• Action
• Adventure
• Puzzle
• Sci-Fi
• Space

Title: On A Distant Moon
Author: Zephyr
Company: Burger Digital
Genres: Adventure, Action, Sci-Fi 

Contents:
----.zzt
---.zzt
--.zzt
-.zzt
OnAMoon.zzt
OnADistantMoon.txt
On_A_Distant_Moon.mid
Play_With_Me.mid
Lift_Off.mid


The first four .zzt files ("----","---","--","-") are "hype" files I created to boost interest in the game before its release.

OnAMoon.zzt is the main game. 

The three .mid files are midi versions of the three songs featured in the game. I created them using MuseScore3.







WARNING: This file discusses the development of the game. If you have not yet played the game, I suggest you read no further and come back after finishing. SPOILERS AHEAD.














*** About the Game ***

Over a decade ago I had an idea to create a game set on the moon. There were four things I had in mind: a spaceship, the moon, a robot, and a series of puzzles. I created two boards and never thought about it again. That is, until last year, when I discovered an old hard drive containing old .zzt files, including #luna.zzt. When I opened the file I was pleased by the second board, which contained a nice rendering of "Earthrise." It was just enough to get me thinking about the project again.

I began working on the game with the intention of making a simple adventure game as part of Dr. Dos's Joy of ZZT series. He and at least a couple others were making space-themed games, so I figured my moon game would fit right in. However, my ambitions quickly got the better of me and the scope of the project grew far beyond my initial plans. By the end of the project, I had created created a 378KB game with six minutes of full-screen animation accompanied by six minutes of original music, including a three-minute-long (90KB) music video spread over six boards featuring sing-along lyrics and a talking robot head. Anyone familiar with ZZT knows just how ridiculous this is. It is the most absurd project I have ever done.

On A Distant Moon has been a wild ride. I hope you enjoy playing it as much as I have enjoyed making it.



***Contributions and Inspirations***

This may be a "solo-author" game but I have by no means worked in isolation. The game would be nothing like it is today without a lot of help and inspiration from others.

First, KKairos, Rbts, and Asie directly contributed to the project in significant ways.

KKairos taught me about the procedural maze generation which is featured in the lunar combat training simulator. He himself learned this method from TriphEd's Backtrax engine https://museumofzzt.com/file/b/BACKTRAX.zip. KKairos also beta-tested the game.

Rbts created the pathfinding object that is featured in the maze race board. The object originally appeared in his 2018 Doodads compilation: https://museumofzzt.com/file/d/dood2018.zip?file=MAZEWALK.ZZT&board=1. I also used Rbts's "touch warp" setup documented in ZZTEE https://museumofzzt.com/file/z/zztee2.zip?file=zztee.zzt&board=14. Rbts also beta-tested the game.

In 2019, with the help of Lancer-X I used duplicators and board edges to create a FMV animation for the opening of Small Spaces https://museumofzzt.com/file/s/Small%20Spaces.zip?file=SmllSpcs.zzt. That sequence inspired Asie to develop a script to automatically generate a video with warps perfectly synced to music. The result was Bad Apple!! ZZT https://museumofzzt.com/file/b/BADAPPLE.ZIP?file=BADAPPLE.ZZT. Asie's creation in turn inspired me, and the tools he developed made "Play With Me" possible. Once I created the individual boards, Asie used his script to add the synced duplicator warps. I also used Asie's new tool, ZIMA, to create the board the player is warped to if they lose in combat with the robot. 

Many other people were also influential in my process. 

WiL taught me how to sync lyrics with #play commands, and as far as I know, developed the sing-along lyrics method I used in "Play With Me." WiL also matched the different drum beats to vowel sounds, which I used in the final "hype" file. Finally, WiL was the first to suggest in the Discord chat that Burger Digital was a good company name. I created the logo that night as a joke. Here is the original exchange:

Bluey 08/02/2020:
I have been giving a lot of thought to continuing the game I started, as sort of a... mix between Burger Joint and Digital: A Love Story.

WiL 08/02/2020
"Burger Digital" is a real good name for a zzt company

Earlier this year, Dr. Dos discovered how to create walls that were passable by objects but not players (or vice versa) with a set of objects that #change tiles to and from fakes, arranged in a specific stat order. I used this method in the final boss fight. 

Many other people in the Dicord channel helped by answering miscellaneous zzt-oop questions. This game simply would not exist without Discord of ZZT. 

I borrowed a couple visual ideas from Zenith Nadir, including his font at the end of Frost https://museumofzzt.com/file/f/frost1.zip?file=FROST1.ZZT&board=33 and the boulder fade in Fantasy World Dizzy https://museumofzzt.com/file/f/dizzy.zip?file=DIZZY.ZZT&board=22.