Ludography
Zineth cover

2012 · Arcane Kids · Strategy

Zineth

A movement based adventure game released in 2012 by Arcane Kids. Features unique integration of Twitter through an in-game smartphone.

Released
9 August 2012
Platforms
WindowsmacOS
Genres
Strategy
Developers
Arcane Kids
Publishers
—
Themes
Action
Country
United States

About

Zineth is a 3D skating freeware video game by independent developer Arcane Kids released for Microsoft Windows and Mac in 2012.

Keywords

  • exploration
  • parkour
  • 2.5d
  • flight
  • action-adventure
  • abstract
  • time rewind
  • igf awards
  • time trials

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Zineth takes place in a dystopian future in which the entire world has been "absorbed by a mobile game", resulting in the brainwashing of all of its inhabitants. The player controls a magazine deliverer who must deliver "'zines" to people in order to show them what real life is like.

Development

Zineth originally began development as a student thesis project in experimental game design at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, worked on by a team of 7 developers. Co-creator Jacob Knipfing cited inspiration from many Dreamcast games such as Jet Set Radio and Rez.

It began development in late March 2012, and was later released in early August of that year. Described as "a student game made over a few months meant to celebrate speed, movement, and twitter," it has the player traverse through various environments at high speeds, all the while completing missions provided by other characters in order to earn cash. A cell phone is consistently present on the player's screen and incorporated into the game, used to receive missions as well as play other games contained within the phone, with inspiration taken from free-to-play Flash games and RPGs. Twitter is also prominently featured as an aspect; players can use it to take in-game pictures using the phone and tweet them.

Reception

In 2013 Zineth won an award at the Independent Games Festival for best student game.

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

PlatformReleasedRegions
macOS9 August 2012Worldwide
Windows9 August 2012Worldwide

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Collections3 collections

Platform libraries

Licensing

Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.