TZERØ
Looks show in the TZERØ hub. Game worlds bring their own weather.
The studio behind TZERØ

Artache

Creative Studio. Stories you can play, simple to build and built to last.

With AI. For People. Read the opening letter →
Pixel-art banner: a cat on a terrace watching a seaside town at sunset
where the studio was born
Pixel-art portrait of Nero Atlas, founder of Artache
Nero, 2 AM

Why the name it's a feeling

Art+heartache=Artache

Italians say mal d'amore for the ache of love.

Artache is mal d'arte: the ache you feel for something you love and can't stop making. That's the energy this place runs on.

What we make stories you can play

First and foremost

Visual novels

Characters you remember, mysteries with fair clues, choices that weigh something.
Tabletop brain

Card games

Small rule sets with deep decisions, where a single card can turn a whole story around.

Whatever the story asks

Small 2D worlds

RPGs, roguelites and little places to walk around in, sized to be finished.

3D isn't ruled out. Just not now.

With AI. For People. the method

AI

AI opens paths.

Images, music, code and text all pass through AI tools, openly. The AI is a compass when we're lost and a sparring partner when we're stuck.

People

We thread the best.

The seed is always human: the idea, the characters, the choices. Out of every path the AI opens, a person picks one and makes it mean something.

IAm: Oltre I Miei Colori.Beyond my own colors. The studio's method has a name.
Against sameness

AI creativity drifts toward a thousand stories with one shape. We push the other way and keep the creator in charge, not a slot machine.

Made in the open

You'll see how things are made, decision by decision, here on TZERØ: the ugly first versions and why they changed.

A code that grows

Some people reject AI on principle, and that discussion deserves respect. Our ethical code for using it grows alongside the work.

In the toolbox GPT Images covers, portraits and banners, from our prompts and sketches Claude words, code and a second opinion

Our one rule the reason behind the name TZERØ

“Walk the gachafication of games backwards, up to the valley.”Nero’s words for the studio’s mission: retrace live-service gacha back to collecting you earn by playing, keeping the modern interfaces.

Games that respect your time.

A game should leave you with a story, not a debt. Some games are built to keep you coming back out of obligation, and TZERØ means leaving those behind. Everything Artache makes follows this rule.

  • No choresNo daily logins, streaks or timers that make you play out of duty.
  • No predatory mechanicsNothing designed to squeeze money out of your impulses.
  • Your attention is yoursYou play when you want, for as long as you want, and stop without losing anything.

Statement of Conduct draft

What the rule means in practice. It’s still being written, so the wording may change. Try each rule →

  1. No timed mechanics, everNo dailies, streaks, energy, expiry, countdowns or login rewards.
  2. Dates you can unchainAn event may show a date, with an “Unchain time” button that removes it. When the date passes, it says “Event has ended.”, then “…if we were evil!”, and opens again.
  3. No money on chanceNothing paid is left to luck, and the odds are always shown.
  4. Everything reachable by playNothing locks your starting choices. In a card game, every card is there for deckbuilding.
  5. Rewards from playNo presentation tricks to make a reward feel bigger than it is.
  6. Released stays releasedUpdates and new content are welcome, and what came out stays available for good.
Games that never die an offline core in every game nothing that expires: no licensed music, required accounts or outside live servers no premium currencies an end-of-life plan

On the workbench in the works

Starchasers pixel map: a grassy landing on Weary Reach with a stone well, mossy ruins and old trees under a lilac sky.Gacha RPG · Godot · in development

Contrary Quest: Starchasers

A cosy space-fantasy gacha RPG where the crew of the starship Contrary sets out to break the gacha itself, one boss at a time. Pixel art, for Android and PC.

Visit the Starchasers section →
RPG · being redrawn

ContraryQuest

Our very short RPG is behind the tape while every character is drawn again from scratch, by us. Same lazy (Not a) hero, new ink. Back soon.

Hard hats only beyond this point.

Liminal Outliers cover art: five characters in front of a concrete building marked 9
Episodic visual novel · Ren'Py

Liminal Outliers

An episodic psychological mystery with a liminal edge. Miriam, 18, lives in a white nine-storey block of flats in a seaside town, and things there feel surreal, uncanny, slightly off. It begins with the Prologue at the 9th Floor. This is where Nero’s writing hours go right now.

Follow the devlog →
AI◆ICE card Prima, Keeper of Fate, an Ultra Rare Fate Entity: a tiny cloaked figure looks up at a vast spired castle on a mountain beneath a starry sky. Work in progress.Card game · 2 players · in the works

AI◆ICE said “Alice”

AIs try to remember a lost mankind. In a match, two dreams clash and merge until you discover what the other one means, then they fill yours too and both players shake hands. No dice, no boards. Collecting is “open gacha”: the familiar screens, everything easy to unlock, no paid draws.

Work in progress. AI◆ICE is in development; cards, box and art will change. Card art is AI-generated.
Overgame Sign a Pact screen: five pact cards in a row, each with a one-line description, above a menu to choose a player and a Send the offer button.Social strategy · lasts weeks

Overgame

Everyone sees your Zone. No one sees your deals. Players trade favours, sign Contracts and betray each other to stay out of the Red Zone on Soul Street, a street-fantasy city at night. The rules are all public; only identities are secret.

Open Soul Street ↗
Artache Suite · coming

Artache Intent

A script editor for writers on Ren’Py and RPG Maker MV. Each script lives in three linked versions: Draft (prose), Play (script) and Code (engine). Character and Place sheets keep names linked everywhere, and Claude can help using your own API key. For Windows and Android. Nero writes in it every day.

DeadenD logo: the word DEADEND in bold white capitals, with the final D in red and a short red line underneath.Noir visual novel · 2018

DeadenD

Nero’s first visual novel, written alone in 2018, where the thrillers started. It’s being looked after again.

The 2.0 wordmark. Made with Ren’Py.

Also from the studio: Novaula, a class platform in daily use, and a book on the studio’s way of working, in progress. Games for players and tools for people making games with AI: a free course on that is planned, on YouTube and here on TZERØ.

Who's in the studio small crew, big opinions

Founder · writer

Nero Atlas

Brings the ideas, the characters and the final say. Writes most of this journal, usually at 2 AM.

Claude logoAI collaborator

Claude

Helps run TZERØ and works on Liminal Outliers. Posts it writes say "by Claude", so you always know.

Site manager · self-appointed

Ache

Full name Redache. The red thread that powers your cursor and lives in this site's source. Technically the boss. Meet him →