This article is Introduction to a 25-Part Series.

Getting Started

The first thing we need to do is to find out what the game looks like, how it plays and its rules.

Ways to do it are as below(best if you can do all these ways together)

  1. To play the game and enjoy it(I did twenty/thirty years ago, but can’t remember much of it. Not sure if you can). Nowadays will be via emulators and roms which I will not be showing as that might mean possible legal issues. Or if you still have a working NES laying around to play with(which is possible considering hardware from the older eras are way more robust than things nowadays)
  2. Look through Youtube for gameplay videos
  3. Look for websites or GameFAQs for rules and information about the game. For BattleCity I can find in Gamefaqs[https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/nes/562966-battle-city/faqs] and strategywifi[https://strategywiki.org/wiki/Battle_City/Walkthrough] which to my pleasant surprise also includes screenshots of all the levels!

Assets for creating this game

Sorry, I will not be providing any assets to help you get started as all my sprites, images and sounds will all be downloaded from the internet and with the intention to give attribution to the artists who did that(I use these ready-made free assets as I totally sucks at the artistic parts). It would not be fair to these fellows if I pass off all these including their works as a package to anyone. You will need to create your own or find ready-made ones yourself(starting from scratch will enhance your satisfaction after you accomplish creating the game). If you are really that lazy, just check the attribution i made at the end.

As a summary, the bare minimum you will require the below sprites unless stated optional. Sound effects are optional, you can still play this game without sound.

  1. 4 different type of Top Down Tank Images (optional 2 images for each type with slightly different changes to create animation effect of moving tank)
  2. A square image of a Brick
  3. A square image for a Metal Ingot
  4. A square image for a Lake(Water)
  5. A square image for a Grass Field
  6. Square Images for a grenade, helmet, star, spade, stopwatch and tank to create the bonus crates
  7. An image of an Eagle Coat of Arms(the Player’s Base)

I have created a link to my final end product of the game. Try it out and let me know if there are any bugs so I can enhance on it. Head to the next post for actual tutorial if you are ready.

This article is Introduction to a 25-Part Series.