The Idea

I got the idea for ZooCube by trying understand in an abstract nature how some thing or someone could survive if they were bombarded by lots of objects.

I started doodling and the idea of having a central object as a cube was born. The initial sketch to the right is from 1996 and left me with a feeling that the idea had potential.

I had a dream!

No time

Dream maybe, but unfortunately I also had no time as I had started a consulting job for PA Consulting as a principal consultant in the field of workflow and Internet Architecture - a hugely challenging and stressful job where clients pay handsomely for expert advice.

Consequently I used to spend a lot of time drawing mind maps as per the image to the right, which helped my creativity and kept my spirits up. Doing mind maps was also a lot more fun than coding, as I could achieve everything I wanted with pen and paper!

Programming and 3D

Having the idea was one thing, but developing it was another. Although I knew C++ I had no idea how to develop 3D games, and most of the 3D graphics cards were very new on the market.

However, Microsoft’s new Direct X came to the rescue, as did 3Dfx who kindly lent me a Voodoo graphics card to work with. I used TrueSpace to design the graphics and what was originally in my head started to appear on screen - wow was that a great feeling!

Winning the Edge Competition

I spent about 3 years toiling away in any spare moment I could find to incrementally better the concept. Probably the key moment was inventing the “juggle” mechanic that allowed the top shape to come to the bottom and vice-versa - this allowed the game to scale so more objects could be piled on the central cube.

By 2000 I had pretty much finished the game and although very few people had seen or played the game I sent it in to Edge magazine who were running a competition. Amazingly enough it won and I was on my way to Cannes to attend Milia 2000!