Hulldown

Hulldown is a 2D, top-down tank game inspired by War Thunder's ground battles. If you've played WT ground battles, a lot of this will feel familiar: tech trees, battle ratings, angling your armour, and a shell going through the one spot that sets off the ammo rack. It plays differently from above, though. It's slower and more about positioning, and a good crest to sit behind is worth more than fast aim.

There are no hit points. When a shell gets through your armour it hits something real inside the tank, like a crewman, the engine, the gun or the ammo. You're knocked out when your crew can't fight any more, or when the rack goes up.

Right now it's you and your team against bots, 10v10. Between battles you research new tanks, level up your crews, fit modifications, and pick up to four tanks to bring into the next fight.

What's in it

• 544 vehicles from eleven nations, from the tanks of the 1930s to today's, in four lines: light, medium, heavy and tank destroyer.
• 28 maps, many of them real battlefields matched to the tanks that fought there, and five modes.
• Up to 16 against 16, against bots. A battle you leave is fought on without you and pays out when it ends.
• A career: tech trees, research, modifications and crews that improve the more you use them. Nothing costs real money.
• Replays of every battle, gamepad support, rebindable keys, and a colourblind palette.

This is a beta. The ratings of the post-war vehicles (rank VI and up) are estimates, and they will move. Your save carries over to every update.

How it plays

• Angle matters. Turn your hull a bit and a shot that would have gone through bounces off.
• Every tank has its own insides, so where you hit it matters. A Panther hit in the side often goes up. A Churchill mostly doesn't.
• You only see what your team has spotted. Woods, hills, buildings and smoke all block sight, and sitting hull down behind a ridge is the best spot in the game.
• You judge range by eye, so the first shot at a far target might land short. Later tanks get rangefinders and thermals.
• If your loader dies you reload slower, and if your commander dies you spot worse

Controls

• Keyboard and mouse: WASD to drive, mouse to aim, left click fires the main gun and right click the machine gun. 1–4 switch ammo, Q smoke, R repair, E rangefinder, F missile, Shift to look further, V x-ray, Tab scoreboard, M map. Every key can be rebound.
• Controller: fully supported. Left stick drives, right stick aims, right trigger fires, left trigger is the machine gun, and the menus work too.

Settings: bot difficulty, colourblind mode, fullscreen or windowed, team colours or real camo, and bigger or smaller on-screen notices.

It's a beta

Everything's playable, but balance is still moving, especially at the top ranks, where the battle ratings are still estimates. There's no multiplayer yet, just bots for now. Co-op is planned, but not full PvP. If you find bugs or have thoughts, please tell me. The version number is bottom left on the main menu.

Windows only for now.

Next up: Update 3, Watch the Skies!, is planned: helicopters, plus anti-aircraft vehicles to deal with them.

Found a bug?

Settings > Report a bug opens the folder with your replays and logs. Attach the newest replay (replays/*.hdr) and logs/godot.log to a comment here. The replay plays the whole battle back exactly, which is how a bug gets fixed.