Intro
Zero Below The Sun is a retro style action survival horror game, set in Antarctica. You play as Axel Bowers, a security officer at a top-secret underground facility somewhere in Antarctica. The game starts off with the facility going into lockdown and it's your task to investigate what is going on. The player must navigate the multi-level facility to collect clues, weapons and find survivors - sometimes friendly and sometimes not. It soon becomes clear that the purpose of the facility is much more sinister than you could've imagined, as you discover unthinkable horrors prowling the gloomy hallways.
Background
Zero Below The Sun is a game I've wanted to make for many years. I always knew that I wanted to make a survival horror type game of some sorts, but what kind? There are so many - the indie survival horror scene has steadily been growing over the past years - and I didn't just want to make just "another Resident Evil clone". The game has evolved during the development from an idea that started out like a shorter arcade type survival horror experience, to a much more traditional action-adventure oriented one. To describe the game with one word, I would say "quirky".
Visuals
The visual style I was aiming for is a bit stylized, especially for the characters which are to some degree almost cartoonish in appearance. However, the environments got a somewhat more realistic style. The game features a retro low-polygon aesthetic, with a heavily restricted polygon count and texture resolution to give that overall pixelated look. At first I was going for a flat polygon look, but later decided to scrap it in favor for smooth polygons as it was a better fit for the style I was going for.
Below is the first ever screenshot taken from the prototyping phase, back in 2020.
Level Design
When looking at the environments and its textures, I've gone for a pretty drab and muted color palette. In contrast, the character and NPC textures are generally pretty colorful so that they "pop out" from the environments. This gives the game a rather unique look; playful yet ominous. The general level design is made up of hallways and connecting rooms, some of which are open areas. The whole facility consists of multiple floors that are connected via elevators. There's also an outdoor area, as I also wanted to incorporate a bit of snow seeing as the game is set in Antarctica.
Character Design
As for the character designs, I started by making the player model to establish a overall in-game style for the rest of the characters. The "paddle" hands that are quite prominent on the player character were an accidental design during prototyping and was originally intended to be changed by adding a thumb in the final design. However, seeing people's positive feedback early on in the development made me decide to keep it as is. For the protagonist, Axel Bower, I wanted to tick all the boxes of survival horror clichés to create an over-the-top action hero. He got the spiky hair, the leather jacket, the jeans and the shades, which he wears at all time in-doors and has become rather iconic over time.
Game Design
On the surface, Zero Below The Sun may look like just another indie survival horror game. As previously stated, I didn't want to make "just another survival horror game" or "Resident Evil clone". So, I opted not to go for the classical fixed-camera style that's popular among the genre and instead went with a free camera in a fully 3D rendered environment. This way I could create a much more action-oriented survival horror game with more intense combat scenarios.
The writing of the game is probably were the game sets itself apart the most. While I've stayed true to many of the traditional survival horror tropes, I've also tried to make the game not take itself too seriously. By this I mean that the in-game dialogues and interactions between the characters are often on the lighter side and sometimes also incorporates a bit of humor. This, in combination with a bit of janky keyframed animations, presents the game with a bit more unique personality.
To summarize, Zero Below The Sun is a traditional survival horror in its core, but takes a more action-oriented approach and blends easily digested story telling with a bit of tongue-in-cheek character dialogues. If you are looking for a retro styled survival horror that's a bit quirky, I think you will enjoy the game. The full game will be available 2 Aug 2024.
That's it for now. Until next time!