Hi everyone!
I wanted to take a quick moment to introduce myself and share how Zenzizenzic came to be over the past while.
Thank you for the support and coming over to check out Zenzizenzic. I hope you'll like what you see and that you may enjoy the story below!
Cheers,
Ruud Koorevaar - developer of Zenzizenzic
I didn't know a damn thing
Without any practical knowledge on game design and development except for what was garnered over the course of 15 to 20 or so years of playing games, I set out to build a game myself. I didn't know a damn thing.
It was November 2012, just graduated and unemployed when I installed Unity3D, the well-known video game development engine. Pleasantly surprised with the relative ease of moving around and messing about in the engine I started to poke the interface and fiddle with code. By going through some tutorials and with the help of the Unity community I was able to get a fairly decent footing on how to work with the engine. I was still horrible at it though, but that wouldn't stop me. With plenty of time at my hands I decided to just give it a shot, build something playable and see what happens.
I decided that the game to be built would need to be relatively easy to make (due to my lack of skills), but should feel really tight to play and be a challenge to beat. Gameplay would be the focus as it seemed like a smart move to stay away from complicated storytelling vehicle. 2D graphics were also a prerequisite. The genre which came to mind was a 2D shoot ‘em up. It’s a genre I always had a fascination for, imagining skilled people maneuvering through a veritable, murderous maze of bullets.
The plan was to start with a limited scope, a simple idea. Just a single level, a couple of shooting abilities, points, all while nurturing that feeling of “let’s go again!”. Not surprisingly, that limited scope was gradually expanded until hardly anything of it remained. Additional movement controls were introduced, more weapons were added, achievements, difficulties, co-operative and dynamic gameplay, bonus levels, leaderboards, unlocks, and so on. Luckily, I was still unemployed, giving me the time to do all this stuff. An open world, sandbox-like experience with procedural generation is even in development as an extra gameplay mode! Something which I personally didn’t thought of conceivable when I started out.
The graphics started out with a simple black square with a blue core for the player and enemies with a pink core. It didn't look like much, but it was a good starting point to work in the controls and establish a good feeling. Over time this graphical style slowly evolved. However, one thing never went away, and that is the square! I’m no graphical artist, so I made it a case of composition. Stacking squares on top of squares, mixing a bunch of colors, that I could do!
I dubbed the project Zenzizenzic, it’s a mathematical term for the eighth power of a number through squaring, which fits the theme of the game (squares!). Although quite difficult to pronounce, the name does has a ring to it, saying “hey, this is a quick paced game and it’s probably just as difficult as pronouncing the name is!”. It may be a tad difficult.
bignic, known from the awesome game Corporate Lifestyle Simulator, was willing to lend his music to Zenzizenzic. The pieces started to come together and an actual game was starting to take shape. The soundtrack is actually already listenable and purchasable on Bandcamp. It’s definitely good stuff, and I consider myself lucky to have this great artist on board. Please show your support to bignic if you enjoy the tunes!
And now in 2015, a successful Kickstarter and publishing deal with Adult Swim Games later I'm able to present you Zenzizenzic, my first venture in game development and design. It’s now available on Steam’s Early Access program. Around the end of June it will be fully released, and until then I will give it my all to make Zenzizenzic as amazing as I possibly can.
It has been around two years now. I've learned how to code, design a game and all that comes with it (which is a lot as it turns out!). I hope that this may inspire aspiring game developers to just give it a go, dive in there with a focused idea and a goal, stick with it and see where it takes you!
~ Ruud Koorevaar
