Beginner Friendly Worlds

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By beginners, for beginners. Zinfandel's 2021 jam aimed to get people that had never made a ZZT game to contribute a single board to be released in compilation form.

Strange contraptions, comedic writing, a touch of horror, and some impressive sci-fi shooter can all be found inside, quickly played, and readily enjoyed. This is an excellent example of how even those with little or no prior experience with ZZT can create fun and original scenarios worth seeing for yourself!

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Ana is a title that fits nicely in ZZT's history between its previous chapter and its current one. An open-ended series of small puzzle worlds are divided into sections that may be completed in any order.

The puzzle design is simple, sometimes using standard ZZT puzzle elements while other times being unique coded. Puzzles include basic boulder/slider pushing, deflecting bullets, navigating messes of keys and doors, and flipping switches to open/close paths. Generously, these puzzles include fail-safes when many early ZZT titles would not, allowing mistakes to be reset rather than requiring you to quit out and load a save. (The difficultly isn't all that high really, so don't worry about that either.)

Where Ana truly shines though, is that amidst all these puzzles are snippets of past conversations about Ana, her friends, and her family. As the player journeys through the game they'll learn more about Ana's story, an unexpectedly emotional tale for ZZT that elevates Ana from a solid puzzler to one of ZZT's finest.

Oh, and it's got its own original soundtrack composed outside of ZZT. A sperate track helps set the mood for each of the game's areas. If you don't play with the soundtrack going, you'll be missing out!

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Another beginner-friendly world by a beginner! Artificer was created as part of the Joy of ZZT, a YouTube series to demonstrate to newcomers how to create a simple ZZT world.

The game stars Revy, an artificer who wishes to prove to the Magi that technology can be just as capable of magic. Explore a small fantasy world as you complete their trials in hopes of having your own abilities be recognized.

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A charming adventure by a first time ZZTer. Atop the Witch's Tower is a short and highly structured game about the relationship between a witch and her princess sacrifice. Gather the components and head to the rooftop altar to sacrifice your very first princess!

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The Best of ZZT compilation features numerous submitted boards to the original ZZT world creation contest held in 1991. Some boards can be a bit extreme, and perhaps the resource balance isn't the best, but these are games worth taking a look at even if you're unable to finish them.

And don't worry, the full-board slider puzzle that is "Machinations" is optional.

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Mazes in ZZT typically sour the experience. There are quite a lot of ways to get them wrong and result in gameplay slowing to a halt and boring your player to tears, often with no actual danger present other than wasting real life time.

Big Beast in the Maze manages to pull off a maze shockingly well! In avoid to avoid execution for your crimes of rebellion against the kingdom, you have been tasked with exploring a labyrinth, freeing captured nobility, and killing the mythical beast that stalks the halls.

Smart design and plenty of unlockable shortcuts keep things moving and make for an unexpectedly heartfelt journey as you uncover the truth of the beast and must decide how to handle the situation.

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Often cited as the best ZZT game ever made, Burger Joint is a real-time adventure game in which you need to figure out how to make customers happy in the world's first fast food restaurant. Failure to do so will result in immediate termination, and/or death.

Successfully doing so many result in death as well, just not yours.

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BUYSO is a short little game about doing some Christmas shopping at a small dollar store-esque business.

It is a game about the experience of shopping for others with no way to win or lose with fun product descriptions and a few secrets up its sleeve.

The 1.2 release comes with a modified version of ZZT (to be ran with Zeta) that provides a dedicated inventory interface. The original release that lacks this will run just fine on any ZZT v3.2 compatible program.

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A fun, fast, and breezy adventure through a castle and its surrounding lands to defeat the evil king that has been terrorizing his subjects.

Bright visuals, lots of charm, and some clever puzzles make this a nice sample of what earlier ZZT worlds have to offer without requiring much of a commitment to get through.

Notable as well for its author who would later go on to make Ned the Knight, considered one of the all-time ZZT classics.

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A delightfully short adventure consisting only of a title screen, gameplay board, final boss, and ending scene. A simple save the princess adventure with a well animated RPG battle finale versus the dragon captors.

The final battle is a tough one though! You may need a bit of luck to get through it in one piece, and you'll certainly want to have grenades.

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Not to be confused with HM's "Castle of ZZT". This release is the last in a series of games designed to carry on the style of the original ZZT saga and does so quite well. A great showcase of more modern "retro" design sensibilities with memorable boards and fun puzzles that serves as a great way to scratch the same itch as Tim's original worlds.

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ZZT has a few platformers, but CAT CAT is unique in its more laid back approach where the cat protagonist can only occupy a fixed number of locations on a board. However, this allows for boards to be quite detailed resulting in a very memorable adventure as the cat searches for the whereabouts of their missing owner.

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A young author's mystery story about finding a saboteur who sent a car flying over the edge of the town's nearby cliff.

Explore a small town searching for items, clues, and performing trades with citizens to unlock more areas and discover the truth of what happened that day.

The Cliff is one of many ZZT worlds by a young child whose unusual design sensibilities make for a charming romp where you'll always be wondering what strange event will happen next.

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Perhaps closest in gameplay to a dungeon crawler (which author Anthony Testa was famous for in the ZZT community), Compound stands out from the rest thanks to its unique setting of a recently ruined utopia that was fluourishing in the aftermath of an apocalyptic war.

Compound isn't the most complex game in this style, but does some solid work in building up a unique environment for gameplay to take place in. A good example of teenaged ZZTers deciding to make more "serious" and mature titles without falling prey to the usual edginess seen in other games.

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A ZZT platformer played by still controlling the player! You've been summoned to a magical world to fulfill a prophecy and defeat a wizard who has blighted the land.

This faux-platformer simply blocks the player from moving north with water, requiring them to climb ladders to navigate vertically. Despite the simple trick, the level design is top notch and what might seem like a hacky alternative to more traditional ZZT platforming engines showcases great level design that prove the unconventional style to be a very capable one!

Although technically ZZT v3.2 compatible, Daedalus's Obelisk includes a copy of "CleanZZT" which mutes water sounds and messages (along with some others) that you'll want to make sure you run when playing to spare your ears some unpleasant noise.

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Another Testa made dungeon crawler, that's a personal favorite of mine due to its unique setting. Rather than explore dark labyrinths, creepy caves, abandoned ruins, the game takes place in the New York City subway system.

Of course, this is after the urban warlock Shigestao has taken over. Using a baseball bat and pistol, you'll have to fight your way to his lair defeating giant rats, urban zombies, and perhaps taking a moment to restore your health with a coke purchased from a vending machine.

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An excellent example of variety of gameplay styles in ZZT. Coolzx's game is a fantasy role-playing adventure about saving the dream world from reality.

Each chapter retains the same theme, but results in ever changing styles of play ranging from standard melee-focused ZZT dungeon crawling, dedicated RPG battles, Simon Says-esque boss fights, per-object RPG battles, and more.

In addition to its varied gameplay, coolzx does a fantastic job with the game's art and cutscenes resulting in a game that's just as memorable to look at as it is to play!

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Content Warning: Scenes of heavy drug usage are shown throughout many parts of the game

Edible Vomit is regarded as a ZZT world that exemplifies its "trippy" genre. You play as Freddy the Ferret in his search for the perfect drug. Bizarre colors, strange visuals, and weird characters make for a quest about the highs and lows of drug addiction, and what fates may befall those who are unable to stop.

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After aliens abducted your dog, it's up to you and your friends to resume them, and the earth itself!

Invasion ZZT Revision is one of the most charming ZZT games I have ever played, with its boundless optimism and and surprisingly open-hearted characters that aren't afraid to express their fears and let their friends uplift them in times of peril. In an era when most ZZT games were getting rather cynical, Invasion ZZT is a breath of fresh air that demonstrates how ZZT can allow young game developers a chance to flourish creatively.

Content warning: The game does deal with the deaths of animals and children, (but I promise there's a happy ending).

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A young adult horror story in which Jennifer Janowski has to break into the abandoned Sallow house and bring back an artifact to prove her worth to her peers in the paranormal society. Jennifer's journey soon finds her trapped in the catacombs beneath the house searching for an appropriate treasure and an exit.

The game showcases WiL's ZZT fork "Weave ZZT" which aims to make creating ZZT games less of a hassle while maintaining ZZT's simplicity that allowed it to endure for more than 30 years.

Be sure to run with the included copy of Weave ZZT the game was designed for!

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The evil dragon known as the Amethyst king has been forcing kobolds to do his bidding!

As a dragon with a sense of justice, your job is to storm the castle, defeat the king, and rescue the kobolds from the spell that binds them. ...with a kiss of course.

Traditional ZZT gameplay designed on retro hardware makes Kobold Smoocher a brief and cute adventure well worth your time!

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One of the pioneers of ZZT's trippy genre, Kudzu begins on a rooftop and ends, well, somewhere.

An atmospheric adventure perhaps best compared to something like Myst, the player must figure out what objects do and how to gain access to locations.

Note that a 2.1 update also exists which radically changes the game's ending. My personal preference is for the original, but both are excellent experiences. (The 2.1 version has a walkthrough as well which is equally relevant to the original)

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A ZZT world created for the "Joy of ZZT" video series, encouraging newcomers to create a ZZT game alongside the author. (That's me!)

The Mars Rover aims to be on the level of complexity of something like an early Alexis Janson focusing on ZZT's built-in components and using objects to enhance them. Find the purple keys and save man and Martian-kind alike!

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One of oh-so-many ZZT worlds that sets itself up for a sequel that never materialized.

Despite the lack of a conclusion, Meet The Tardigrades is a straightforward sci-fi adventure about an up-and-coming musical group trying to hitch a ride to an intergalactic music festival for their big break. Guide young Frodo through the dark woods to the eccentric Myrddin's home and ask if you can borrow his spaceship.

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A sci-fi shmup' designed to feel like a fan game from 1994 for something along the lines of Robotech.

Earth is struggling in a war with an alien species that won't stop until humanity is utterly annihilated. Tasked as the pilot of a prototype mecha, your job is to take out the alien mothership and turn the tide of the war!

The 1994 feel is captured quite well as the game begins using only ZZT's 7 default colors before expanding to the full palette as many games of the era did with the release of Super Tool Kit to produce colors ZZT's own editor restricted. Creative gameplay engines offer a gentle introduction to the kinds of unintended game design only permitted by heavy use of objects making for a great jumpstart into more complex ZZT worlds that focus on objects more than built-in components.