Originally streamed: Jul. 15, 2022
Livestream of the ZZT worlds:
- "An Ewok's Life Demo (v2.0)" by Hercules (1999)
- "Ewok's Life Demo" by EvilMario (1998)
- "Office Man" by Jimmy Young (2003)
"A slice of life game" is a tough one for ZZT where the mundane lives of children often end with them spending their Saturday rescuing the president from aliens, teens are frequently uncover cops disguised as priests, and adults are out there living power fantasies.
So I opted for the life an Ewok and a typical office worker.
"Ewok's Life" comes in 2 demos credited to two different authors. We quickly learned Hercules took over the project after enjoying the demo of the first one. His efforts make for a cute little demo where you fix a busted water pipe, trade for some goods, go on a walk, and fight invading stormtroopers.
We then went back to the first demo due it having far more boards. EvilMario's version has next to no gameplay making us wonder what Hercules saw in it. What it does have though, is several of the game's boards rendered in multiple seasons. Including a 5th "Extra" season which we have loving referred to as Hell season as the rivers run red and the ground turns yellow.
"Office Man" captures the life of a typical office worker who wants to find a wife. He's harassed by police, risks losing his job when taking an arbitrary quiz, and cannot beat Merlin the wizard in a fight.
It's a weird game, some of the humor hasn't aged particularly well, and it's very difficult to figure out what you're supposed to actually do, but I guess that's just life.
