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Bubble Tanks


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Rating: 3.9/5 (348 votes)
Comments (125) | Views (12,458)

JayBubble TanksSometimes JIG contributor, sometimes game developer, Jared Riley sends word of his latest effort, a hypnotic and relaxing shooter if ever there was one. Man your bubble ship on an excursion through a vast bubble field seeking out hostiles to assimilate in Bubble Tanks.

Navigation control is with the [WASD] keys on the keyboard, aim and click the mouse to shoot. You are at first equipped with a weak but unlimited cannon, with larger and more fierce weapons available by absorbing the bubbles your enemies leave behind. The more bubbles you collect, the larger your ship and the greater your weapon become. But as you grow so do the enemies that you will find around you. Lose all your bubbles, however, and the game puts you back to the nearest safe bubble where you get to start your ascent again.

Analysis: The graphics are simple and yet nicely styled, and it all comes together exceptionally well. The soundtrack, although a bit repetitive, is relaxing and complements the atmosphere of discovery. As I was playing the game while writing this review someone submitted the game, using our online game suggestion form, and described it as being similar to flOw. At first I didn't agree; but as I progressed further with the game I could indeed see the similarities. Perhaps Bubble Tanks was influenced by the elegance of flOw, and yet it is most certainly a different game entirely.

The first few bubbles you come to contain instructional text that guide you into the game play gradually, this is a nice effect and a creative way of educating the player. Also, by forcing the player to move between bubbles, Jared can limit the number of objects onscreen at any given moment, thus keeping the overhead for event processing and collision detection manageable for a game that boasts over 37,000 enemies instantiated when the game begins.

Beyond that the game becomes a grand adventure of discovery. I particularly enjoyed how the enemies would change gradually, always keeping my interest by giving me something new to encounter before very long. That observation is from moving always in one general direction toward one of the edges.

I would like to see some gauge of my progress, perhaps a map showing the bubbles cleared, or the number of bubbles assimilated or within the size of my ship; just something to look at besides simply moving to yet another bubble. The game is still very nice as it is, and yet it would benefit from some sort of feedback regarding how far I've gone and how much further I have yet to go.

The other thing it needs is mappable keys. Any game that requires keyboard input should allow the player to change the default mapping to one of their own choosing. There are just too many different keyboards in the world not to support this optional feature in games today. (Update: new version now up with mappable keys! Thanks for the quick response, Jared!) That being said, I dislike keyboard controlled games as a rule, and that aspect of this game was my least favorite part of it. Jared tells me he would like to include an option for controlling the ship entirely with the mouse, so perhaps we may get an upgrade soon.

All things considered, an excellent job, Jared. It's a very addictive game and had I not reached some bizarre "function:include" error in the middle of play, I would probably be still playing and not finishing up this review. I am still unsure whether it was just some strange combination of keys I was pressing at the time, or if I actually triggered something in the program. Is there an end to the game? Please find out and report back.

Play Bubble Tanks

Play the entire Bubble Tanks series...

125 Comments

Fun, my hand was cramping though trying to catch bubbles with the keyboard. Would like to see something like the gravity ball in Fizzball, where all the bubbles come to you. I would also like a sense of a map, rather than randomly going back to a ball that was sometimes empty.

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I really liked this one. It was fun, and above all, different. But like the reviewer, I would have liked a progress meter, or a map or something to show what I had done so far, or at least how much I had left to go. I'm sure it will take a while to nab all 37000 enemies, and I'd hate to quit when I was at unknowingly at 36995 or something.

I also didn't like the the keys. I found them difficult to use. If I have to use something other than the arrow keys, I would prefer WASX or IJKM instead of WASD, as I kept moving in the wrong direction. Or maybe that was the point?

In any case, it was a great game. I enjoyed it.

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One further thing I'd like to see is that the colour of the bubbles you shoot is different from the colour of the bubbles your enemies shoot. Especially when both the enemies and yourself are big it can become quite chaotic.

Besides some minor points it's a great game!

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Nice game, but I *really* dislike using the WASD keys for navigation.

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I think it's great that I don't know where I am. I like it.

But please remove the ads! I played for a while now, and I accidently clicked one of the ads, resetting the whole game. At least make the ads open in a new window!

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Couldn't agree with you more, Absalon. The fact that you have to click so much makes the adverts a hazard in themselves. Viewing the swf file on its own is the only way I've managed to make this game properly playable.

That said, I *really* like this game. :)

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Sorry for the triple post.

I just reached the end of the world.
Also, I reached the largest tank upgrade (I think. I've been collecting bubbles for over 20 minutes now, without seeing any upgrades on the tank, what so ever)

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instantiated?

Where did you find that one?

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I had the same problem as Absalon... I'd been playing for about fifteen minutes and enjoying it a lot, even though I'd sometimes accidentally click outside the game and lose my focus... then I must have clicked on some link and BAM, there goes all my progress.

Fix that somehow and this would be a great game.

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I like keyboard controlled games, especially ones that combine with the mouse...

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Nice Game so far, but i just accidently clicked an ad.
that's a little bit frustrating. dont know if i try again.

cheers,
cosie

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This is a terrific game.. no scratch that, this MIGHT be a terrific game once it gets more finished.

The concept and theme are great. Your bubble tank changing slightly with each collected bubble, relaxing music, engaging gameplay.. it all works quite nicely.

But all is not too well. As others have pointed out, the game is surrounded by ads and almost every click outside the game window will automatically close down the game. And this game involves a LOT of clicks so this is bound to happen to almost everyone.

Next - the levels are basically a massive grid of bubbles and you are free to jump from one to another in any way you like. The ones near the center are mostly danger-free, and the further you move out it gets more and more dangerous.

Now this is another problem. If you start moving in the "spiral" form, you will upgrade your tank to the insane level that everything will become too easy. More interesting option is to move in one direction as far as you can, but even you become too powerful too quickly. With no clear goal in the game, it becomes boring and repetitive, and you wonder why you spent so much time upgrading your vessel in the first place.

All in all I'd like to see this concept, but in a much tightly designed game. And give us some oponnents worthy of are mighty vessel, geez...

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This reminds me of Flow, reviewed in JIG quite a few months ago. I think the dynamics would be better if it used the same controls: mouse to move and orient the tank (and spacebar to fire for example).

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obmij486 March 22, 2007 9:55 AM

These ads really have to go, after 3 restarts I'm almost ready to quit.
Almost.
Otherwise I love it, and the music is fresh and relaxing for a schmup.

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The game definitely needs some tweeks here and there. The guns on the tank require something of a limit break as at the moment they shoot as fast as the mouse can be clicked.

Other than that losing the ads would improve the look quite a lot, and could possible use some 'flow' type bosses.

Still I do like it it's a great game :)!

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Well, this was a pretty fun game, but the neverending aspect of it was a little too neverending for me. No progress, no idea if there really even is an end in sight. I just quit after a while.

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Sun Dragon March 22, 2007 11:57 AM

Nice game and all but it seems to have no real point, where is the end? Is it not over till every single one of the enemys is dead? And if that is the case what happens at the end? Just a little screen that says woo... you won... Hours of mind numbing playing for a you won screen?

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amazing game...

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Euko Kyone March 22, 2007 1:01 PM

Is there any other tank form past the shield? or is the shield the final upgrade?

This game is very addicting and great overall.

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I agree, very well done and very addictive.

However, we were just discussing in the IRC channel the absurdity of the massive playing field. Having all the strong enemies to the edges and the weaker ones toward the center creates the potential to get much stronger than the enemies you encounter if you circle back into the center. Also, as you clear out the field, a seemingly endless search awaits you as you attempt to find every last enemy.

These should be avoided within the design.

These issues could potentially be addressed by having the large bubble cells of the playing field 'burst' when cleared sending you zooming to the closest neighbor, and then all remaining bubbles closing in to fill the gap left by the one that burst. This would ensure that the outer edges eventually close in on the player and prevent the eventual hunting for enemies that most likely would ensue with the current design.

Of course, this is all conjecture based solely on observation of what the design of the playing field appears to be. Jared?

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I've played it for a good hour now. I enjoy this game a lot. The first time I played, I basically went straight down until I encountered some kind of worth while resistance, then I bounced around after that. 2nd time I spiraled a bit but it was really easy to lose the center and I started wandering around through empty bubble after empty bubble. And even as I found bigger enemies, they were big enough to knock me down from shield/dual gun to single pea-shooter with no real way to go back and get more life.

So I guess play how you want, I think the idea is to kill some time and not necessarily beat it. But I agree a counter for how man you have left would be neat.

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Oh, and I too would like to know if the dual turret w/shield is as far as you can go?

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Jared just provided a new version, now with...

  • mappable key controls, and

  • floating collectable bubbles that gravitate toward your ship when within range.

Well done, Jared! \o/

Keep those improvements coming. =)

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Hey Guys,

I've been checking in to read all of your comments, I really appreciate them and take them all very seriously! I haven't been able to respond, because I've been getting an updated version out that has mappable keys and that has collectable bubbles gravitate towards your tank.

Now that I've sent that to Jay, I can finally respond!

I guess I'll start out by saying that I've gotten a TON of great feedback. Aside from fixing the key mapping and gravitating bubbles, there's a lot I want to do as far as fixing it so you shoot different color bullets, etc...

I haven't really addressed the similarities to flow thing yet, but I'd have to say "yeah, absolutely." Flow was definitely a large source of inspiration. Not so much in that it has a similiar ambiance with circles and whatnot, but more in taking the research that Jenova Chen made and putting it into practice. I think he's right on the money about allowing users to subconciously choose difficulty. The game was also inspired by other games such as Neon, the recently released Hover Tanks, the Orisinal games, and even a little bit by Mega Man.

The game is very open ended and that was done on purpose. It was sort of an experiment in letting the player define their own victory conditions. Some players only want to see all the enemies. Some want to max out their tanks. Others consider it a victory once they reach the edge of the map (which is why I didn't loop it). And still others, in particular the hardcore crowd, actually strive to kill all 37,000 something enemies in the game. I never expected anyone to try to do it, and I'm suprised and excited that people are.

I think the game is what you want it to be. If you think it's too hard you can just leave the bubble. If you want harder you can rush for the outside. I think a lot of good feedback has come out of this that will hopefully make Bubble Tanks 2 a lot more fun for all the different kinds of players.

There are a TON of ideas out there that people have thrown out. I like the bubble bursting idea. Others include having a build your own tank feature. Some take that further by doing a spore-ish thing of uploading those tanks to a server than downloading them into people's games. Other ideas are to include an ability to hijack tanks or the ability to morph your tank into different forms which utilize different strategies and abilities.

Thanks again to everyone leaving such great feedback! I'll try to respond more frequently now.

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Just out of curiousity, has anyone gotten past the

spider-looking form with a bubble around it?

I think it's the last form, I've been on it for awhile now, but I'm getting farther out and I may just be losing at the same rate as I'm gaining.

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Ah, one more thing.

About the furthest state you can get. Yes, it is indeed when you have dual turrets and a shield. However, it's hard to tell, but as you keep picking up bubbles your shield stores them and grows in intensity.

Future expansions/sequels will have many more states, weapons, enemies, etc...

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Wow, I really like this game! I'm glad improvements are being made. :]

I'll also agree with people about having some kind of progress meter.

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ARGH! a very fun game but i left it after a while as i felt it got a bit samey after the while. Like it how you get to "choose the goal". Also i think i started devealoping RSI! (repeatative strain injury)

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Hey, Jared, good game. The progression of the enemies is very interesting.

How big is the map? I spiraled around the beginning area until I was maxxed out, then I just started heading "north". I'm probably 32 bubbles away from the starting point, and the enemies I'm fighting at that point are HUGE. How much further is there? :-)

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bankshot March 22, 2007 4:22 PM

One quick way to address the "where are the rest of the enemies?" issue would be to simply add a pointer towards the nearest enemy. It would be distracting to have on at all times, so perhaps an arrow that appears once all local enemies have been dealt with?

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Oh god, so addictive. I think I'm maxed out on my tank. I was wondering if it's possible to kill the tanks with red auras around them. They maimed me!

Also, my only complaint is that sometimes the controls wont move in a certain direction and I am thrown from the current bubble, and when I go back, the bubbles I was collecting are gone :(

I dont mind so much that there is no goal. This really is a soothing, casual little shooter game :)

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Great game, few suggestions though.

1)More upgrades: I finish upgrading the ship before I can even get to the edge of the map with the three variables already in place, (fast shot, triple shot, and big shot) you can creat alot more upgrades, maybe make the bubbles save up and have it customizable, or build your own ship with bubbles? Maybe thats a different game haha. Maybe its your next game :P

2) Noise spam: when collecting 5+ bubbles at a time the bubble pings bascially spam your ears and it is not very pleasant. Maybe limit the sound to playing 2 or 3 at a time?

All in all great game!

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DireBaka March 22, 2007 5:16 PM

A couple of things that I would like to see changed.

1) The sound that it makes when you get a bubble gets very painful when you collect about 20 in a short period of time. I like hearing all the little sounds though, so either have a maximum number of the sound files playing at once, or restart the sound every time you pick up a bubble. I'm not a game designer so I never messed with playing sound files, so do what you think is right.

2) Constantly clicking gets old quick. Just holding down the mouse button not only reduces the amount of movement I have to make while playing (more control for aim), but it also allows the limitation on the speed you can fire your weapon. As it was I could spam the mouse button and get a ton of shots off at once.

I did enjoy the game while I played it. Always wanting to get to the next form. Sadly there weren't too many forms but you already commented on that.

Thanks for an enjoyable game, hope to see it improve.

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well, this seems to be an easy relaxing game so long as you level up on the weak enemies early on. I think I hit the edge of the world, because it keeps telling me

"you have reached the end of the world! Nothing out here, go back!

but I keep going.

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Yay for making the bubbles come towards you, much nicer to play.

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great game, just one little quibble

after going in a straight line toward the edge, i found myself pretty upgraded, but then got to a major bubble and was decimated
this made me have to go all the way back and try to figure out about where i started. a map, which i think was suggested, would have been a great element to add.

other than that, very enjoyable game, and i didn't seem to have much trouble with the WASD controls.

(first post, by the way. long time visitor. great job everyone at jig.)

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I would pay money to be able to download and play this game on my Wii. The analog joystick would be SOOO much better at moving around the screen, and using the Wiimote to blast tanks would be very satisfying.

Has anyone tried playing this through the Opera browser? Does it work?

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Geoff - from the appearance of the menus it looks like Jared used at least Flash 8 with its support for filters, therefore at present the game will not run in the Wii Opera browser (Flash 7 max)

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Username March 22, 2007 8:11 PM

I really enjoyed the game, but I thought it was too easy, even when I went straight to the edge of the map. For example, by the final form, kamikazeing and sitting on top of the enemy bubble tanks is actually a pretty successful method. Maybe you could add difficulty settings where killed enemies give less collectable bubbles.

My favorite part of the game is when you have the first upgrade with the machine bubble gun. The big bubbler was kind of boring because it traveled so slow, but that is more of a personal taste, and its slow speed was probably necessary for balance. (Another reason customizing tanks would be great, although that is a feature that would probably take a lot of time to make)

p.s. fullscreen version plz

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Trogdor248 March 22, 2007 11:12 PM

A very surprisingly relaxing and satisfying game for a shooter, I love it.

May I suggest changing the appearance of the fired shots from those of the enemy's? Just changing color or pattern will do, anything to help identify friendly fire from foe. While playing I used a circle-and-fire strategy and at some times, especially when upgraded to the heavy, slow moving tank, I've found that I'll circle to the other side of the bubble before my shots get there, and it's sometimes difficult to keep track of which oncoming shots are mine when the enemy tanks are sending their own barrage across the bubble.

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In general, I love games with a growth element to them, especially flOw-esque games where the growth is visible and in discreet units. This one caught my interest immediately because of its opened ended quality to the growth aspect.

Also, the keyboard aspect was natural for me, as an all mouse control scheme would have been a bit difficult to control.

That being said, I'd like to suggest a way to exit back out to menu without having to close the browser. Although there may very well be the option and I haven't found it yet.

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This game is quite pleasant and enjoyable. However, I've been having that same problem with ads as some of the other folks. If they just opened in a new window, all would be right, again, with the world.

The bubble world.

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Btw, must EVERY bubble have Armor games logo?

I think it would be less irritating and more ad-effective if it was an occasional thing.

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Played it yesterday then came back today and is just blank where the game is. Is this an individual problem for me or is the game being updated or something

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This is really an excellent game. I see more and more of this games popping up. Basic, but very elegant graphics, simple gameplay, but with 'fresh' ideas and simple, but clear and pretty good sound effects. Just my 2 cents ;)

@Username
You can get it fullscreen by opening the SWF file directly and using F11 in your browser to go fullscreen. Plays much better indeed. No guarantee that the URL above will stay the same forever of course.

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I agree with everyone who has said that they would like to see more upgrades to the ship. After a while I got bored with the ship with the large gun and the smaller gun. That said, I would also like to see a counter showing how many bubbles are needed before the next upgrade, and a counter showing what form out of how many my tank is. I kept wandering around killing things not knowing if my tank was fully upgraded or not.

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Its a good game, but it needs a little more. Some kind of map would be very helpful, and so would some kind of displays showing how many more bubbles you need, and how upgraded your tank is. I just went straight the whole time, and It never was a challenge at all. I never got sent back a bubble or anything, and once I got the biggest tank I could destroy anything very easily. The game should probably be a little harder, and maybe have some way of showing what bubbles you have already been to, or some way to stop you from going back to them.

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Ahhhhhh.
Much, MUCH better than (for example) Flatland. Man, that game was boring.

I'm still pining for a game where you can choose where to put your hard-earned bubbles/blocks/ship units.

Does anyone else find it wierd that this game captures the idea of "grow" much better than many of the entries in the actual competition?

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Very addictive game. Like it a lot. And all improvments towards a better gameplay are already mentioned. Looking forward to the new release.

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Very nice game, and very reminiciant of the "fl0w" theory which was earlier mentioned. I think the game would be even better if your bubbles were stored as points that you could spend on additional shields, weapons, ect.

But I'm quite happy with the game the way it is (=

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one minor detail that i think would make the game seem just a bit more polished would be to make the arrow dissapear from your mouse and replace it with something more germane to the bubble world. perhaps a little yellow circle, such as the one that appears when you move to a new bubble.

other than that and some of the suggestions of others, this seems very good :)

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How do you know when your 'craft' is fully upgraded? I've been playing for a while, and my 'craft' doesn't seem to change anymore.

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Generally I like the game, and most of my gripes have been raised by other people. But my biggest gripe is that most of the time I end up destroying the enemies while they're still offscreen, so the gameplay ends up being kind of visually boring. Maybe the viewpoort could be large enough to show a whole bubble field?

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AaronzDad March 24, 2007 1:56 PM

Well Jared I'll have to agree with most of the posts here. This is really a terrific start to a game that just needs a few small tweaks - many of which have already been mentioned here.

1. The bubble bursting when all the enemies are destroyed in it is a terrific suggestion. The only caution I'd have is make sure it bursts AFTER you leave it. Some of us use the empty bubbles to hold our ship for a while when we have to go do other things... say Real World stuff? I know, the RW keeps getting in the way of my gaming.

2. Make the game a little harder at the start. Put in a few more shooting enemies perhaps a little closer to the center of the bubble mass. Too hard is irritating, too easy is boring.

3. MORE UPGRADES. :) The triplet shooting stage is the best one and it's earlier in the game. Just a few ideas (which I'm sure you've had already or heard before)
- Make the big bubbles go faster and faster as you increase in strength
- Add extra shooting ports on the ship so we can start shooting doubles then triples again
- Add an angled turret to the ship so we're shooting a spray pattern eventually
- Bring the machine-gun burst back so we're shooting two or three rounds each mouse click again
- Increase the gravitational pull of the ship so the captured bubbles zoom in faster and faster thus leaving the player free to concentrate more and more on shooting enemies
- Make the ship smaller and denser thus harder for the enemy to hit

Naturally this could all apply to the "build your own" concept as well.

4. An "Enemies Remaining" counter isn't needed but would be really handy.

5. Changing the color of the enemies shots vs. our shots would eliminate some confusion.

6. Stronger enemies toward the outer limits. Bigger and badder bad guys make life more fun. :)

7. As Garrett mentioned - Changing the pointer, or making several optional styles, would be kinda cool.

8. I for one happen to LIKE the cacophony of pings when I collect a bushel of bubbles. It gives me audio affirmation that I'm kicking some serious butt. Perhaps an optional ping "limiter" for those who disagree with my tastes?

9. A gradual change in the sector bubbles' appearance to let us know we're getting closer to the edges and the stronger enemies. Perhaps a gradual change in color of the mist around the edges or a thickening of the borders? Or maybe less mist in the center of the field and let it thicken as we move toward the edges.

10. I think not being able to see the entire sector you're in is a good thing rather than a problem. If I can see the whole bubble it would make it too easy, like shooting ducks in a barrel.

You know you have a hit on your hands when you get this many people with this many different ideas and comments on your game.

I look forward to seeing what you do with this addictive waste of my time.

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Edmundo Bustani March 24, 2007 5:50 PM

Is there an ending for this game?

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Hey, this is a great game, my suggestion (there have already been lots of good ones) is an optional change in the keyboard control such that 'W' moves you in the direction the turrets face, 's' goes backwards from there and 'a' and 'd' pan from side to side. I think it's usually called 'relative movement'.
Thanks for this game, we eagerly await its sequel.

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I have questions:
1) Was the ship with

a turrets for big "bullets" and one for little "bullets" with a shield and four medium sized bubbles on each side with two main chambers

the last ship,
2)also can you give me the dimentions of the arena and the distance from the center

Otherwise its a great game, and I think some other comments are definately deserving of attention (diff colored "bullets", counters far everything, burstable bubbles ect.) Ive completed all the bubbles in 3 rows so far, but have to do homework so, New Game!

GREAT GAME, similar to flOw (good thing, FlOw was good)

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NOOO!............ after posting that comment on a clear bubble, after a while I converted back to the simple bubble form!

Please don't have a time limi if standing still, I hate having time limits!
(you can tell I love your game by how sad I am)

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I also thought of an idea for a shield.

To do this you need a "bank account", a bit of each bubble goess to the account, and you can save up for parts.
Instead of the shield being part of the design, you could buy shields so you couldn't get hurt (still colect bubbles though) they could supply weak sheilds (cheap) strong shields and super shields.
This would make the shield more of a shield, because if it's part of the design, then losing it is like downgrading.
If you could also buy cannons (tri shot, machine, big, ect.), and shape your ship, and buy upgrades (2x speed, rapid fire for anything, side cannons) that would be cool
And like already said, make it so you can hold the mouse button down, this would cause less lag and mouse spam for us with slow comps

Thanx and great game!

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The shields could either disapear after damage is dealt or after time.
Also you could make explosives, showers of tiny bubbles (low single damage, but in groups.....), and mabe evenbubbles like the things in asteroids (split up on collision and change directions)

you can tell I love this game (I had the last 3 comments)

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hey, just a thought jared,
maybe you could make it so you could collect pieces to add to your bubble "garage", sort of like in kingdom hearts 1 with the .. gummie pieces i think they were called
so like when you kill a large enemy, it will drop several bubbles for bubble health and a bubble to customize your ship with, scratch that, i think it would be better if the bubbles will act as bubble "points" and if you collect enough bubbles you can create a certain part for your bubble tank, such as a new weapon, shield, or maybe some kind of new propulsion.
just something to think about
also,
i attempted to count the bubble field, but soon learned i approached it all wrong, maybe ill re attempt, at which point, ill let you know the results.. i do know however horizontally the field has more than than 26 bubbles presuming the field is a square. :)

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Well, I just used the pea shooter ship and just kept going DOWN from the "middle" bubble. My count is 40/41 (I'm unsure, cause enemies kicking me out of the bubble made me mess up count) before I got the "end of the world" message.

Assuming 41 (and a perfect square), that means that there are 39 bubbles between middle and edge (the middle being the 40th bubble). So 39*2+1=79 bubbles along the middle. So, if my math is correct, we got ourselves a 79*79 bubble field, or 6241 bubbles to go through. Ouch.

The other thing, though, is that the enemies are actually a bit weaker as you get close to the edge... I've been in bubbles where you only have the beginner bubbles wandering around, or only a few cluster bubbles. Course, that's not completely true (the worst bubble for my pea shooter wasn't actually a big huge boss, it was a ton of duel shooters, a few seekers, and a dock with a few launched fighters... yeah...)

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I think the game ends when you defeat all of the enemies, but I'm not sure since I haven't been able to do it yet. The glowing shield is the biggest upgrade and can withstand hits from nearly every attack, and its power increases each time you collect more bubbles. So basically, the shield's power is limitless.

I agree with the author though, I need some high score achievement to keep me motivated enough to finish them all.

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Great game truth in all.
I love the fact how your ship becomes bigger and badder as you collect those bubbles but I got a couple suggestions.

1. Rapid Fire, that is shooting is just holding down the mouse button.

2. Multi-player? Perhaps we can have 3 people together fighting it out against each other or against the 37k of enemies?

3. Different types of ships we can make, perhaps a more sleak fast moving and rapid firing ship vs the giant massive behemoth?

4. More weapons! We see how some ships get seeker bubbles but all we get when maxed out is our original mini-bubble gun and those massive red balls of death.

5. Stats. People have said it already but we really need stats. Like perhaps have how many bubbles we have collected, and perhaps that could be used in a scoring system? It'd also be neat if there was a kind of Bubbleopedia which kinda showed us the baddies we've popped and their names (if they have any) and how many times we've killed them?

6. Bosses! I know I know we meet up with some really crazy enemies but how about every couple bubblefields we come face to face with a big, tough as hell, glowing, boss bubble?

7. Saving! I know atm there is no need to save since it's quite simple to raise yourself up to Max but perhaps in the future?

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The page is just blank for me, even in Internet Explorer. Any ideas on the problem?

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Kat - if the page is blank, then perhaps you need to update (or reinstall) your Flash player. Use the link in the sidebar "Get Flash" to get the latest version.

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if its blank, he cant read your comment jay

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I meant the page with the game is blank. (I'm also female, for the record. ;) )

I have Flash 8 and attempted to download 9.0, but no download dialog box ever pops up.

My TypeKey thing is also not working, it signs me out when I try to post, so my apologies for not using that.

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If you go to the Adobe page and click on the download button, your computer should download the file. Check your desktop (assuming you're on a PC) for the file install_flash_player.exe

If you're not seeing the dialog to save the file, perhaps you have security set too high for your browser to even consider it?

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what does every one elses bubble tank look like because i dont know how much further i have to go

HI

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cool game!!! jay, i wanted to ask, are you going to update this game? like v1.3? i think you should add more weapons and types of bubble tanks.

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really liked the game. if i had to pick fault i'd say it gets easy once you have the shield, you can just plough into the big enemies and the bubbles you get always seem to replenish what you have lost.

i found myself trying to move forwards by pressing 'w' key a lot though. it seamt naturally for me, so i personally found the controls a bit off at times.

still love it though :]

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Love it! It's a lot of fun and my hand hurts like hell. :)

First time I played, I got destroyed repeatedly. I went out too far too fast. Then I found myself unable to power up fast enough to get back into the swing of things. This is a problem.. If you screw it up too badly, it becomes unable to play without resetting.

Second time, I did the spiral for about 3 or 4 rounds, and got up to the shield (max). Then I just headed down and to the bottom right corner of the world.

So, the few problems I see:

- The level of enemy difficulty is a very sharp turn. They go from very easy to extraordinarily difficult in only like 2 or 3 bubbles. It needs a bit more middle ground, I think.

-The outside layer presents no difficulties at all to a fully maxed out player, with the exception of the biggest baddest guy. The one who shoots the bigger red ball than you can and also fires off seekers and normal shots at the same time. He takes a ton of rapid fire action with the best upgrade. However, he's the *only* one where you actually have to dodge his bullets. For all the rest of the outer layer enemies, you can kamikaze right in and kill them before they have enough time to damage you to where you won't get it all back and more from their own death.

-Games with no defined goals are good. However, it would be nice to keep score of bubbles collected as well as to have an idea of the your own upgrade status, so you know how far you are from the next major upgrade.

-The playing area is *way* too small. I had to open the shockwave file in a window by itself and stretch the area out to give me a little more horizontal space to see and shoot. Really, let us see the whole bubble. That's one of the most annoying things I found about Flow as well. Too much happening offscreen, too much hunting around to really finish an area.

Still, a lot of fun. Could be a lot of fun on the Wii too. :)

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Maybe, for some humor there could be a bubble man inside?

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Awesome game, I reached the end of the world on my first try though

Very easy, could use some improvements

as a VB6 programmer I have an idea for you :P

Possibly make the bubbles-autogenerate depending on the players "bubblescore" (you get 1 point for each of the bubbles you collect) so it could go on forever, and have the enemies just use a dynamic bubble-making thing so they can have infinite bubbles (so can you)

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Khrisper April 3, 2007 4:26 AM

Now this game is really good. It made it into my Jig Favourites :) Just a suggestion:
A sense of where being. Now in the top left corner of the playing screen it could have co-ordinates. The very first bubble you spawn in should be (0,0) as it should say in top left. Now every time you go right (say 3 bubbles to the right it should say the following: (3,0). Now if we decide that, hey we want to go up 2 bubbles then the out come would be as follows: (3,2). I think that this would be a good way to find out your location.
In conjunction to this i would like to see a page where you could click 'Bubble Map' and it would display every bubble co-ordinate up to the comment about no more, turn back. The bubbles that have had the enemies eliminated should change the co-ordinates to an orange - yellowy - gold colour (assuming the colour is dark blue to begin with) and say a bubble looking thing around the co-ordinate with the player inside.
Please take time to review this as it I am sure everyone would find it useful, hey; I bet some people want to kill the some what great number of enemies!
If the out come is possible then it will be interesting to see what you have come up with… Good luck if you try to make the suggestion possible!

Happy Gaming Khrisper

'*•.¸(*•.¸;¸;¸.•*')¸.•*'
«::•°( | .¸.•*(¸.•*';¸;`*•.¸)`*•.

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Sintanan April 5, 2007 6:13 AM

I won't take up much of your time, so besides the standard "Good job!" I'll leave it at that.

As for suggestions. Why not hit the middle ground with all these comments on upgrades and do something where you collect the bubbles for upgrading points, and you can attach new gadgets/weapons to the different bubbles you use to make up the body. Say, by having small, medium, and large blue bubbles to build off of.

This allows for customization of your look, and customization of your combat style. (I know I'd end up aiming for some sort of demon-spider look that sprays mass bullets.)

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I really wish there was some kind of save place so once you turn it off you have to start all over. PLEASE make a save thingy.

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Hey, this is a great game so far and i find it highly addictive. I think you should definitely, as people have already said put some sort of shop to buy things.

The graphics, I think, are ok, nice and simple.

I would like to ask you why cant you get to be really big like the guys with a dock, little bullets and big bullets.

I know this may be a prototype but i think you really have something catching on here. I have shown it to all my friends now they are playing it too :P. I was so dissapointed that i couldnt get an upgrade after playing 25 minutes in the last stage :(.

PLEASE UPDATE SOON! i will be right on the game then :P.
Could you put it on a site asap and put us all out of our misery!
(You can tell how addicted i am)

Overall one of the best internet games i have ever played, look forward to your next update

THANKS!

Stan

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Hey its Stan again people, does anyone know when the next version is coming out please?

Thanks Stan

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Trident Crash April 9, 2007 7:08 PM

is the tank with one small bullet and 1 LARGE bullet the last tank? ive been play for like 30 mins with this tank and its shown no signs of up grading...

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Khrisper April 10, 2007 6:50 AM

At the moment the last tank is:

The one with the sheild around it.

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Firstly, great game. Certainly the first combat game i've seen that is peaceful and calming. Of course there is always room for expansion, and I think the ideas like customisable tanks or choice of upgrades (since I rate speed highly always), pointers to the nearest enemies in or out of the bubble, etc are all good.

I have another idea that may help too though. a few people have noted that they accidently slipped out of the bubble and anything not collected then disappears...I have a couple of ideas on that basis:

First: what happens to these bubbles? They don't turn back into enemies, do they merge into the bubblefield? Shouldn't bubbles naturally "pop" or merge with time too? Making a limit on how long you have to collect the bubbles would be a great way of imposing a difficulty setting, along with controlling the number of bubble enemies release.

Secondly, why not make it harder to leave a bubble? as you approach the edges of the bubble there is some resistance trying to keep you in the bubble so you can't slip out by accident but have to hold in that direction to leave.

I look forward to the sequel when you get time to make it.

-Trit

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Bert van der Cruysse April 11, 2007 4:02 PM

Very original and addicting game
I can't wait for version 2 :D

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Anonymous April 17, 2007 3:00 AM

do it ever ends?

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Kimberly April 19, 2007 9:15 PM

This game is amazing! I must admit, I'm one of those crazy people who is trying to kill all 37,xxx enemies!

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Kimberly April 19, 2007 9:55 PM

I know I just posted something, but I realized that I had a question. Those tanks surrounded by a red shield; I hear a grinding noise or something when I'm covering them. Am I doing damage to them just by covering them?

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Kimberley - they're doing damage to you, not you to them!

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Late to the party as usual. This game looks fun but I am *so* right-handed that I cannot play games that require one to do coordinated things with both hands. If all the left hand has to do is tap on the space bar to shoot, or maybe choose between two different keys, I can handle it. But steering and firing with the right hand (mouse) and navigating with the left (keyboard) is too much for me. I can't mouse with the left hand either - I'm just too right-handed for this game!

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does anybody know if there is a cheat for the last tank upgrade I really need it

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I think a better keyboard control system would be "A=clockwise, D=counterclockwise, W=inward, S=outward" that way you could move all you want without having to worry about accidentally leaving the bubble, and undoing some of your progress

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ElleXuzZ June 17, 2007 7:48 PM

oh oh oh i got a great idea:
make a rpg out of it with save funktion
best would be with save and multiplayer funktion
maybe that you start in a newbie area (maybe alone) and then get into big world
with 2 or 3 races and their areas :D
different types of ships with different focuses (like 1 stron, 1 fast, 1 with many weapons)
trade system and omg i want a game big like WoW and in 3d like this one i LOVE IT :S

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The website says Bubble Tanks 2 is supposed to be release late May or early June.. but ain't it July now?

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jacs#101 July 18, 2007 11:58 PM

i wish you could upgrade into the big base tank thing that shoots out everything.

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I think a great addition would be something like multiple modes.

One like this to keep undefined goals and let the user set their own goals.

One with a counter and arrow for people who want to eliminate all 37,000-ish enemies.

One with the popping bubbles to make sure that eventually every bubble is emptied (maybe along with the above mode).

And maybe a few more I can't think of.

That way you really aren't "controlling" the player, since they can choose modes.

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One of the things I find annoying is that there are all these ads along the edge of the game. With all the clicking around the screen i often hit one by mistake and thus leave the game without wanting to. A "full screen" button or one that opens another window would be nice. Another option would be to allow us to download the game so I could be free from all the adverts. If they have to be shown they could appear on the load screen.
Also a pause button (that turns of the sound while paused) since my girlfriend often calls me while i'm playing. These are the two ways my game usually ends.

Another thing that could be done is to make different kinds of bubbles to pick up - leading to different power-ups. Or at least something that can enable you to choose how your tank should expand. Some possibilities for different power-ups could be:

Number of small red bubbles fired
Upgrading from small red bubbles to big red bubbles
Enabling the big bubbles to be slightly homing
Shields
Durability (how many bubbles you loose by being hit)
Size (reducing how much space you take up)
Shooting additional red bubbles sideways (or in random directions?

Or the ordinary bubbles could work the way they do already - and then some special power-up bubbles enabling you to buy the options above. Once bought the upgrades could increase in effect as the tank grows.

Or perhaps allowing us to choose different classes of bubbles when starting the game. This could determine how our bubble will turn out in the end. They could for instance be based on the different classes of enemies encountered in the game.

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frankie July 27, 2007 5:42 PM

i have a super cheat that will beat you the game

ok once you get the shield, DONT KILL ANYTHING. just simply press alt4 and your shield never gets hurt and you cant die!!!!

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there is a form after the one with the sheild! i played for about 7 hours and got a form with 2 big balls and a different shape!

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I think i have a fantastic idea on making Bubble tanks an mmorpg/mmofps.

when you login to the game you will have 3 choices on where to go.

Player verses Environment (PvE)
Player verses Player (PvP)
Guild Wars

I will explain them in detail.

PLAYER VERSES ENVIRONMENT
Your players are computer controlled just like bubble tanks 1. However, When enemies are attacked they will drop a constant rate of bubbles depending on the power of your weapon. When you collect bubbles parts will not be automatically added to your craft. Instead bubbles will go into your bubble count. When your craft is attacked you will lose bubbles from your bubble count so the more bubbles you have in your bubble count the longer you will stay alive, the rate of bubble loss is dependant on the enemies weapon. However, the player has the option of putting bubbles into a bank. When bubbles are in the bank, enemies will not be able to touch them. Although, this means that the player will have less bubbles in his/her bubble count which means that they will have less endurance.
Bubbles found can be spent at a shop which sells sheilds, weapons and propultion systems.

PLAYER VERSES PLAYER
the name says it all! player verses player lets you battle against people all over the world.
When you start player verses player you will enter in a lobby (much like the lobby in gunbound, rakion)you will only be allowed to play against people of around your networth (your networth is the total value of your parts, your total bubble count and the contents of your bank)
The lobby in pvp lets you join in battle grounds set up by other players or yourself. Battle rules are selected by the creater of the battle ground, as default the winner of the match will receive 5% of the other players total net worth however the % can be changed by the creater. When you battle another player your crafts "health" will be determined by hitpoints rather than bubble count. Your hitpoint will be a third of your total networth. The weapons you bought in PvE will still be used in PvP.

GUILD WARS
You can create or join a guild. Creating a guild will cost nothing but you must have at least 5 players to compete. You can invite other players in your guild while in the PVP lobby.
The guild war combat system is much the same as PvP. However instead of 1v1 matches entire guilds will compete each other at the same time on a grid of bubbles determined on the size of the guild. Your guild can only compete against guilds that have the same guild networth as you (guildnetworth is the total of all guild members networth)
When a player kills an enemy in guild wars they will receive a default of 2% of his/her networth. When a guild war is over (when all players of a guild are killed or when the guild leader forfeits) members of the victorious guild will share 8% of the defeated guilds networth. The distrubution of networth is determined by how much damage you did to the oposing guild.

Other notes
-There is no freindly fire in guild wars
-you and your guildmates bullets appear blue, enemies bullets will appear red
-A simple chat system should be available to be used in the PvP lobby, Guild war lobby, Pvp battle ground and guild wargrounds.

Thankyou for making this excellent game jarred. Please take note of this post.

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Anonymous August 9, 2007 2:47 PM

when you get to the end of the world is there anything out there?

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This game reminds me of fl0w, with "feeding" levels (bubbles that have armless tanks in them) and enemy levels (bubbles that have armed tanks)

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i think that there should be some reward for going past the end of the world... say, a big BIG boss, and then you can unlock things, like extra upgrades, or saving functions. You know, like in tales of symphonia (and other games). Now THAT would be interesting.

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i think you need to make this game multiplayer like online multiplayer like you againts someone else around the world with chat and teams and take color choice

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I have some concepts for a Bubble Tanks v2.

*Some form of choice in your upgrades (So sorry, I can't accept that super blaster, I'm upgrading the triple fire!)

*No enemy-only upgrades like the damage shields.

*Specific types of upgrade bubbles (weapon bubbles, body bubbles, core bubbles...)

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omg! there is a thing after the O and o and sheild!

its enimie seeking red guys!

u need 17884 bubbles to get it

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can u put the screen shot?

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this game is hard

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Ah yeah manaphayy I saw that too, the red ring things?

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GREAT GAME!
now i just had an idea, what if the bubbles you collect are 'money' o upgrade in power, seeking abillity, defense, speed, control and fire rate? just thinking...

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Skull Face72 March 28, 2008 6:11 PM

Here's a cool idea:

Give Bubble Tanks 2 a zeta flow-like 'tank-creator'
where not only can you make tanks for you to be but enemy tanks, too! Then you can go into 'creations mode' where you can choose from one of the tanks you made to be you and a maximum 5 tanks you made to be enemies. ^_^

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I really wish that in the second version, you could press some key (possibly spacebar) and an overview map would come out, showing all the bubblefields and what enemies are in there, or if that bubble was already done.

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Bubbledude May 30, 2008 2:40 AM

Keep going right! You will encounter the boss after a while :D

^^

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i played this game 10 minutes and i think i reached the final form of the bubble
here you go:

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Anonymous June 25, 2008 6:48 PM

I don't know what you guys are complaining about. Ive nere had any problems with WASD or adds. And combineing the keyboard make the controls simple. How would you aim with just a mouse?

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Anonymous July 4, 2008 7:00 PM

I got to the last tank upgrade in fifteen minutes. However, I've tried and tried, but can not beat this game. It is very adicting, though.

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Anonymous July 5, 2008 1:11 AM

The cheat Alt4 does not work, at least, not on my computer.

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It's not a cheat. He's trying to trick you.

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The screen should be the size of a bubble.
The beginning tanks are firing too accurately.
There is too much fire that is unavoidable in the early stages.
It looked like a fun game, but ended up being annoying.
It is still a good concept, but it does not draw me in during gameplay.

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Dunno if anyones said this yet, but there is an end to bubble tanks 2, ill post a screenshot link here maybe sometime. after you level up 3 or 4 times you fight this huge boss dude, and when you kill him, it says you can return to the main menu, or you can continue playing in invincible mode. i continued playing in invincible mode, and left it going down for like an hour. the game map never ends, but the enemies cease to get harder after a while. also there is a map. press p to pause and click map. the farther away from the home bubble you get, the stronger the enemies get, so the best strategy is to go in a spiral around the home bubble, killing all the enemies and getting all the bubbles as you go.

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Have I missed something? After many hours of playing, I reached a point in upgrades where I encountered a huge snake/serpent like opponent. I didn't notice that anyone else commented about a snake/serpent. Maybe I just missed it?

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I just got a crazy idea: multiplayer, I don't know if this has been mention before. I just want to share my idea =)

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Anonymous January 17, 2009 4:05 AM

Bubble Tanks is a very laid back enjoyable game.

[Edit by Kayleigh]

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spoiler June 6, 2010 4:39 PM

in the end of the game you have to fight "the ultimate adversary" and than you get the option to continue in invincible mode

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Btw epic game without seeming that epic, and I know a lot of people railed on how the w-button makes the tank go up rather than forward, but personally I love that about it and think there should be more games like that.

And I considered attempting to try and kill all whatevermany enemies this time around but then i remembered how long it takes just to fight all the way from one end to the other and i have my own programming things to do =P

Also, people were suggesting to make all these additions
and though many of them seem pretty cool, I think that would just detract from the original purpose of not making it too complicated
but that also means that the 37,000 or watever enemies are sorta extraneous
Im going to go try bubble tanks two now =P
but please keep making good games like these

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