Carceri Zero Factsheet
Developer:
NeonSerpent LLC
Founded April 2014, by James Beech
Austin, TX (address/phone avail. upon request)
Press/Business Contact:
Social Media:
Twitter/X/Instagram: @neonserpent
Release Platform:
PC, on Steam
Release Date:
May 24, 2024 (Zero update in November)
What is "Carceri" anyway?
Carceri [car-chair-e], noun:
Vibrant first-person explorer. Secret-filled sorta-open world. Chaotic Art-toy. Charming story about being trapped in jail, forever. Also, the Italian word for "prisons." Escape today!
Ok, that's nice, tell me about the game.
When you visit Carceri Zero, you don't play a character, you are YOU, the person at the desk, reading these words. When you Escape here, it's a virtual vacation, a living world that's both a gallery for Art, and Art itself. But rather than stand around, you bop through the colorful scenery, camera in hand, uncovering secrets, and a cute little story.
Carceri Zero's hard to explain (and sell) because it's three things combined: a video game, a work of Art, and a Real place.
As a video game...
Carceri Zero is a relaxing, first-person narrative/exploration experience. You navigate several unique, interconnected zones while platforming, talking to NPCs, finding secrets, and taking pictures. Your camera changes the look of the world, you control the Art direction!
As a work of Art...
Carceri Zero is a contemporary extension of landscape painting, an acknowledgement that video games and landscapes are both forms of Escape. Many in my family are landscape painters, and this is my way of continuing the tradition.
As a Real place...
Carceri Zero is conceived to actually Exist, an extension of Reality that its digital residents consider as legit as the physical world you inhabit now. The game's design, and story, revolve around this concept. It's not breaking the 4th wall, because the 4th wall doesn't exist here.
Any uniqueness or charm Carceri Zero has (if any at all) comes from this bizarre combination.
Is this a harmonious marriage, or is it a chimera? You tell me!
This is a 2-4 hour game, a spiritual successor to ULTRAWORLD EXODUS, though no familiarity is required. Carceri Zero's not challenging, so anyone can complete the narrative portion of the experience, and there's things to do afterwards. Buying the game gives access to the 41 song original soundtrack (only a bonus if you dig the music).
About the Creator
Solo-dev James Beech is a bizarre combination of AAA game vet and Fine Artist. He's worked as a Level Designer on Metroid Prime 4, Remnant From the Ashes, Darksiders 3, and Crysis 3. He's also released several albums, and hundreds of so-called "paintings." Unsurprisingly, he sees video games as an Art form, and is doing what little he can to add to the medium, though ultimately he may be subtracting instead.
Click here to learn more about this game's creator (not recommended, boring reading).
Meanwhile, behind the scenes...
Carceri Zero is influenced by a series of prints by the same name: Carceri d'invenzione, by Giovanni Battista Piranesi. These sixteen etchings, from the 1750s, show fantastical worlds of invented spaces, predating M.C. Escher by two hundred years! As a Level Designer by trade, that's exactly our job: create impossible worlds. So, to my eyes, Piranesi's prisons are akin to the origin of Level Design. His impossible worlds are now a Real one you can visit!
That said, the name Carceri Zero was chosen for another reason. Art, as entertainment, is a form of Escape, and no medium better represents this than video games. Rather than passively watching/reading other people’s stories, in video games, YOU are the hero, YOU are the one saving the world.
People desire to Escape for numerous reasons, often to de-stress, (which likely accounts for the surge of cozy games). But it's funny to consider another genre that's popular now: Soulslikes. Seems some people would rather be thrown into virtual purgatory, being curb-stomped for hours, than deal with real life (I say this as a fellow curb-stompee).
From this odd observation, I thought I’d make a virtual prison. One that’s deeply relaxing for humans, but an inescapable jail for all modern programs, the "characters" of Carceri Zero. You can come and go freely (launch/quit), but the programs remain trapped unless YOU (a heroic human, on vacation) save them. By story's end, the idea of what’s a “Prison” and what’s an “Escape” is hopefully blurred; left for your interpretation.
Hence the title, Carceri, meaning Prisons. Don't worry, you won't be curb-stomped here!
[October Zero Update: Carceri has been renamed Carceri Zero, in honor of thousands of indie games that are utter and absolute flops. Games with not just a few players, or a few reviews, but literally ZERO. Is unseen, unheard, unknown Art worth anything? Perhaps there's Freedom in obscurity, but there's certainly zero money, and unfortunately, money's the only thing the bank accepts for mortgage payments.
Yes, that does mean the game is "Prisons Zero" which makes about as much sense as "Metal Gear Solid," or, "UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH Exe:Late." However, there's new content to go along with this silly name, primarily a fancy new Art gallery featuring photo-collages hand-stitched together from hundreds of in-game photos, taken using the built-in camera system. Tons of other tweaks across every facet of the game as well, but with zero players, who would even know?]
