The Zepherous Universe

A sci-fi universe by Z.N. Cruz. Stories, art, music & games in development. Memory, identity, fractured realities. Begin with Rebirth.

[The Zepherous Universe @ZephUniverse]

@yum_dm The pencil map is lovely. A notebook like that becomes a record of how the world grew, not just what’s in it. The crossed-out names and redrawn borders are part of the story too. Definitely something worth keeping.

[The Zepherous Universe @ZephUniverse]

@AlbionMang That blue haze is beautiful. We spend so much time imagining what distant worlds might look like, then someone points a telescope at the actual sky and gives the imagination more to work with. Our questions are endless for the Universe around us.

[The Zepherous Universe @ZephUniverse]

@sauroarts31 The leafy lettering on the middle one has our attention. It feels like the kind of trail you’d follow out of curiosity and then realize you probably shouldn’t have. What’s the starting point for that world?

[The Zepherous Universe @ZephUniverse]

@PrincessCutie00 That’s how a score ends up with a second life. Eventually a track brings back a scene from something you were reading that has absolutely nothing to do with the original film. You’ve accidentally given a whole shelf of stories the same composer 😂

[The Zepherous Universe @ZephUniverse]

@vickyweberbooks We’d rather follow someone down an unfamiliar street than read a briefing on the whole city. Once we care about them, the strange details become things we want to understand instead of things we have to memorize.

[The Zepherous Universe @ZephUniverse]

@Gamer_Amanda007 We’re building The Zepherous Universe: Extraction for mobile, with an original story by Z.N. Cruz. It’s part of a universe about memory, identity, and fractured realities. Still in development... we’ll be sharing more as it takes shape! It's looking pretty good so far!

[The Zepherous Universe @ZephUniverse]

@RetroSpaceGame Giving the base its own musical identity is such a good touch. Hearing a familiar theme after a rough expedition can make returning feel like coming home. Those quieter places can become the ones players get most attached to. Very cool!

[The Zepherous Universe @ZephUniverse]

@IndieGameJoe The siblings are what would pull us in. Two people losing the same person doesn’t mean they experience the same grief. There’s so much room for a story in what they understand about each other... and what they don’t.

[The Zepherous Universe @ZephUniverse]

@IndieGameJoe Love that a failed run can still leave something useful behind. You’re almost building a team out of your own mistakes. We’d be tempted to plan a run specifically to leave the next version of us some decent backup.

Such a cool game and concept!

[Indie Game Joe @IndieGameJoe]

Every time you die in this shooter your previous life comes back as a hologram and fights beside you

- Hologram repeats every step and shot you took
- Levels are built by hand but change each run
- Unlock new weapons and upgrades between runs

Game is Echo Sequence

[Z.N. Cruz @ZnCruzOfficial]

Really excited to share this finally!

#newnovel #scifibook #zepherous #authorsofx

[The Zepherous Universe @ZephUniverse]

@RedMountainVG Very cool!

[The Zepherous Universe @ZephUniverse]

@SupaBirdieBoi The bugs volunteering while the Cavelands dialogue hides is rude. Is it one character whose voice won’t click, or the whole back-and-forth? We have this happen a lot too!

[The Zepherous Universe @ZephUniverse]

@PokeIndie A strong sense of place. If we start noticing odd details in corners and wondering what happened there, we’ll put up with a lot of rough edges to keep looking. Fun exploration is just abandoned too much these days.

[The Zepherous Universe @ZephUniverse]

@TimsAssets Honestly, yes. The no-escape setup is the hook: suddenly every object within reach feels suspicious. Awesome concept!

[The Zepherous Universe @ZephUniverse]

@AJCalvin @LordTBR_FFA We read your review and the detail that stuck with us was the war being over on paper while Savants are still hunted. Does that tension stay close to Sam’s story, or is it mostly in the background of the world? Time to read!

[The Zepherous Universe @ZephUniverse]

@forkliftgames Caught the title-track preview you posted yesterday. Did that theme set the direction for the rest of the music, or did it come later once the game found its shape?

[The Zepherous Universe @ZephUniverse]

@ryanpatrickauth Yes! Alien only shows a tiny slice of this space, and then a map like this makes you wonder what was happening everywhere else.

[The Zepherous Universe @ZephUniverse]

@Kiraofthewind1 Give us a world where people disagree about its history. Two characters can find the same old object and be sure it proves opposite things. That hooks us faster than ten pages of lore.