I am making a game engine called "Super ZZ Zero", which is like ZZT and MegaZeux in some ways, and is FOSS.
Git repository
Binary releases (GNU/Linux 64-bit PC)
Although it is not completed, it is probably good enough to make a game. Anyone who tries, can please report if anything seems to be missing, any documentation is unclear, or if there is a bug in the program. You might also make a review, feature request, complaint, etc, if you like to do.
There are other features that I intended to add in future but had not yet done, such as: background music (although sound effects are implemented), graphical mode (currently it works emulated text mode like MegaZeux does; it will continue to have that even if graphical mode is also implemented), inventory menu, SMZX mode (the rendering is implemented but there is no way to enable it yet), and some other stuff. Some things are not fully tested, e.g. the joystick function is not fully tested because I do not have a joystick on my computer.
(Super ZZ Zero was also partially based on ZZ Zero which is a somewhat similar game engine I had made in the past on DOS, although it is entirely rewritten; nothing is copied from ZZ Zero.)
The article linked below mentions a "Door-ectionality" design error. It can be corrected as explained there, but another way would be to stop key repeat when you enter a door, so I will add that function, too.
gemini://midnight.pub/posts/2637
I had also read the article about succeeding MegaZeux:
https://eev.ee/blog/2016/10/06/succeeding-megazeux/
Some of the limitations of MegaZeux that they mention are not as limited in the current version. However, they say "Robotic [...] can change anything you can change in the editor" which as far as I know is not quite right; you cannot resize boards, nor can you change signs, scrolls, and sensors, and there are other limits (although many things can be changed in a Robotic code).
I started to implement Super ZZ Zero before reading this and had some similar ideas; UI components (such as "value of a number") work similar to how is described there, and you can change projectiles, terrains, and powerups, like is described there.
Some things mentioned there are things that I intend to implement in future, such as a graphical mode, inventory system, etc. However, there are also many things that are not listed there, that are specific to Super ZZ Zero (and in some cases, I don't know if any other game engine does).
If you intend to publish games using this and/or intend to make experimental extensions and other features of Super ZZ Zero that may use OIDs, then you may want me to assign a OID for your use. This is not mandatory (not all uses require OIDs, and those that can do not need to be assigned by me or for this specific purpose), but is helpful due to the compactness of the relative OID encoding used in Super ZZ Zero.
🦂 zzo38
2025-08-10 · 9 months ago · 👍 Half_Elf_Monk, Kaimana_Marusyn · ❤ 1
🌲 Half_Elf_Monk · Dec 12 at 16:21:
wow I loved ZZT so much. I'm looking forward to seeing how your project proceeds. That game was great. Not the graphics, but the human-scale ability to create and share things reminds me a lot of the smolweb.