Ivan Zanotti’s games engage the player on an emotional level; they can make you feel things. From elation to dread, existential unease to life-affirming inspiration, his games have strummed my emotions like good poetry. They are strikingly personal and immersive works of art. Zanotti toys with the tropes of gameplay and messes with player expectations to construct game experiences that engage in surprising ways and stick with you long after playing them. All of Zanotti’s games (so far) are free to download.
THE GAMES
One Day, the World
“So, he began the climb towards the Moon, where the God lives”
One Day, the World is a game about being hurt and alone and struggling on for meaning, anyway. The game plunges us into the dark tale of an armless being, hunting its creator in order to reforge the world into its own vision of utopia. The story feels like a lost myth that Bulfinch and Edith Hamilton were too timid to include in their books.
This is a platform game at heart and the journey to reach the God involves a lot of precision jumping, button pressing, lever pulling and spike avoiding. There are enemies along the way, too: various creatures that shoot at you , give chase or just generally get in the way. Luckily for you, the armless being is accompanied by a friend: a floating ball of light that sticks by their side and can be used as a weapon.
Zanotti’s black, white and shades-of-grey pixelwork in One Day possesses a primal beauty. And I love how different screens are shown from different distances, as if the camera were sometimes close-up and other times far away. The music is lovely and contemplative, reinforcing the meditative elements of the game, but the soundtrack is also unsettling. The sound effects have an eerie, vaguely industrial feel and there is a constant scratchy rumble in the background, as if everything were being played on an old vinyl record.
One Day, the World was Ivan Zanotti’s first completed game, and it may be a bit rough around the edges but it is a gleaming jewel in the sea of indie platformers. Mr. Zanotti is currently in the process of completely overhauling the game into a new version, One Day: Retold.
Download One Day, the World here: http://gamejolt.com/games/platformer/one-day-the-world/9971/
Imscared: A Pixelated Nightmare
“Follow my instructions: don’t let the game’s appearance deceive you from now on.”
Playing Imscared is like having a lucid nightmare. It is Zanotti’s most well-known game, and with good reason: it is actually scary. It’s the kind of game where you don’t want to know too much about the gameplay going in. Suffice to say, it’s a first-person 3-D horror game. You will explore, solve puzzles, collect keys, play tag, run for your life, traverse a pixelated Boschian landscape and, perhaps, slowly go mad.
It’s got the jump scares, it’s got the terror of being chased prey, it’s got subtle psychological horror and it’s got cosmic, creeping dread. I’m just going to go ahead and say it: White Face could kick Slenderman’s ass!
Zanotti has pushed Gamemaker to its graphical limits in displaying a three dimensional environment reminiscent of something created in the Build engine. What he’s done here with 3-D using Gamemaker is flat-out astonishing. Sound is also an important part of the game experience and you are well-advised to turn your speakers or headphones up. Both the visuals and the audio work on a primal level, to subsume you in the game’s world. The low-fi sights and sounds work in the game’s favour, creating a consistently unsettling experience that feels more convincing in its abstraction than any “uncanny valley” realism could.
It can be hard to tell when the game is actually over. Some elements of the story happen outside of the closed game environment. Other games have dabbled with the idea of a game experience that doesn’t end when you exit the program, but those games are ending where this one is just getting started.
Imscared feels like an incantation, a ritual, a psionic experiment. But it’s just a game… isn’t it?
Download Imscared here: http://gamejolt.com/games/other/imscared-a-pixelated-nightmare/10058/
Collapse, Collide: A Short Experimental Adventure
“Higher I said”
At first glance, Collapse, Collide appears to be a rather simple game. In fact, Zanotti has described it as “a simple short game about Life”. But I have ended up spending more time with this little platformer than with Ivan’s other games, and it has been a richly rewarding experience. Mechanically, the game actually is quite simple: run, jump, wall-hang, avoid obstacles, go up. Go up. To go up is the crux of the gameplay as well as the central metaphor of the game.
Collapse, Collide is a platform adventure requiring mastery of its controls for success. But Collapse, Collide is also a metaphor for an internal struggle about mastering one’s own inspirations and ambitions, focusing them and applying them in order to achieve one’s aspirations… Well, that is my personal interpretation, and Zanotti has left it up to the player to decipher what truths the game reflects within themselves. By design, its meaning won’t be the same for everybody.
The metaphor of the internal struggle is reinforced by fact that our avatar is a cipher with whom we can easily identify, whose ambitions very likely reflect our own, and who is the only living being in the game. I think of the avatar as a “he” because I identify with him but the game does not really suggest a particular gender.
There is nothing in the game to tie it to the present, to the past, nor to any specific place in time or space. It could all be happening in a dream or in your imagination. Reinforcing this idea is the fact that when your character is killed by a spike or some other deadly trap, he does not bleed; he dissipates into nothingness, back into the ether.
The ambient sounds and the pixelated haze dancing across the screen lend the proceedings a moody, surreal quality. Playing the game is both precise and surreal, as the mechanics and the metaphor commingle to make this endeavour feel like much more than just climbing a tower.
Ivan Zanotti listens to feedback and updates his games based on user criticism. The wall-hanging mechanic was problematic in the first release of Collapse, Collide. Originally, you could not jump while gripping a wall; you had to let go and allow yourself to fall, then air-jump. This was unintuitive and required such exact timing that many players , myself included, had to play on “Easy” mode, which allowed jumping while wall-hanging. Not wanting the mechanics to get in the way of the gameplay experience, Zanotti addressed this issue in an update, essentially making “Easy” mode the new “Normal” mode.
While much of the action involves precise jumps, the game is actually somewhat forgiving, allowing you to grab onto a wall when barely in contact with it and to hang from the tiniest shred of grippable surface. Falls aren’t fatal, they’ll just set you back to wherever you land. Fortunately, if you’ve activated a checkpoint and then fall past it, you can just hit the spacebar to teleport back up to it. But the spikes, fire, glowing spirit balls and rising hot lava will all kill you with the lightest touch, so watch out!
Pay attention to the seemingly simple controls as explained in the brief tutorial, which unfolds as you traverse a snowy landscape and approach the tower. On my first playthrough, I did not realize the importance of the jump-while-falling manoeuvre, a move that proved crucial for success. Later in the game, you’ll pick up a couple of other essential abilities that you must master as well.
Finishing Collapse, Collide was invigorating. I felt both refreshed and inspired, as if playing through the game cleansed me of some psychic trauma (which might have been inflicted by Imscared). Oh yeah, after you beat the game, be sure to check the folder on your computer where the game file resides.
Download Collapse, Collide here: http://gamejolt.com/games/platformer/collapse-collide-a-short-experimental-adventure/10492/
Fireworks
“You’re already burning”
Being developed in collaboration with David Xig, Fireworks began life as an entry in the Gamejolt Underdog Jam, but quickly grew much larger than a weekend’s work allowed. The completed game is currently expected in Spring of 2013.
Watch the Fireworks teaser trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v24wjxSV7yk
A Case of Stress
This new work-in-progress has been glimpsed during rare live-streams of Zanotti’s development work. Little is known about the game beyond its visual aesthetics. It is presented as a grayscale Gameboy adventure game, with the gray plastic housing actually shown framing the play area. I can’t wait to see what Ivan Zanotti has in store for us this time!
Q&A
I recently got the chance to ask Ivan Zanotti a few questions, and he was gracious enough give me some answers. Note that English is not Mr. Zanotti’s first language, and though he is an excellent writer of English, I have very slightly edited a few of his responses for grammar and clarity (per his request).
Where did you grow up and how did your childhood affect you as a game designer?
I grew up in Rome, cultivating a passion for Mega Man, NES and videogames in general. Probably I love making games mainly because of the “Blue Bomber”.
I always dreamt of being a game developer.
What game developer (or other artist) has had the most influence on you as an artist and how?
Terry Cavanagh indeed, I love his style. I discovered him long time ago with Don’t Look Back and Judith: loved both.
Also the Silent Hill games (Team Silent ones) inspired me a lot over the years!
What is game development to you? A hobby? Art? A potential career?
Game development is something unique. It is like breathing, it takes life to a whole new level. You can create entire worlds to share with everyone.
Also, it would be great to make a living making games: making a game takes time and, sad to say, money doesn’t grow on trees. Yup, I think it’s also a potential career.
What are you improving in the new release of One Day, the World?
One Day- Retold is a peculiar project: I want to make it special but not much different from the original. I’m trying to make the bond with “Helper”, the little light, more strong in this version. You will play more levels of course.
Also I fixed some stuff that wasn’t good in the original (like timing with levers, millimetric jumps and the final battle).
Is Collapse, Collide autobiographical in a metaphorical way?
Yes, it is. Collapse, Collide is something made partially for people that like my works, partially for myself.
Imscared got a lot of critical acclaim in the community (and it scared the hell out of me). Are you tempted to do another horror game? Another 4th-wall breaking game?
I’m happy about Imscared, it scared a lot of people =)
I want to make more horror games, but not now. Rest assured, Imscared has something else to say.
Tell me about your recent game jam experience. Was it positive overall and will you be jamming again in the future?
Jamming is fun! It would be awesome to jam with other developers; it was my first time jamming and I didn’t knew what to do, honestly. I just sprited, programmed and composed while Italian fans watched me.
What upcoming projects do you have in the works?
My head is full of ideas: right now I’m working on Fireworks, the game started with the jam. I also want to complete One Day Retold and start new projects. I just love starting new things.
Are you still developing Dilemma (an action game explicitly inspired by Mega Man and Metroid)?
Dilemma is just postponed: I want to make a great playing experience with that one!
Is Teardrop still something you plan on finishing?
That’s a game I was working before One Day, the World… The project’s still there and I think I will pick it up again, someday.
Could you tell me just a little about Fireworks? It looks closer to a Mega Man-style game than anything you’ve completed yet.
I’m developing Fireworks, for the first time, with a friend of mine. It looks a bit like Mega Man, but it has nothing to do with him: You’ll see what I’m talking about =)
Thank you!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Paul Hack (Phack) writes about indie games when he can find time away from his day job and from his role as a dad wrapped around his 2-year old daughter’s finger. Not satisfied with just playing games and writing about games, he is currently learning about making games. You can find Paul on Twitter @indiegamehunt. Paul also runs the website twinehub.weebly.com.
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