Zeno Clash

Gamasutra has posted a lengthy article about Zeno Clash's development process with the classic 'what went right' and 'what went wrong' items. An interesting read and definitely worth checking out for aspiring game developers working in mods.

Postmortem: ACE Team's Zeno Clash

Enjoy the article!

We're finally releasing the editing tools so the Zeno Clash community can develop their own levels and modifications for the game. We've created a Wiki entry with documentation so users can browse through the main changes and enhancements we've added to the Source Engine. The ACE Team wiki and SDK files are located at the following URL:

ACE Team Wiki

We invite users to contribute to the existing wiki information and experiment or develop custom content for the game. The official discussion area to ask about the tools or discuss about custom content will be the newly added 'editing' area in our forums.

ACE Team Forum - SDK

We hope everyone enjoys this content release and we look forward to new developments by the Zeno Clash community.

Here are the new features & fixes:

-Added damage counter and timer for challenge mode. Damage counter warns player 20 HP before losing to personal record. Timer warns player 20 sec before losing to personal record
-Animal cruelty achievement fixed. Works as global counter
-Added Italian language and translation credits to the game
-Fixed crash when switching shadow quality in-game
-Player auto-locks on to F-M when health drops to zero (Single-Player)
-Tower Challenge F-M does not require lock-on to defeat
-Fixed throwing your weapon in maps where it causes problems
-Player returns to Challenge screen when dying in a tower level
-Fixed timer bug when pausing a Tower Challenge
-Tweaked collision detection for uppercut finisher and deflect kick
-Player now does attack sound when throwing weapons
-Moved health fruit in final map so it is easier to pick up

We're happy to announce that the Zeno Clash model pack for Garry's Mod has been released as free downloadable content for everyone who has purchased our game. The pack includes over 60 models including characters, creatures and weapons of the crazy world of Zenozoik. We hope that everyone enjoys playing around with the new content and we expect to see funny videos and pictures from the community.

Read more about the update:

Zeno Clash Garry's Mod Free DLC

We're glad to announce that Zeno Clash was chosen as April's best PC game of the month. There were some big titles released so we were surprised to get the pick. Head to the link to see the award. Thanks IGN! ;)

IGN Game of the Month: April 2009

Here are the new features / fixes:

- New feature: The player can throw the weapon with the 'block' key
- Added a manual lock-on option in the main menu
- Fixed grab items / autolock conflict (enemies can't be targeted when looking down)
- Player can now unlock by running backwards
- Balanced difficulty level of Tower challenges
- Final boss battle has a health fruit (slightly easier)
- Boss characters can grab the player when he is unlocked
- Fixed infinite kick exploit
- Fixed heavy opponents pains issue

We're running a great promotion in the official Steam forums. You can win a free copy of Zeno Clash by participating! You can check all about it in the following thread:

Zeno Clash Promotion

*HINT: The same contest is running up in our Official ACE Team Forums. If you want twice the chances of winning you can also participate there ;)

Here’s the latest news from ACE Team:

We’re exhausted now that we are reaching the end of the development cycle of Zeno Clash. It’s been two hard years of little sleep and a lot of work, so we are announcing that after Zeno Clash we will not continue to develop such ambitious projects. Instead we will focus in smaller titles with shorter development cycles. Our new direction will be ‘point and click’ adventure games. We’re releasing our first adventure game for free. ‘The Malstrums Mansion’, is available here:

http://www.aceteam.cl/retro

We’re waiting for the fans’ feedback. We want to make the best adventure games we can. Send us your comments!

Here’s the latest news from ACE Team:

We’re exhausted now that we are reaching the end of the development cycle of Zeno Clash. It’s been two hard years of little sleep and a lot of work, so we are announcing that after Zeno Clash we will not continue to develop such ambitious projects. Instead we will focus in smaller titles with shorter development cycles. Our new direction will be ‘point and click’ adventure games. We’re releasing our first adventure game for free. ‘The Malstrums Mansion’, is available here:

http://www.aceteam.cl/retro

We’re waiting for the fans’ feedback. We want to make the best adventure games we can. Send us your comments!

ACE Team has just released the Gallery which features Zeno Clash's first Webcomic. This comic shows when Rimat and the Hunter meet for the first time. Four page comic with art by Guillermo Angel.

Visit the Gallery to check out the goodies:

Zeno Clash Webcomic

Zeno Clash is just around the corner! It's been a long journey, but we're finally reaching the end of the road; Zeno Clash will launch through Steam and Direct2Drive on April 21. At ACE Team we want everyone to be able to enjoy our title, so we're running a great promotion for those who wish to pre-purchase the game:

Zeno Clash will be available for 50% off its regular price for the first 24 hours of the pre-purchase period, starting Thursday, March 19 (8 pm GMT) up to Friday March 20. After that the game will continue to be available for 25% off its regular price up to the launch on April 21.

We just released our first developer video that features a closer look at the combat mechanics & shows some examples of how a skilled player can combine the different moves in the game! Watch the video at our blog:

Developer Video at Zeno Clash Blog