Tag Archives: lemmings-inspired

Zem

Posted on by

All Zem wants to do is walk ever onward, straight ahead without thinking. Unfortunately, Zem is walking through some pretty dangerous areas. Move blocks to help Zem make it through safely.

  • 35 increasingly challenging stages
  • 3 save files
  • Customizable controls
  • A fully featured stage editor for creating your own shareable levels becomes available after completing Stage 8.

Zem continues the Zem! series of ZZT games started in 1998.

__________________

Asset credits:
Karen Bold font by Paul Spades (public domain license)
Extra Thick font by VEXED (used under CC BY 4.0 license)
Stage clear fanfare by  Little Robot Sound Factory (used under CC BY 3.0 license)
Music by Eric Matyas, www.soundimage.org

Explobers Classic

Posted on by

 

Explobers pushes your planning, puzzle and platforming skills to the limit for a challenging but rewarding experience. —MMOaholic

Explobers Classic is a unique puzzle platformer that requires you to use multiple player characters to solve difficult challenges by using their powers (and lives) to destroy terrain and build blocks in order to navigate through over eighty tricky stages.

The game begins in the familiar CGA palette of classic PCs. As you progress, new graphic modes become available and you may find some secrets!

Explobers was featured at 2018 Smithsonian American Art Museum Arcade in Washington DC on July 22, 2018.

Explobers has a trailer. It also has an official website.

I worked on this game through most of 2017. Please purchase it at itch.io or GameJolt.

The game is available for Windows and macOS. It’s also been released for Android-based handheld game consoles as Explobers GO and for Android phones as Explobers Pocket. These can be downloaded from the game’s page on itch.

The game is fully playable in Japanese. 日本語でも遊べる！

As of 2026, a new version of Explobers is in development.

Shadow Wrangler

Posted on by

   

Your shadows have split from you and you must guide them to the exit. You can move at will, but the shadows need to be given commands. Pick up command boxes and drop them where you want the shadows to act.

Ten stages of challenging puzzle platforming by proxy.

Controls:
X: Jump
Z: Pick up/put down boxes
R: Restart level

Press ‘L’ on the title screen to load the game from your previous play session. The game autosaves and starting a new game will overwrite previous progress.

Made for Klik of the Month Klub #93.

Super Stone Ball

Posted on by

   

There are many balls! Get one of them to reach the exit! Have other balls turn to stone and become platforms to guide other balls to advance through all eight stages. Build your way to success!

Extra points awarded for balls left over at the end of stages.

Super Stone Ball was selected as a Freeware Pick by IndieGames.com, calling its puzzles “rock hard.”

Instructions:
————————
X: Jump
Z: Turn current ball into stone
Space + mouse: Scroll stage
R: Reset stage
F: Toggle fullscreen
Q: Quit

Zem! X

Posted on by

  

For the final game in the Zem! series, the game moves away from its Lemmings root and toward an action platformer. The player character is Ben (or Jenna) Hunter, a lemming hunter, who has to chase down and save Zem before Zem walks into a pit of spikes or any other danger.

This was announced as my official retirement from ZZT game development. I had begun working on the game almost immediately after Zem! 2 (the Zem! 2 Level Pack included a preview of Zem! X).

ZZT games require ZZT to run. Download it from Z2.

Zem! 2 Level Pack

Posted on by

  

Zem! 2 was well-received, but it was frequently noted that its level design was excessively simple and presented no real challenge. Speaking to fellow ZZTers in the chat rooms of the day, the plan was hatched to collect levels from the community rather than have a traditional sequel. The game features twenty-five stages from ten contributors in addition to myself. Contributors include Gunner, Scribbit, Viovis, Glynth, tseng, and more. Levels tended toward greater challenge and some contributors programmed some interesting new elements.

Released about half a year after the original Zem! 2.

ZZT games require ZZT to run. Download it from Z2.

Zem! 2

Posted on by

  

While Zem! asked players to manipulate a cursor that plotted blocks to help shepherd a lemming to an exit, Zem! 2 puts you in control of the same lemming, Zem. Zem still marches on, but now the player can intervene to grant him abilities based on those in the original Lemmings game by Psygnosis.

This sequel was released just a month and a half after the first Zem!

Zem! and its first sequel were profiled by Dr. Dos in the “Closer Look” series in August 2016.

ZZT games require ZZT to run. Download it from Z2.

Zem!

Posted on by

 

Inspired by Lemmings, this ZZT engine game–the beginning of a four-entry series–puts the player in control of a cursor that builds block in order to safely guide the eternally marching Zem to the exit portal.

ZZT games require ZZT to run.

Zem! and its first sequel were profiled by Dr. Dos in his “Closer Look” series in August 2016.