Zenzizenzic - Now available on Steam! (Published by Adult Swim Games)

Community Showcases
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ZENZIZENZIC IS NOW AVAILABLE ON STEAM!

INFO:
Developer: bitHuffel‘s Ruud Koorevaar
Publisher: Adult Swim Games
Website: ZenzizenzicGame.com
Availability: currently available on Steam for 7.99$ (20% discount during first week) (Steam link)
Platforms: Windows, Mac, Linux
Players: singleplayer, local 2 player co-operative
Contact: ruud [at] zenzizenzicgame.com
Press info: Adult Swim Games, ZenzizenzicGame.com

Trailer:

SHORT:
Zenzizenzic is a fast-paced, adrenaline-infused twin stick bullet hell shoot 'em up and open world roguelike. Featuring a beautifully abstract art style and a thumping, full throttle soundtrack, it’s sure to get your thumbs sweating and your blood pumping!

REVIEWS:
“4.5/5 | Zenzizenzic is a beautiful, fun and deadly shot of abstract twin-stick bullet hell madness, but with a little experience and a lot of technique, the massive firepower coming your way turns into a bullet-filled playground of fantastic precision gaming.”
Hardcore Gamer

“9/10 | A shmup for the modern gamer, Zenzizenzic is as bonkers as its name implies. It’s also smart, efficient and unquestionably tight.”
GameZone

“Zenzizenzic is an old-school bullet-hell style shmup that looks about as crazy as a game with that name should.”
Kotaku

ABOUT:
Zenzizenzic hurls you into the abstract perils of a bullet-strewn fever dream. Battle your way through five varied levels in Classic Mode or explore an open world in Macro Mode, both of which are stuffed to the brim with legions of enemies. You’ll dodge an onslaught of bullets while returning fire with an awesome arsenal of weapons and power-ups, leaving complete and utter destruction in your wake.

In Classic Mode (single player or local co-op), you’ll face five distinctly different levels with their own challenges, theme, bonus level and boss encounter. Arm yourself with two multi-layered weapon systems of your choosing such as screen-filling lasers, homing missile barrages, highly destructive charge shots, time jumps to slow the action down, black holes that warp and redirect immediate threats and more.

High scores don’t come to the faint of heart, so test your mettle in multiple training modes. And hey, if you’re in the mood for a grueling challenge, try Gauntlet Mode to try and complete all five levels in a single run.

Macro Mode (single player only) is inspired by roguelikes with an open, random and procedurally generated world based on the levels in Classic Mode. Find upgrades to enhance your ship to epic proportions— you’ll need to, because you’re bound to encounter massive enemies that span multiple screens! It’ll take brawn and brains to tackle monsters, uncover hidden secrets and discover varying ways of optimizing your score.

Welcome to the bullet-ridden world of Zenzizenzic. Go on— give it your best shot!

Zenzizenzic is published by Adult Swim Games and currently available for a 20% discount during the first week of release until the 30th of July!

2 Likes
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Patch v0902m027 is live.

View the announcement here.

Notes:

  • Fixed issue with enemies spawning op on top of you in Macro.
  • Changed the Reward Chest in Macro to be smaller and easier to open.
  • Overhauled Events in Macro (Events occur when opening a cluster of doors).
  • Adjusted Main Menu button interactions to make them reliable.
  • Fixed issue with Enemy Clear usable item not being placed into the right use slot in Macro.
  • Fixed issue with the Shop not appearing after defeating a boss in Macro.
  • Fixed issue with right stick dead zone recognition for controller input.
  • Slightly adjusted the boss attacks of the first level in Macro.
  • Fixed issue with Dont Die achievement in Very Hard Gauntlet not unlocking properly. (Good luck getting that one in the first place! bwaha.)
  • Added a button in the Options menu to send local achieved Achievements to Steam Achievements in the case they were gotten in an older non-Steam version of Zenzizenzic.
  • Fixed issue on Mac with controller input regarding the triggers.

Now that I believe most issues have been patched out, the focus will shift to gameplay changes and additions!

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The first major content patch for Zenzizenzic is live!

Check it out on Steam or keep reading for the full details!

The most extensive change is the addition of level 3 to the Macro mode. Be wary though, going through level 3 is not for the faint of heart as you’ll be chased beyond what seems reasonable by enemies, bullets and all that can pose a threat to you (which is just about everything really).

Here is a video from the livestream at Twitch in where I play through this patch! Be sure to follow the livestream to check out the latest changes and have a chat with me about them when I’m live!

In a few weeks level 4 will be added, and a bit after that the final level 5 will see its implementation in the Macro mode.

Now that level 3 is implemented I will start working hard on level 4. In the meanwhile there will undoubtedly be small patches which tweak the world generation in Macro and small fixes.

Here are the full patch notes:

v091m035:

  • Added level 3 to Macro.
  • When entering the shop in Macro, nearby enemies and bullets are cleared out (similarly as to how the Enemy and Bullet - Clear items do).
  • Added a points value to Weapon Upgrade and Shield pickups in both Macro and Classic.
  • Slightly adjusted how resource pickups behave in Classic.
  • Removed sound effect when a player bullet hits a wall in Macro, it becomes a bit annoying over time and it now is easier to differentiate when hitting an enemy.
  • Changed the level 1 boss in Macro to make it more easier to grasp what is going on and how to beat the boss.
  • Fixed an issue with the level 1 boss in Macro causing it to attack endlessly when already dead.
  • Slightly increased the speed with which you progress through the levels in Macro.
  • Fixed large frame drop issue in level 2 in Macro.

You can find the topic where I list the upcoming changes here.

If you come across any issues, or have any kind of feedback, be sure to let me know.

Thanks!

Best,
Ruud Koorevaar - developer of Zenzizenzic

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New patch is live!

You can check out the details over at Steam, or just keep on reading!

Patch v095m045:

  • Level 4 added to the Macro mode.
  • Game pauses when its window loses focus (like when alt-tabbing).
  • Further adjusted pick-up and power-up behavior when an enemy drops them in Classic mode. Regular pick-ups fan out when spawned and weapon and shield power-ups now also bounce from walls once. The drop rate for weapon and shield power-ups are lowered to compensate.
  • Added an option to disable the background for if you really want to get in the thick of things with no distractions at all.
  • Added a similar effect as the player shield explode to when the player loses a life by getting hit. This causes a small area clear around the player and give a brief moment of respite to recover.
  • The shield explosion effect now also clears out nearby enemy lasers.
  • Increased the invincibility timer after getting hit from 1 second to 1.5 seconds.
  • Changed the Progression mechanic in Macro. Now points earned while playing Macro no longer contribute to the Progression bar (which when filled up spawns a boss). The bar is filled up solely on a time based factor. On Normal it will take 5:00 minutes, Hard 6:30 minutes and on Very Hard it will take 8:00 minutes to fill up.
  • Fixed a couple of issues with the Gauntlet mode.

What’s left to do is add the final level 5 to the Macro mode, discover any remaining bugs and fill in the rest of the time remaining until the launch by adding miscellaneous cool stuff to the Macro mode (think secrets, more enemies, upgrades, and all that jazz).

Thanks!

Best,
Ruud

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The final major content patch before release is available!

This time around you can completely go through Macro as all the content is in there. Furthermore, loads of small fixes and additions can be found in this patch. Read on for the details.

Also, we have a release date! Mark the 23rd of July in your calendars as then the bullet hell will reign down on all! Do note that while the game is in Early Access you can still profit from the 20% discount as the final release price will be 9.99$, compared to the 7.99$ it is now during Early Access.

Here are the full notes:

Global:

  • Fixed an issue with destroyed bullets dropping more point pickups than intended.
  • Fixed an issue with diagonal movement being too fast in Classic.
  • Added various improvements to the interface in the Main Menu in regards to showing leaderboard and achievement stats and on other interface locations as well (such at the endgame overview for when the player has died/won).
  • Speaking of leaderboards, Steam Leaderboards are now fully functional. This means that choosing a name for the leaderboard has been removed as it now takes your Steam account name and only your single best score is registered.
  • Local leaderboards have been replaced by the feature Personal Best scores. This is a single high score that is tracked locally.

Classic:

  • The radius with which you pull in point pickups now increases rapidly when you aren’t shooting. This is also indicated by a graphic, which can be adjusted or turned off from the Options menu.
  • Added a subtle graphical indicator for when a powerup has bounced from a wall to show that it will not bounce again.

Macro:

  • The final level, level 5, of the Macro mode has been added.
  • Increased the movement speed of point pickups.
  • Increased the pickup radius upgrade in the Shop in Macro from 10% to 15% and increased the base value from 3 to 4.
  • Decreased the difficulty of the level 4 boss.
  • Added a percentage cost increase to the Gamble option in the Store.
  • Increased the duration of how long the Weapon and Shield upgrade pickups remain floating around before disappearing from 10 seconds to 15 seconds.
  • Added a few environmental objects in level 4.
  • Re-balanced shop costs now that all the content is in place and a better flow of points income can be estimated. Note that this balance is not final, if I were to wager a guess I’d say things are slightly too costly at the moment overall, but it will be refined over time!
  • The critical chance upgrade now starts at 0% but increases by 10 each time it is purchased in the shop, up to 100%.

See you on the Leaderboards!

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In about 1 hour, at 1PM EDT, Adult Swim Games will be streaming Zenzizenzic for an hour on their Twitch.tv channel. I’ll be there as well, so feel free to come hang out!

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Ehi loooks GREAT! Love the art style and the concept. :wink:
How is it going on STEAM?

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Thanks!

We will see a bit later on today when the game hits its final release! It’s been on Early Access for a few months now, but been keeping it relatively quiet to get everything stable and all the content in before pushing marketing. Pretty exciting to see what will happen! :slight_smile:

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:wink: nice!
Good luck, I really like it.

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Zenzizenzic is now fully released on Steam! It can now be picked up for the first week with a 20% discount for 7.99$ or your regional equivalent.

A few much appreciated words:
“4.5/5 | Zenzizenzic is a beautiful, fun and deadly shot of abstract twin-stick bullet hell madness, but with a little experience and a lot of technique, the massive firepower coming your way turns into a bullet-filled playground of fantastic precision gaming.”
Hardcore Gamer

“9/10 | A shmup for the modern gamer, Zenzizenzic is as bonkers as its name implies. It’s also smart, efficient and unquestionably tight.”
GameZone

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On 1pm ET (5pm GMT) today Adult Swim Games will be streaming Zenzizenzic on Twitch.tv/adultswimgames. I’ll be in chat answering questions. Steam keys will also be given out!

Right as the Adult Swim stream ends (about an hour later) I’ll start streaming Zenzizenzic as well on Twitch.tv/bithuffel, so you can check out how the developer tackles a plethora of bullets in Zenzizenzic!