The Venzone24 project: Turn a adventure you experienced into a simple video game

[ThunderPerfectWitchcraft]

What is Venzone

Venzone is a free, open source software video game with a rather limited set of features and a rather unique look for a jump'
n run game: It is all ASCII. The game plays, despite being a bit hooky, quite well, since the levels are designed around its technical base.

One of the features of the game is the ability to modify and create levels with a simple text editor.


What is Venzone24

Venzone24 is an attempt to create a own little video game as a community effort. We will take Venzone as a base, and heavily extend it: Primarily, over the addition of levels - but, if needed, we can also add features to the game that aren't present in the code at this time.

How to participate

Create a level for Venzone. To do so, it is recommended to play the game first - it isn't very long, I would say that each level included is played in ~30 minutes, and you don't necessarily have to play them all. A tutorial about level creation with examples is included in the game (stories/z_editor.vns).

For a inclusion in Venzone24 your level should - mostly - fall under these criteria

• Short to medium playtime: It should be possible to play your level in under one hour, 30 minutes might be considered as optimum
• Easy to moderate difficulty: Your level should be beatable for a person who casually plays videogames
• Based on a personal experience: Try to base your level on a personal experience that you've made.
• Libre License: The game shall be released as free software. To be included, your level needs to be released under the GPL3-license. Please make a explicit statement when posting levels here that you release them under this license, or they can't be included in the final game.
• Ad-Free: You might include your nick/URL in the level at one place, but other than that there shouldn't be any promotion included in your level.

While your game should be based on personal experience, you are free to use metaphors and symbols of any form: Enemies might resemble problems or hardships (e.g.: Anxiety could appear as a enemy), and you are free to abstract problems and hardships to match the jump'n run format.

These criteria aren't set in stone. We can discuss them here, and extend or reduce onto them. If you have any questions or need help for participation, feel free to post here or to ask me via PM.

Time
Given that there is any resonance, I'll compile all entries to a demo release in early July 24, and will create a final release in January 25. These released will be done with a Itch-Account that will only be used to release Venzone24. Later additions might still be included afterwards.

Missing features; extending the game

The game is FLOSS, and so we might be able to add needed features. If you feel that anything is missing, or if you have made a extension to the code, post your request/code and build here.

Quality assurance

The project is intended to be organized as a anarchist, root democratic project: As long as no serious concerns are voiced by those who partake, any entry is welcome. If you have any concerns, ideas, etc. - lets discuss them!

I'm really tuned how this is going to work out. Have fun!

[ThunderPerfectWitchcraft]

Venzone24 is now also running on Itch,
on Mastodon (hashtag #Venzone24 ), and on freegamedev.net.

Submissions here are still most welcome :D.

[Zunne]

nice game your working on!

[ThunderPerfectWitchcraft]

The original game isn't done by me, I only hope to start a collaborative project to expand it :).

If you are interested in my projects, check out my site! =)