Editing ZZT (section)

== Gameplay ==
''ZZT'' is a [[Top-down perspective|top-down]] [[Action-adventure game|action-adventure]] [[Puzzle video game|puzzle]] video game and [[game creation system]]. Players control a white smiley face on a navy blue rectangle that can move around in four directions.<ref name=":03">{{Cite book |last=Anthropy |first=Anna |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/887992348 |title=ZZT |date=2014 |publisher=[[Boss Fight Books]] |isbn=978-1-940535-02-9 |location=Los Angeles, CA |oclc=887992348 |access-date=November 26, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220213084922/https://www.worldcat.org/title/zzt/oclc/887992348 |archive-date=February 13, 2022 |url-status=live}}</ref> Players can interact with objects by touching or shooting at them. Touching ammo containers, gems, torches, and keys adds them to your [[HUD (video gaming)|status bar]]. Boxes of ammo allow players to fire bullets at objects, gems increase [[Health (game terminology)|health]] and are used as currency, torches light up a small area around the player in dark boards, and colored keys allow players to open same-colored doors. Other objects in the game include bombs, doors, and scrolls. One type of object called "Object" interacts based on written scripts using the game's scripting language, ZZT-OOP. As an example, the object could be programmed to give the player health, or fire bullets at the player, flashing text in response. At any time, players can save their progress, and return to the game's exact state.

Game worlds are made up of objects within grid boards that connect to each other. Players can move across different boards by either reaching the edge of the board or entering teleporters. Six game worlds were made for the game's release; four of them are game worlds, and each of the four starts in a different area.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Dr. Dos|date=July 22, 2018|title=Closer Look: Caves of ZZT|url=https://museumofzzt.com/article/304/closer-look-caves-of-zzt|access-date=December 3, 2021|website=Museum of ZZT|archive-date=December 3, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211203124828/https://museumofzzt.com/article/304/closer-look-caves-of-zzt|url-status=live}}</ref> ''Town of ZZT'' starts in a hub world with four buildings mixed with six exits, ''Caves of ZZT'' opens with a sparse area of torches and a scroll, ''Dungeons of ZZT'' starts with a linear opening sequence with gates that lock the player inside, and ''City of ZZT'' opens with a city street as a hub with a few structures. Two other worlds were included, serving different purposes. ''Guided Tour ZZT's Other Worlds'' previews boards of each game worlds, and ''Demo of the ZZT World Editor'' creates parallels to a museum by showing all of the items, terrains, and creatures that make up ''ZZT''. The goal for players are to reach the end board, progressing either by collecting purple keys to open locked doors, or gathering objects throughout the world.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Dr. Dos|date=June 19, 2017|title=Closer Look: City of ZZT|url=https://museumofzzt.com/article/230/page/1/closer-look-city-of-zzt|access-date=December 3, 2021|website=Museum of ZZT|archive-date=December 3, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211203124827/https://museumofzzt.com/article/230/page/1/closer-look-city-of-zzt|url-status=live}}</ref> Boards can contain action or puzzles. Action boards have the player face off against creatures. Creatures include lions, tigers, and bears. When creatures, bullets, or stars touch the player, health is lost. Once the player runs out of health, the game ends. Puzzles consist of untangling combinations of boulders, sliders, and pushers, or mazes that can include [[invisible wall]]s and teleporters. Some puzzles can trap the player, leading players to require returning to an earlier save.

''ZZT'' includes an in-game editor, allowing players to make their own worlds. Players start with yellow normal walls surrounding a new board as a blank screen. The editor allows players to add and arrange items, creatures, and terrain, and connect different boards together. Each board can be set to include specific settings, such as adding a time limit, making the board dark so the player could not see the board without a torch, or limiting the number of bullets on screen at any given time. Each board had its own isolated variables within the game, and through scripting players could create ten different [[Boolean data type|boolean flags]] for the environment, shared across boards.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Fiadotau |first=Mikhail |date=2016 |title=Game Engine Conventions and Games that Challenge them: Subverting Conventions as Metacommentary |url=https://czasopisma.uni.lodz.pl/Replay/article/view/2007 |journal=Replay. The Polish Journal of Game Studies |language=en |volume=3 |issue=1 |pages=47–65 |doi=10.18778/2391-8551.03.03 |issn=2449-8394|doi-access=free |hdl=11089/22427 |hdl-access=free}}</ref> Using ZZT-OOP, objects can be named, given commands for actions, and can send and receive messages. Everything within ''ZZT'' is displayed in the [[Code page 437|255 characters of the IBM PC's character set]] to create environments. The game supports sixteen colors, but the editor only permits seven colors for colorable objects, and has limits in the amount of objects being placed in each board.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Dr. Dos |date=September 18, 2016 |title=640x350x16 A History of ZZT's Graphics |url=https://museumofzzt.com/article/175/640x350x16-a-history-of-zzts-graphics/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220202055729/https://museumofzzt.com/article/175/640x350x16-a-history-of-zzts-graphics |archive-date=February 2, 2022 |access-date=April 9, 2022 |website=Museum of ZZT |language=en-US}}</ref> Players eventually learned additional ways to add more colors to the game utilizing commands and different text characters, and editing world files. The [[PC speaker]] permits seven notes at several different octaves, and instruments with unique pitches of clicks, pops, and snaps to represent percussion. Sounds are played through normal gameplay, or making custom sounds through scripting.{{cn|date=April 2023}}