanks doing battle. But the controller is, to put it mildly, a lot different than the standard one-button joystick that came with the 2600.

Crank Tank is controlled by means of two large hand cranks. There’s a four player version in which teams of two must learn to coordinate their movements, and a PVP mode in which players face off with a crank in each hand. Gameplay is fast, frenetic and fun. It’s a decent upper body workout to boot.

Crank Tank will be featured at GDC’s Alt Ctrl Showcase this March.

Andrew:  “I think one of the largest benefits is that you get to give players a more enjoyable and immersive experience when playing your game. Instead of moving around a joystick to drive the tank, players actually have to drive the tank by turning the “treads.” One of the biggest drawbacks is that you are often creating something entirely unique and when you run into problems or roadblocks you might not have access to an easy answer. On the flip, when you do accomplish your goal it is that much more satisfying to see your vision come to fruition.

I hope that after experiencing Crank Tank (as well as the other games exhibiting at alt.ctrl), people see that arcade games are much more than a standard cabinet with a joystick and buttons. I also hope that people will get inspired by these projects to start making more games and controllers like these, because they really are an incredible experience to be a part of.”

http://gamasutra.com/view/news/266688/AltCtrlGDC_Showcase_Genualdi_Lam_and_Lis_Crank_Tank.php

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