Most level names are also connected to films, and not just horror movies are referenced, but serious dramas (“Dances with Werewolves”), old classics (“Seven Meals for Seven Zombies”), and even music bands (“Weird Kids on the Block”).
Every monster is inspired by a well known horror trope, including: zombies, lagoon monsters, aliens, werewolves, plant pods from Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and a diverse assortment of others. If all the neighbors die, it’s game over. If a monster touches them they die and the number of neighbors for all subsequent levels is reduced by one. There are ten neighbors in each level touch them and they disappear, touch all of them and the exit appears. The premise is that the nefarious Dr Tongue has unleashed monsters on suburbia (plus Egyptian pyramids, ancient castles and tropical lagoons), and as either Zeke or Julie you must rescue all the neighbors. It was released in 1992 whereupon the two went on to separate projects, and the birth of ZAMN took place. The pair’s big break came when tasked with creating the Empire Strikes Back sequel for the NES console. We wanted to design and build new games that were more action-oriented and had a graphical user-interface, since the UI of the story games back then only consisted of words.“ This didn’t result in any full games, but some of their prototyped ideas were used in later titles. As we worked on our different projects we found time to work on original new projects in our free time after work. Streicher remembers his time working with Ebert: “ During those days at Skywalker Ranch I was a game scripter and an honorary artist, since I had my desk in the art pit sitting next to Mike. Wanting to become more involved with design, Ebert, along with Kalani Streicher who would work on the ZAMN sequel, began pitching ideas and working with the SCUMM engine. Later he worked on Indiana J ones and then The Secret of Monkey Island, under the tutelage of Ron Gilbert.
An entirely original title, ZAMN was designed by Michael Ebert, who started at LucasArts as an artist working on the NES port of Maniac Mansion, as detailed on Gamasutra.
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