To kick off this blog, I’ll talk about some of my previous game projects. Let’s start with my very first completed video game: Zero One.

Zero One is a 2D puzzle shooter. In Zero One, you play as an antivirus program navigating through an abstract Tron-like world. You must eliminate all viruses in order to progress to the next level. However, some viruses require solving a simple puzzle using one of the secondary weapons and/or the varying types of walls, each having different characteristics to exploit. The game is targeted at the Windows platform and has three levels, a boss level, two secondary weapons, and several enemies and terrain types.

Released in 2006, the game served as the deliverable for my high school research project on game development. Zero One was developed using Game Maker 6, back before Mark Overmars handed the software over to the greasy hands of YoYoGames. Developing the game taught me valuable lessons in performance optimization, project management, and how to adjust scope to suit a development schedule. Zero One also contributed to my receiving of the 2008 Randy Pausch Scholarship Fund.

You can download Zero One here. The game lasts roughly 30 minutes and has no audio. Unfortunately, the executable does not appear to be compatible with Windows 7.

Throughout the years, I contemplated creating a sequel with sound, better graphics, and possibly even a story. I also created a short mutliplayer demo. However, all such endeavors ended up in smoke. Perhaps someday, the binary hero will rise again.