https://shoegames.itch.io/tankieofficial

My antivirus tripped out of it being a Win32/Sabsik.TE.A!ml. Is this a false positive? I tried to look the game up on the Itch.io client on my desktop and nothing appeared. But I was able to add it to my collection. I've never used Itch.io so I'm unsure on what to look for. It triggered my windows defender instantly after I tried to open it with RAR.

False positives happen all the time, so it's hard to say. You might want to let the creators know. Server-side scan never ran, so it could go either way.

very probably  yes. it is very , very likely malware.

it has all the red flags. like password protected rar.

there is this thread about psa with discord  and try my game. all the games lately have the tank theme as well.

(the password protection is only there to prevent automatic scanning. absolutely NO legit dev will host a password protected archive on itch directly. there is absolutely no reason for this. not with the passwort written in the description or given in discord to "try" a game. you might have early access and beta testers and such, but this is done with unlisted games or game download keys    and not with protected archives.)