TIGSource: A New Zero (Open Beta)

A New Zero (Open Beta)

Derek Yu — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 09:56:00 +0000

A New Zero is a team-based multiplayer game by programmer Alex Austin of Cryptic Sea (Gish, Blast Miner). In the game you can pilot either a plane or one of two types of boats to try to take out the opposing team’s base. ANZ is procedurally-generated and is impressively small (just under a megabyte), but more importantly, it looks like a hell of a lot of fun! I haven’t played it yet, but falicon writes (via TIGForums):

We had a network game of this at lunch today at work. One person downloaded it and suddenly half the office was on board. We couldn’t quite get the planes working right but the gunboats are certainly fun… It is in beta so it has a pretty brutal learning curve and the controls need polish. But it is really neat and I love the graphical styling. The network game just worked which is always nice.

TIGdb: Entry for A New Zero

P.S. Happy belated birthday, Dr. King!

"A New Zero (Open Beta)" by Phasma Felis

Sun, 25 Jan 2009 01:22:22 +0000

Heh, I figured all that stuff was on the agenda. :) I only mentioned the left-handed keyboard thing because a lot of developers *do* completely overlook that, and Cryptic Sea has had troubles there before.

"A New Zero (Open Beta)" by falsion

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 03:05:02 +0000

What’s with the attitude?

"A New Zero (Open Beta)" by Alex Austin

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 22:19:18 +0000

Oh no! One guy from TIGSource isn’t going to buy my game! I quit!

If I hadn’t quit I would’ve added options for joystick, mouse and keyboard settings in the next version. I would’ve probably consulted with an optimization expert like judgespear and improved the framerate and networking code. Unfortunately though I’ve already quit :-(

"A New Zero (Open Beta)" by judgespear

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 20:50:33 +0000

I wasn’t complaining about gameplay. I just said that the game seems to be poorly optimized (or as someone else here said “hardware demanding” despite its simple graphics), and about the controls, both of which can be fixed without altering your “tough shit” gameplay.

"A New Zero (Open Beta)" by eobet

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 10:30:01 +0000

“If you don’t like the gameplay then tough shit”???

I think people were complaining about controls, and not game features.

If we don’t buy your games, then tough shit…

"A New Zero (Open Beta)" by gorecore

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 13:58:21 +0000

Ok, I admit, I’m a lazy little cryboy. Please have mercy upon me.

"A New Zero (Open Beta)" by gorecore

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 13:56:51 +0000

Awesome idea packaged in clear visuals and iced with nifty charset which awakened my glitchy imagination. And please, please: make an option of changing the mouse sensitivity. I know it can be changed via the config file, but this way is too problematic.

"A New Zero (Open Beta)" by BoyBoy

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 04:48:49 +0000

Good game, although I didn’t realise I was playing online until the end! Hahah. Fun.

"A New Zero (Open Beta)" by Phasma Felis

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 03:36:49 +0000

But, uh, it’s still awesome, though :)

"A New Zero (Open Beta)" by Phasma Felis

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 03:36:27 +0000

Also, Alex, please please please for the love of God put a leftie-friendly option in the final version. (Arrow keys instead of WASD). It’s a huge pain trying to play like this.

"A New Zero (Open Beta)" by Phasma Felis

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 03:34:19 +0000

Is…is the coat-of-arms character set all from Commodore 64 ASCII?

I think I’m going to cry.

"A New Zero (Open Beta)" by Raigan

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 03:16:17 +0000

what _is_ that organ music by the way? it’s totally awesome/disturbing.

"A New Zero (Open Beta)" by trav

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 03:02:47 +0000

Beam, we can always complain about the game play, Alex is just saying he doesn’t give a crap

"A New Zero (Open Beta)" by BeamSplashX

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 01:04:36 +0000

Correction: When plenty of people like it already AND it’s under a megabyte.

"A New Zero (Open Beta)" by BeamSplashX

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 01:03:21 +0000

True, you can’t really complain about gameplay when the thing’s under a megabyte.

"A New Zero (Open Beta)" by Foppy

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 22:50:44 +0000

The movie looks great and I like the combination with the music, it’s quite serene (coupled with the graceful airplanes) and original. :)

"A New Zero (Open Beta)" by Eddie

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 22:46:21 +0000

Wow, under a megabyte? My simple file parser that I’ve just coded was about 1MB, let alone an entire 3D game..

"A New Zero (Open Beta)" by Alex Austin

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 21:07:05 +0000

The virus on the page is fixed now, I’m not sure what’s causing it but I’m pretty sure it’s our crappy webhost.

If you’re having performance problems turning of the reflections will speed it up the most. If you don’t like the gameplay then tough shit.

"A New Zero (Open Beta)" by trav

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 20:30:43 +0000

yeah, if you view source on that page there’s a script that’s been appended to the bottom of the html page, can’t tell what it is but it looks dodgey

"A New Zero (Open Beta)" by trav

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 20:29:25 +0000

Google also reports the page hosts malware, however it claims that the malware didn’t infect it just from visiting the site

"A New Zero (Open Beta)" by MisterX

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 20:03:21 +0000

Whenever you directly apologize for a double post, you actually create a triple post, thus having much more to apologize for! Ironic, isn’t it? :P

I’ve played ANZ for a short while and I can agree with Lyx. It’s a very promising game, but so far there isn’t a lot to it. The framerate was also quite bad for me. I managed to get the hang of the controls, but it seemed pretty hard to deliberately hit anything, anyway.

"A New Zero (Open Beta)" by judgespear

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 19:03:12 +0000

er sorry for the double post, the site glitched for a second there

"A New Zero (Open Beta)" by judgespear

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 19:02:28 +0000

I can’t figure out how to play this game at all. The controls are a complete mess to me and the physics are way too complex to control with a keyboard alone. I couldn’t find any option for joystick support. Not only that, for some reason the game lags like hell and seems to be poorly optimized, making it damn near impossible to play anyway.

"A New Zero (Open Beta)" by judgespear

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 19:02:21 +0000

"A New Zero (Open Beta)" by Arnold

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 17:57:57 +0000

HERE’S SUB ZERO…

NOW, A NEW ZERO.