Zonto Games: From Childhood Game Dev Dreams to Indie Studio

Where it all started: Snail & Co

As a kid, I started my own "company" called Snail & Co. It was me and my brothers making stupid little games together. We learned on whatever tools we could get our hands on, including Visual Basic 5, Clickteam Games Factory and RPG Maker.

I was the brains of the operation. My dad gave me a copy of Learn Visual Basic in 24 Hours, and I absolutely demolished it. I was convinced I was going to be the next Bill Gates.

My games, though, were always the worst of the bunch. Monkey King and Cycic Citizen were rudimentary and only had a few screens each. My brothers made the impressive stuff, including a shooting gallery called Time Sheriff and a full RPG based on Animorphs.

If you started out making games with tools like RPG Maker or Clickteam Games Factory, you'll know exactly how that feels.

Growing up: why Snail & Co became Zonto

As we got older, we wanted the brand to feel more grown up, so we changed the name to Zonto, named after the F1 driver Zonta.

The dormant years

Then, as these things go, we got bored of the idea and the brand went quiet. For a while I was convinced music was my future. I started a band and went off to university to do a music degree.

After uni, I fell back on development and started working as a Java web developer.

Coming back as an adult

As an adult, I started making games under the Zonto name again. The first two were Hungry Birds and Meaven in Space.

Hungry Birds

Hungry Birds started as a stupid joke, and not a particularly funny one. After Flappy Bird took off, it felt like anything could eventually get turned into a game. So we made one about women (sorry) leaving night clubs and trying to cross the road.

It was built in Unity, and for a joke game it was surprisingly well equipped. It even had adverts and Google Play Games integration.

You can play Hungry Birds here.

Meaven in Space

I honestly don't know where the idea for Meaven in Space came from. It's about an astronaut trying to escape a planet. To get away, he has to scale a never ending ladder of platforms while avoiding asteroids.

It was built in Unity again, but this one actually shipped. The original is still on the Amazon Appstore, although I've lost the developer account details, so I can't update it. That means it's stuck with a Christmas theme forever, which still makes me laugh.

Shipping a game felt completely different from the projects I made as a kid. It was live on a real app store, and anyone could download it. Getting a game over the finish line is a very different skill from starting one, and it's one I'm still working on.

The missing piece: game art

I could never finish games before because the artwork was always so crude and unappealing. I could build the systems and write the code, but art was the gap in my game-making resume, and it held a lot of my ideas back.

How AI changed what I can make

I use AI as a tool to help polish the games I make. Now I use it to help generate assets, and I also use it for code snippets.

That said, there's still plenty of my own artwork in there, including 3D models I make myself in Blender.

I want to be honest about this part, because people have strong feelings about AI in games. AI doesn't make a game for me. It helps me get past the thing that used to stop me finishing, which was art that looked rough next to the ideas in my head. I still design the gameplay, write the code and make the decisions.

Recreating the games we dreamt of as kids

This is the part I'm most excited about. Back in the Snail & Co days, we had huge ideas and tiny tools. We dreamt up games that were far beyond what we could build at the time.

Now I can go back to those ideas and finally build them properly. The one I'm working on right now is Time Sheriff, the shooting gallery my brothers made back then. I'm building a quick proof of concept that turns it into an expansive, D&D style encounter, with everyone using their phones as controllers.

It feels a bit like finishing a conversation I started with my brothers decades ago.

What's next for Zonto Games

So far, the games I've made have been mobile style games. Next, I want to go bigger. Time Sheriff is the first step, and I'm hoping to build more games with a larger scope than anything I've done under the Zonto name before.

If you want to follow along, you can find us on Instagram at @zonto_games. I'd love to hear what you think, especially if you also grew up making games with Visual Basic, Clickteam or RPG Maker.

FAQ

What is Zonto Games?

Zonto Games is an indie game studio run by Jamie Bartlett. It grew out of Snail & Co, a childhood games "company" he ran with his brothers.

Where does the name Zonto come from?

The name Zonto is inspired by the F1 driver Zonta. We chose it when we wanted the Snail & Co brand to feel more grown up.

What games has Zonto Games made?

The first games released under the Zonto name as an adult were Hungry Birds and Meaven in Space. A bigger project, a D&D style remake of Time Sheriff that uses phones as controllers, is currently in development.

What tools did you use as a kid?

My brothers and I made our first games with Visual Basic 5, Clickteam Games Factory and RPG Maker.

Do you use AI to make your games?

Yes. I use AI to help generate assets and write code snippets, mainly because rough art used to stop me finishing games. There's still plenty of my own artwork in there too, and the design, code and decisions are all mine.

Find us on Instagram at @zonto_games.