PROJECT ZACK

A broken reactor, a blinded eye, and a stolen legacy. Step into the shoes of a fugitive gunslinger in a retro-styled sci-fi universe and master runic combat with high verticality.

🕹️ About the Game

Project Zack is an indie 3D action-platformer that blends 90s aesthetic nostalgia with fluid, modern movement systems. Controlling Zack, you will explore hostile biomes using a highly customizable runic pistol and parkour skills to survive a relentless hunt led by the planet's greatest tyrant.

📜 The Story (The Runic Legacy)

What was meant to be humanity's salvation became the catalyst for an oppressive empire built on blood and a stolen legacy. As a child, Zack witnessed his uncle, the brilliant yet arrogant Dr. Silas, murder his father to turn a clean energy technology into a weapon of mass submission. In an act of desperation, Zack fired an unstable prototype that blinded his uncle's eye and destroyed the lab, fleeing into the wasteland with the original blueprints.

Years later, Silas rules the world, hiding his scar behind a cybernetic half-mask. Unable to perfectly replicate the clean energy, he has placed a million-dollar bounty on his nephew's head. Now, armed with a runic pistol you rebuilt yourself, it’s time for Zack to settle scores with the past.

🗺️ A World in Three Acts (WIP)

Forget repetitive environments. Zack’s journey challenges your reflexes across three completely distinct macro-environments:

(WIP)The Sea of Dunes (The Desert): The arid outskirts of the world. Explore survivor villages built from scrap and buried concrete structures while mastering the core survival controls.

(WIP) Shadow Canyons & Magnetic Caves: A colossal rift untouched by sunlight. Driven by raw runic energy, structures and platforms float in mid-air, demanding pixel-perfect jumps and vertical precision.

(WIP) The Industrial Megacity: The heart of Silas's empire. A gray, oppressive vertical concrete jungle cut by neon lights, exposed wiring, and industrial conveyor belts where you must infiltrate the central laboratory.

⚙️ Some Mechanics & Runic Integration

Dynamic Combat with Lock-On: Lock your sights onto enemy robots and bounty hunters while running, dodging, and strafing without ever losing track of your target.

Jump, fall and Grab: You can use edges to save yourself from fatal drops into the abyss, scaling canyons and building ledges.

(WIP) Runic Pistol Evolution: Find hidden energy cores throughout the map to calibrate your weapon with new mechanical functions:

• Pulse Rune (Impact Shot): Fire concentrated shots capable of disabling electromagnetic barriers or triggering distant switches to temporarily move platforms.
• Recoil Rune (Vertical Propulsion): Shoot the ground at the peak of your jump. The recoil generates an upward boost, allowing you to reach extremely high ledges previously out of reach.

And more!

📝 Developer Note: The Vision Behind the Project

Hello everyone! I am the creator behind Project Zack. I wanted to share a look behind the scenes, my core inspirations, and the current state of development for this project.

🕹️ The Inspiration: Reviving a Golden Era

If you miss the classic feel of MegaMan Legends (Rockman DASH), you will feel right at home here. My main goal is to replicate that nostalgic gameplay experience featuring dynamic 3D platforming, lock-on combat with strafe movement, and vertical exploration while building a completely original universe, storyline, and biomes to keep everyone entertained.

🎨 The Art Challenge: From Programmer to Modeler

My primary background is in programming, so the artistic side of game development is completely new and challenging territory for me. To learn 3D modeling, rigging, animation, and how to import assets into the Godot Engine from scratch, I decided to use the classic Megaman Volnutt model as my base for studying. It has been an incredible learning process!

To overcome my lack of formal art experience, I've been studying heavily through YouTube tutorials focused on retro aesthetics. I also frequently seek valuable advice and feedback from friends and family members who work in the art field. I chose to go with a low-poly style with retro textures (PS1-era) because it has an immense, nostalgic visual charm, and it allows me to focus on the golden rule of solo development: ensuring the core mechanics feel perfect and fun before moving on to the final visual polish.

🚀 Current Status and Next Steps

The game is still in its very early stages. Right now, I am focusing on building the foundations of the code and movement systems. However, the roadmap is set, and the next steps include:

🤖 Creating new types of robotic enemies with unique behaviors and attacks.

👥 Adding secondary characters (NPCs) along the journey to help Zack and bring the universe to life.

🛠️ Gradually replacing my placeholder study models with the game's final, definitive art assets.

🎯 The Ultimate Goal: A Playable Demo for the Community!

My absolute focus right now is to deliver a small, playable sandbox Demo as soon as possible. I want all of you to be able to test the controls, shoot some robots, explore the map, and most importantly, have fun and leave your feedback. As a solo developer, I truly believe that the best way to turn Project Zack into a complete and amazing product is by evolving the game step-by-step alongside the players.

I truly hope you like the concept! If you love supporting indie development and games with a 90s spirit, don't forget to follow the page to stay updated on future devlogs and test the demo as soon as it drops.

Thank you so much for the support, P.H. (Araness)

FAQ.

Q: Will you be using the MegaMan model in the final game?

A: No, I am only using that model as a base for learning. I have already built another model from scratch, but I still need to fix the hair (I still struggle a bit with hair modeling >.<) and the texturing takes some time. Even though the art style is "simple".

Q: Are these characters original? Do you use AI?

A: Yes, these characters are my own original creations, started from rough sketches. Sometimes I ask close friends for advice, and when they have free time, they teach me or even help draw things like color palettes, facial expressions, and concepts.

Regarding AI, I only use it when I don't have immediate help from others to create reference guides, like front and side views to model over. Sometimes I ask AI to generate a visual concept just to get a general idea of how a character might look. Sometimes the results are good, and other times they are terrible, haha.

Q: Will the final product use anything made with AI?

A: No. For the final product, every single piece of art will be handmade. I plan to commission artists whose styles perfectly match the game's retro aesthetic. Since I don't have a large budget to invest right now, I will keep building and texturing my own assets slowly but surely for the time being.

Q: Have you worked on games before?

A: Yes, I have participated in small projects with small teams in the past. Unfortunately, those projects never made it across the finish line because most of my teammates ended up giving up on game development due to how difficult it is and due to financial constraints. However, I am staying strong on this journey. I have also created a few simple mobile games before using Unity and C#, but they were very casual projects.

Q: Which engine are you using? And what programming language?

A: I am using Godot. This is the first game I'm making with this engine, and I am really enjoying it so far! I'm programming in GDScript, which is Godot's built-in language. It's very easy to use and reminds me a bit of Python.

Q: Do you have any other inspirations besides MegaMan Legends?

A: Yes, plenty! I also draw a lot of inspiration from various animations and other games. A great example is the protagonist himself, Zack, whose visual concept and vibe are heavily inspired by Vash the Stampede from Trigun!

🎮 Current Project Status

• Engine: Godot Engine (4.6.2).
• Implemented Systems: Movement and Lock-On targeting, Ledge Grab mechanics, enemy AI, scene transitions, shots, explosions.

💬 Get in Touch & Community

If you want to get in touch to chat, share your feedback, or help with the project, I have created a Discord server just for that! Feel free to join:

https://discord.gg/TrpWUyNzbD