♦ Livestream of 5 ZZT worlds. ♦
♦ Stream Contents ♦
• (3:35) "ZZT RPG 1: The Flying Dragon" by LowerVP (1998) [https://museumofzzt.com/file/view/zztrp1/]
• (45:11) "Kiki's Quest" by LowerVP (1999) [https://museumofzzt.com/file/view/kq/]
• (58:21) "Dungeon of Dysel" by LowerVP (1999) [https://museumofzzt.com/file/view/dysel/]
• (1:17:50) "Silence" by LowerVP (1999) [https://museumofzzt.com/file/view/silence/]
• (1:30:12) "Indigo Sprite's Inn-Turns 1-4" by LowerVP (1999) [https://museumofzzt.com/file/view/indigo1/]
An assortment of early worlds by an author with a love of fantasy RPGs. This small child would grow up to be KKairos! Something I didn't realize when I decided to check out these games. But that makes for an easy instance of "author in chat". He's a good sport about it :)
The Flying Dragon is half of why I wanted to check these titles out. I love the little story here of a bio-mechanical dragon being used to terrorize the populace. Our hero sets off to get an airship of their own and slay the beast's engine.
What you get is a simple and rather short RPG clearly made by a young author (that hits way too close to home with my own ZZT RPGs from back in the day). Outside of the initial story, there's not a whole lot of development here. You follow the lines to go to places, and sometimes the game throws generic enemy encounters at you.
At first glance, it's all dice rolls which you can see in action with objects shooting in random directions to strike targets that specify how much damage to give/take. However, stackable healing items, and a later gained defend technique give players the tools to overcome poor rolls. This genuinely makes it an above average engine.
Then Kiki's Quest, a heroic tale of a man rising up to fight against the tyrant Darc. A more typical adventure with an explosive finale. Surprisingly gloomy for such a cheerful looking game. RIP Kiki.
Dungeon of Dysel was described by KKairos as his "Anthony Testa era", a dungeon crawler where the protagonist teams up with a shape-shifter that turns themselves into a sword for your use. For a moment the game seems to make the player a pacifist that only stuns enemies, but that's just until they get their sword-man. Testa quality this ain't, with some unobtainable treasure chests and a blocked passage due to using normal walls rather than identical looking fakes.
Silence is a puzzle game clearly inspired (and stated as such) by myth's Winter. A series of puzzles framed around a student's daydreams. They are not as well thought out as the source material, with some solutions being difficult to reach. Then as soon as it begins it ends. Nice presentation with each puzzle taking place in an identical round blue room. Points for style at least.
Finally, the oddest entry of them all, Indigo Sprite Inn, a ZZT document capturing a play by email roleplaying session with no real rules defined, but character sheets nonetheless. A few "turns" are documented with little happening beyond the players' characters meeting up at the inn. Given the young ages of the players, it's no surprise it didn't go anywhere. Still, I can't help but love the idea of meticulously capturing a pen and paper group's escapades in ZZT form. I think it would lend itself rather nicely, though the effort would be considerable.
Overall, some clear works of a younger author learning and trying new things with ZZT and its community. Most of the games have a real charm to them seen when younger developers are given the tools to start making games, which doesn't make them good per se, but it does make them enjoyable to see. Especially given this particular ZZTer's future works.
♦ Play these worlds directly in your browser ♦
• https://museumofzzt.com/file/play/zztrp1/
• https://museumofzzt.com/file/play/kq/
• https://museumofzzt.com/file/play/dysel/
• https://museumofzzt.com/file/play/silence/
• https://museumofzzt.com/file/play/indigo1/
♦ Originally streamed on August 16th, 2024 ♦
