Zap! includes a mix of team and individual game types, including Capture the Flag, Zone Control, Retrieve and Soccer, Rabbit and Flag Hunters. Zap supports customizable player ship loadouts, in-game communication, team voice chat, and internet high score rankings for registered players.
"With Zap!, I really wanted to bring the 'zen' of retro 80's arcade action gameplay to today's internet multiplayer gamer," explained Mark Frohnmayer, Zap! lead developer and lead software architect on Sierra's Starsiege: Tribes and Tribes 2 titles. He continued, "I wanted to make and play a game that is easy for new players to learn, but still has the depth to allow the development of intricate tactical strategies. Zap! also has the finest multiplayer network code of any game I've worked on to date."
"Zap! embodies the GarageGames philosophy of game design," said GarageGames president Jeff Tunnell. He explained, "we iteratively fine-tuned the core gameplay until we knew it was a blast, and then built the game around it. Zap!'s economy of design and elegant simplicity prove that a game doesn't have to have hundreds of man-years of content to be original and extremely fun."
Zap! won the IndieGamesCon '04 Player's Choice awards for Best Overall Game and Best Multiplayer Game. The Zap! demo is less than one megabyte and can be downloaded for OSX, Linux and Windows. Zap! is available for $19.95 from the GarageGames website.