With Caves of ZZT Remix now finished, the community is moving on to the next exciting ZZT world to revamp: Dungeons of ZZT!
CavesMix was 32 boards, and I did 6 of them. DungeonsMix looks like it will be 28 boards, and I want to do a smaller share. That is to say, I'm trying to find people around these here webs to dust off ZZT and contribute a board or two. Any level of skill and craftmanship is welcome, and we're willing to help you out in any way.
You can Do Anything with your boards (within reason), as long as you preserve the board-edge connections and general game structure (and by that I mean keys and doors). As an example. here's what I did with a simple board from the original game where you bounced between it and the board to the north collecting/depositing keys:
N of Kennel.png
Break Room.png
You still do the same thing, but I recontextualized it as a break room with the lions being off-the-clock friendlies rather than on-the-clock foes.
Anyhow, I've contributed 2 boards so far, and ideally I would want to not have to contribute more than 3 or 4 if I can help it.
If you are interested in contributing, inquire within!
So if I'm understanding this right, this is a collaborative project where people connect disparate rooms. Not trying to recreate or emulate a previous work correct?
Back in 1991, Tim made 4 ZZT worlds: Town of ZZT (shareware), Caves of ZZT, Dungeons of ZZT, and City of ZZT.
The Town Remix and Caves Remix projects were collaborations where people took boards (screens) from the original game, and reimagined/remixed them however they pleased (as long as board connections were maintained). The Dungeons Remix project follows the same template.
Now, to give an idea of how much creative latitude people are allowed, here's a before/after of a board from Caves Remix (I was not responsible for this one):
Walkway 3.png
Limbo.png
A very straightforward, unthemed fight against some pre-fab enemies turned into a puzzle board themed around a very weird church (the puzzles are quite bizarre). Pretty much the only thing the two boards have in common is that you collect a Purple Key in both (purple keys are the main quest items in Tim's old games).
This is a very extreme example, but it should illustrate the level of creative freedom allowed here.
With that said, it's also valid to make a board that's a very straightforward reimagining of the original. Per the rules, "there are no quality standards" as long as it's fun.
If you're interested in tinkering with ZZT, there are a few different options for editors available:
https://museumofzzt.com/article/view/1303/make-your-own-zzt-worlds/
My current obsession is trying to get people to participate in this project.
if you can guide my garbaged brain though how to set it up, maybe
Similarly I could probably do a board with guidance from the discord
Hopefully this weekend I have the time to do a basic "getting started" stream.
oops I spent too long yesterday writing a post on the insert credit forums evangelizing ZZT, and the baby was too busy for me to stream today:
https://forums.insertcredit.com/t/the-worlds-of-zzt/5841
at the very least, that post has some basic setup instructions for playing and editing worlds
I was thinking of doing an impromptu stream today, but decided not to at the last second. :energy:
might try again Saturday morning
tho maybe this'd be better suited to a voice chat session...
is there a time limit for this? i am so tired so often. maybe weekend could happen though
The plan is to release it on January 15th, for the anniversary of ZZT.
could be January 15th, 2027
or 2028
or 2029
or 2035
nobody knows
(hopefully this doesn't take 5 years again)
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!
Sorry we just had a certain very important ZZTer pop in the other day out of the blue and claim a board, and I'm trying to maintain composure.
I did a quick and dirty stream where I showed how to set ZZT up on one's computer, before proceeding to give the worst possible demonstration of the editor by diving into a board concept that required some esoteric nonsense to get working. Please understand. :energy:
(I finally figured out how to get this silly elevator working after the stream.)
Quote from: RT-55J on Fri, 2026 - 01 - 30, 10:56 AMSorry we just had a certain very important ZZTer pop in the other day out of the blue and claim a board, and I'm trying to maintain composure.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!
it's beautiful
Quote from: RT-55J on Sun, 2026 - 02 - 01, 12:00 AMI did a quick and dirty stream where I showed how to set ZZT up on one's computer
i'm dippin my toes... kinda hard for me to focus, sorry
no problemo