Zenzizenzic

Overview

Zenzizenzic is a twin-stick shoot 'em up currently in development for Windows, Mac and Linux and slated for release in late July 2014. It is developed by Dutch indie designer Ruud Koorevaar, with funding from both a Kickstarter campaign and the Netherlands' Creative Industries Fund NL.

Gameplay

Zenzizenzic's gameplay is wave-based and can be compared to vertical scrolling shooters such as the Touhou Project games and arena twin-stick shooters as Geometry Wars. Over time varied waves enter the screen from either the top or the sides of the screen, which grow more and more challenging as the level goes on. When the player is able to destroy certain waves before they leave the screen, bonus waves enter the screen to give the player a more advanced challenge. This allows for a certain degree of dynamic difficulty, awarding an increase in skill level with variations in the gameplay.

The game will support gamepads natively, and an Xbox 360 controller is specifically recommended.

Levels

On release, the game will consist of five levels (playable on Easy, Medium and Hard, both single player and local cooperative), each ramping up the difficulty and introducing a new theme:

• Level 1. Focus on destroying passive enemies with bullets only moving in straight lines.
• Level 2. Bullets are fired at the location of the player(s).
• Level 3. Bullets and enemies have homing characteristics.
• Level 4. Bullets scale in size variably. Enemy shields are also further pronounced.
• Level 5. Enemies use the Black Hole and Time Jump ability in a black/white environment. Includes all of the above.

Each level has a bonus level which becomes available during gameplay when the player has scored enough points before encountering the boss of the level. When these bonus levels are first found, they become available to unlock and play separately through the main menu.

Weapons

The player can select two weapons to use. These weapons currently are: Laser, Missiles, Charge Shot, Laser Pods, Time Jump, Black Hole and Forcefield. These weapons often have both an offensive and defensive aspect in its use. The Time Jump, for example, can be used to port the player away from harm, while at the same time destroying bullets, allowing the player to gather more points. The player collects resources from killed enemies and destroyed bullets in order to fuel the use of these weapons.

Scoring

Points are gained by destroying enemies or bullets and collecting the pickups that are dropped. A combo counter increases with every points increasing action, but decreases over time. The combo counter adds a multiplier to gained points. These points are also used as currency to unlock levels and weapons.

Upgrades

There are two pickups present which amplify the regular abilities of the player. These are regular shoot upgrades (which can go up to four levels) and shields (which can be activated to explode and destroy surrounding bullets and damage/destroy enemies).

Title

The word 'zenzizenzic' is derived from 'zenzizenzizenzic', which refers to the eight power of a number and is a linguistic oddity as it has the most Zs of any word present in the Oxford English Dictionary. Zenzizenzic then refers to the fourth power of a number, or a square of a square, which can be referenced to a square as a geometrical shape.