The game lab

Otto's Tank Battle

A 3D tank arena drawn like a ballpoint pen on graph paper. Survive the waves, spend what you earn in the garage, and pick your next battlefield.

Play Otto's Tank Battle

Opens in a new tab. Works on a phone, a tablet, or a laptop.

Built by
Otto, age 11
When
Summer 2026
Kind
Action
Made with
HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Three.js

Otto plays World of Tanks Blitz, and what he wanted was Blitz. Not a tribute to it, the thing itself, made by him. So this one has a garage, a branching upgrade tree, a battlefield picker, and a screen that searches for online players before every match.

There are no online players. He built the searching screen anyway, because Blitz has one and a real game has one. I have thought about that decision more than he has.

Eleven upgrades across five branches, ending in a Twin Cannon that costs six points and fires two shells at once. Get Size II and you are wide enough to drive straight through the trees.

What it taught Otto

  • A game is mostly its menus. The battle was working weeks before the garage felt right.
  • An upgrade tree is a budget. If every branch is affordable, choosing between them stops meaning anything.
  • He found his own bug: at Size II the tank was crushing trees it had not reached yet, because the collision radius grew before the model did.