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Tankaar reached another milestone this Sunday, 8th August, 2010. After another two months of development (read sleepless nights and head banging with code) we finally released Tankaar 10.08. The previous version Tankaar 10.06 has been disabled completely and new one is available for download. There is something which makes this version special which I would like to share in this blog.

People often question why there are so few software product companies in India. The answer is obvious if they analyze how software industry began here. There is a stark difference between how computer software started in US and how it started in India. In its home ground United States it all started with few university grads trying to tinker with huge computing machines. After passing out from college or even dropping out, they brought these electronic gadgets in their garage and tried to work with them. It began with want to experiment with these new found toys and building something useful out of them. Some of them succeeded others failed. But they ended up giving their society a culture where software was something with which you can play, you can be creative and you can create something useful that can take you to the top. Their journey started from university labs to garage startups and reached corporate offices.

Computer games are very much like movies. They need themes which can create awe, drive their users to world of fantasy and make them do things which one cannot do in real world. No wonder games borrow their theme from legends, mythology, stories, fiction novels, sci-fi and all those fantasies which we love to read and listen. They make us Aladdin and we can control Genie, they make us fight like a Samurai, they make us knight and we kill the dragon. These are only few daring feats; we accomplish many more through these games. They are a form of entertainment which involves us, unlike movies where we are only spectator.

But are we not missing something. Don’t we Indians feel that gap, if not the entire world? Where are great warriors (“Yodhas” as we call them)? Why are there no great archers (“Dhanurdhars” of Indian Mythology)? Aren’t we missing our divine arrows (Astras) and our strategic army placements (“Vyhoos”, “Chakra Vyhoo” was one of them). As a fact all this is missing and much more. Indian Mythology is so huge that a single game will be insufficient to cover all these fancies. Of course there are games in market with themes of Indian Mythology, but number is just too small. So that means there is a huge arena open for players to come out and experiment with mythology and legend of India.

People often ask us why we are calling our weapons as "astras" and why we are giving the names from Sanskrit literature rather than using English which is much more popular among internet community. We always tell them that Tankaar is all about astras (or weapons) and when we develop a astra we have to name it. Since the game borrows theme heavily from Indian Mythology, we fall short of English vocabulary for naming these astras. Names need to be short but still be different. It would be incorrect to say that English lacks variety or vocabulary. But it definitely lacks extensibility. A language is extensible when it strictly follows its roots. These small words and roots can later be joined like blocks to form longer and complex words. As English became more and more informal it lost touch with the roots and this is where it fails to deliver extensibility.

We all know that "Mother of English" is Latin. All the words we use nowadays have their roots in Latin. But English has become so much detached with Latin roots that very few of us know origin of the English words. When we want to make a custom vocabulary (which is generally required in fiction and games) what we have at our disposal are common words and not the roots. Moreover, English is not scientific enough to well define the "join" (or "Sandhi"as called in Sanskrit) of words. So in the end unless a fiction writer or game theme maker puts a lot of effort in breaking apart the language and then joining pieces together custom vocabulary cannot be developed.

When we came up with the idea of Tankaar, only thing we were certain about was that "its going to be an artillery game". Though numerous artillery games are available today but we wanted Tankaar to be different. We wanted it to be on a platform where one can play it with friends without hassle. This gave rise to a thought process which kept us occupied for few weeks.

Artillery games have a long history. These were among the first games developed for computers. This category of games generally involves two players involved in a combat. The combat weapons are bombs and missiles which are fired by tanks, fighter planes etc, with each player taking control of his or her combat vehicle. The games are usually turn based. The trajectory, power and characteristic of fired artillery makes them a great strategy game.

The most popular games in this category include Worms, Scorched Tanks, Pocket Tanks, Gorillas, Scorched Earth. Obviously the list is long and is not limited to these names only. Even after being so long in fashion the charm of artillery games has still not faded. The huge success of artillery games on IPhone definitely means that artillery games can still capture the attention of a casual game player.

Some of you must be viewing the technology behind Tankaar with awe others may be thinking it just another simple game. I feel that it would be wrong to term Tankaar as a new piece of technology. But definitely it’s not conventional. Basically, it is an integration of few technologies in one entity. This blog is written to give a brief about this integration. Those who are interested in game and not in software and web technologies may skip this blog (though its not entirely a geek stuff). For others (which include those who have requested me to introduce them to technology behind Tankaar) here is some overview which I would like to share.

If you have gone through my previous blogs you may be knowing that we are using XMPP (Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol). Tankaar client communicates with messenger service just like chat clients GTalk, Pidgin, Spark etc. Only difference is that it allows sending game events apart from chat messages. And messenger service sends them to the receiver, just as it sends chat message to your friends. Tankaar uses Java XMPP library "Smack" to communicate with messenger services.

Currently we all are witnessing an entirely new era in computers. This era is marked by surge in applications built solely into the browser. With each passing day startups and web giants are trying their best to centrally manage their applications and give end users a browser interface for use. Owing to vast variety of applications from word processing to gaming available inside the browser users are getting gripped by "no download" syndrome. We all want everything inside our user friendly browser. Downloading an application and updating it gives us headache.

There is nothing wrong with falling in love with browser applications. But hating download-able app just because many useful apps are available online does not seem to be a prudent way to go. You will be missing a whole world of useful and entertaining software if you avoid clicking download button. The capabilities of browser based applications are severely limited. Lets look at the options available for developer while developing an application for browser and for desktop. For desktop there is an endless list of programming languages C, C++, Java, C# and these languages are backed by numerous API's which make work of developer easier. These languages and their APIs have evolved over the years and billions of programming hours have been devoted to make them efficient.

Hello friends,

You have asked me several times whether its completely safe to enter Gmail Id on Tankaar Messenger. Though its well mentioned in our privacy policy that we donot store your messenger service username and password on our server but still some of you have doubts. You sometimes doubt how we retrieve your friend list when you use our messenger etc. I understand this technology is little out of box as compared to gaming sites which use single account, that you create on their sites. But its completely safe. We are not messing up with the protocols of messenger service and neither are we storing any data in plain or encrypted form. What tankaar messenger does is it sends a game event just as you send text to the person. This event (which is in form of a text message) goes via the server of messenger service you are using (generally gmail in your case). If you are still not clear what we do, I have tried to explain this in a diagramatic form. Its a simple thing. Tankaar Messenger is just a messenger client just like GTalk, Pidgin, Yahoo Messenger etc.

Let me explain to you this strange name "Tankaar". This sounds out of box for something this geeky. This name has a strong correlation with the game. If you have played the game then simply explaining the meaning of "tankaar" will be enough. 

"Tankaar" is Sanskrit word that refers to sound of string of bow (called "pratyancha" in Sanskrit). This sound is produced when string of bow is plucked and released. This often happens when arrow is shot from the bow. If you have seen "Mahabharat" you must have heard this word from "Arjun". He often refers to his bow ("Gandeev") and its sound ("Tankaar"). So if you have played the game you will realise why it was the most apt name. And if you haven't, just give it a try, you will get my point.

Hello Friends,

I welcome you all to Tankaar. This is the first formal blog I am writing for the site."Tankaar" is surely a strange name for a website and web application. If you are not sure what it means I have another blog explaining the root of the word and why we chose it. "We" of course means me and Amit who were stupid enough to daydream this web product and put our everything into it, finally making it a reality.