Excitement and anxiety mingle in an exciting whirlwind of responsibility and opportunity when an indie developer’s project built for passion, doing just what he loves, turns into a finished video game. This is the story of Luca Carbonera, the designer of ZERO Sievert: a completely self-made pixel art shooter.
Inspired by the Escape From Tarkov, Stalker, and Metro saga, ZERO Sievert wants to be “an entry point for the extraction shooter genre,” said Carbonera, or games where you catapult into a map and must confront the deadly threats that protect them, rescuing resources before they’re safe.
We previewed the version that will be released in early access, and not only us, but many Steam users evaluated it positively by 89%. in this Interview with Luca Carbonera We asked him about the journey that transformed ZERO Sievert from hobby to full-time business, his inspirations, his doubts, and his great satisfaction after the success of early access.
game that isn’t there
The story of ZERO Sievert will be a bedtime story for me. young game designers “Honestly, in the early stages of development, the project was just a hobby without any expectations,” said Carbonera, who wanted to get closer to this world. . When I started posting videos on YouTube and Reddit, I realized that people liked it, and then the development got more serious”.
Every work has its inspirations and Sievert is no exception. “Originally inspired only by Stalker, but seeing the huge success the genre has had take out shooter I decided to add elements created by Escape from Tarkov in this direction. Before ZERO Sievert, there was no 2D landing shooter game, and this is a game that players wanted. But I only realized this after the Kickstarter campaign in 2021, which raised around 20,000 euros in 30 days. “Getting a lot of attention at the time made me realize I had a game with good potential”.
lone wolves
The character played by the players is the hunter character. lonely wolf Investigating the wilderness outside a bunker to clean up resources and uncover the origins of the nuclear disaster that plunged society into apocalypse. “I’ve always enjoyed post-apocalyptic games, and having spent countless hours playing Stalker and Metro, I can say that the setting is pretty easy.” Carbonera isn’t exactly a lone wolf, either, as he talks about the challenges he faced while working on the ZERO Sievert, and the many helpers. “Since the project is just a hobby, I made a lot of choices in the early stages of development based on my tastes and experience as a gamer. After the Kickstarter campaign the ZERO Sievert community grew very quickly and having hundreds of beta testers helped a game a lot. They gave me a lot of ideas, They gave constructive feedback and reported any bugs they encountered.”
In terms of obstacles, the most difficult to overcome overall balance. “Creating a balanced and rewarding sense of progression is not easy at all, even AAA companies struggle. It takes around 25 hours for a new player to complete all the missions, build the base and get the best equipment possible. I think this is a great milestone. Early Access For its launch, almost all beta testers liked this phase. The next game, namely the endgame, is a completely different story and even more complex to manage. Here too I’ll be getting help from the community and hopefully more ideas will come after launch.”
Password: replayability
All available biomes in ZERO Sievert are somehow spawned procedural to guarantee a new experience every time the hunter decides to leave the bunker. Carbonera explains his choice in a few simple words: “Replayability is essential for ZERO Sievert, not only that, but also the sense of not knowing what awaits you. Having many quests and five biomes for now, create very interesting maps. Here, there is always something new procedural helps a lot because it allows me to create.”
Not only the environment, but even the inhabitants of the apocalypse, there must be something different for each mission: “Not only is procedural enough, you also need random elements to make the game world live. Here too I was inspired by Stalker. In Stalker, NPCs can freely roam the maps and Not all encounters with them are scripted. A similar mechanic is also available in ZERO Sievert. At the start of each game, a certain number of NPCs are created to move around the map, these are NPCs can interact with each other and it’s not uncommon to stumble upon factional skirmishes or an already hacked bandit camp. It’s a very complex system to manage, but with the necessary improvements, I’m sure it can add a lot to the game.”
Early access launch
A few days after it entered early access, the first positive feedback started coming in, and the extraction shooter community said so. excited for the title and potential. “It was a great experience! A dream come true! ZERO Sievert has gone from a hobby to one of the most anticipated games on Steam within a year, I still can’t believe it. I was growing excited, even a little nervous but finally calm because of the work we do and the current state of the game.” The reaction from the community has been phenomenal, the chat on Discord was already full of messages from users who couldn’t wait to launch it a week ago”.
Just the fan community that was born on Discord, especially during the Kickstarter campaign, support leg improvement: “They give me very little feedback on QOL changes (general improvements) ed) or small features to improve the title, and that’s great because a game like ZERO Sievert needs the community’s help to be optimally developed. I’m very happy with how it went and couldn’t have asked for better. Sales are very good, the community is enjoying it, and it’s a personal satisfaction to see your favorite streamers playing and enjoying ZERO Sievert.”
The future of Cabo Studio
Carbonera also established its own development studio. Cabin Studio, so we asked him what the next steps were for not just ZERO Sievert but the entire studio. “My goal with Sievert was to get to the Early Access launch with a well-grounded game and I can say I’m satisfied. I definitely want version 1.0 before it’s released. apply two more biomes indispensable for the science of the game world. In addition to the maps, I will add weapons, equipment and enemies. Another important goal is to have a good reputation system with different factions so that each game is different from the previous one. Many users are clamoring for Coop, but it’s not easy to add it properly, especially on a project that’s under such advanced development. In Game Maker (the tool used to develop the game) I will try every means possible to inform myself and talk to network experts. ed) but Sievert will most likely remain single-player.”
What about the future? “ZERO Sievert 2? (laughs) Honestly I don’t know! I’m struggling to have clear ideas as everything is still new to me, but one thing is for sure: if ZERO Sievert If it succeeds enough to give me the luxury of pursuing this passion, I will continue to do so! For me, and like many other indie developers, being able to work on your own project full time is a dream come true.”
Source: Multiplayer
