♦ Livestream of 2 ZZT worlds. ♦
♦ Stream Contents ♦
• (3:31) “PART1 of ZZT” by Charbomber (2025) [https://museumofzzt.com/file/view/part1/]
• (52:39) “b” by kaddar (2025) [See Itch page below]
Oktrollberfest 2025 starts off with two incredible games.
First, the recent community arrival Charbomber arrives with her 2nd game after "GIRL QUEST" clearly catching on to the spirit of Oktrollberfest from its title screen littered with passages, immediately raising a red flag that I'd be stuck entering those passages.
"PART1 of ZZT" begins by taking the obvious option. There's a locked door and several nearby keys to open it with. Each one blocks you in a different way, be it as simple as invisible water surrounding it or a bomb by some breakables being a dude, to more complex shutdowns like getting locked in when walls close around your exit. But all of that is just a gentle introduction to the main challenge. "You Move Up, You Go To Hell", a multiboard descent of what appears to be obstacle free branching paths, with the caveat that moving up at any time banishes the player to the title screen where they then have to find the right passage (out of 60) to return to the start. Despite the simple appearance, there are a number of surprises both in what you need to do to actually proceed as well as what you can get got by.
Eventually you reach the real triumph of the game, "The Part Where You Die", where a centipede rushes at you down a narrow hall with no means of escape. The resulting ~10 minutes of dialog are some of the most riveting tales ever encountered in ZZT of the centipede's history that simply has to be told to be appreciated. And an incredible gag for those brave enough to wield the Sunrise blade...
Then it's off to Kaddar's "b", whose title and title screen made me shout the moment I saw it. Yes, it's a sequel to his excellent entry "d" from the previous year, but this is no simple continuation of a player exploring a 2D world and its many alternate universes. You are a player, or perhaps a player clone in the backrooms, a glitchy corrupt place littered with detritus from the player's numerous reloads. A series of expertly crafted puzzles awaits as you try to return home, or maybe accept your new position. Kaddar creates some fantastic designs of a glitched ZZT and uses Weave to create new mechanics for puzzling that haven't been seen before. Push pieces around to assemble them into keys, bombs, ammo, and bears. Trust nothing you see. And don't worry too much about it because at any time the player might load a save and reset the room on you. The puzzles and presentation are top notch, and Weave, whose limitations are still loosely defined, feels pushed the player grows/shrinks and moves around at different sizes, showcasing synchronous multi-character movement as well as sub-tile movement when tiny. It too features an excellent gag for its finale as well...
Both these worlds are some real impressive stuff! I couldn't ask for a better start to the jam than this, with both these entries easily reaching/exceeding the caliber of previous Oktrollberfest winners.
♦ Play these worlds directly in your browser ♦
• All Oktrollberfest Submissions: https://itch.io/jam/oktrollberfest-2025/entries
• https://museumofzzt.com/file/play/part1/
♦ Originally streamed on October 31st, 2025 ♦
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