REXBURG—After recently graduating, BYU-Idaho alumnus Carson Bush has been working on a passion project, making his own multiplayer arcade game.
“I love games,” Bush said. “Not very good at them, but I do love making them. I found a passion for that recently.”
Bush graduated with a degree in electrical engineering, and since late December he has been working on the game on and off. His education and background gave him some of the abilities needed to complete his game, but the project has made him expand his skillset.
“It was doing a lot of stuff that I either didn't know how to do before or wasn't good at,” Bush said. “I had to learn how to pick up CAD and 3-D printing.”
Inspired by a game Bush grew up playing on the Nintendo Wii, he created his game, “Tank Tonk.” Tank Tonk is a 4 player, 2 team vs game. On each team one player controls the movement of the tank and the other controls the direction and firing of the cannon. The team must work together to destroy the opposing team’s tank.
“I have this affinity for technology and I was like, ‘How can I use this to connect other people?’” Bush said. “And arcade machines seemed like a fantastic solution to that.”
The multiplayer aspect of Tank Tonk requires people to come together to play the game and make those connections with one another. Bush plans to move the Tank Tonk arcade cabinet between various locations in Rexburg businesses.
You can keep up to date on the Tank Tonk arcade game by following its Instagram page here, or learn more and find the location tracker on the BushWorks website.