| In late 1996 US role play game producer KEN WHITMAN encountered the daunting arwork of STEVE STONE at a UK gaming convention. Within one hour of their meeting WHITMAN had commissioned a role
play game based entirely on th NEXUS DNA imagery.
"This was an incredible opportunity for us," says STONE "It is incredibly rare here in the West for a game to be based around the work of an artist or indeed any designer. We usually come in after the script as it were. This time the game designer Lester Smith was following us and basing everything on the imagery that was produced here in the UK.
 "ZERO is basically a strange bio-technological hive or anthill society that is ruled by the empress Zero. She is the begining and end of that society and it's conciousness. All members of this slave world are connected to each other, they share the same mind. Each knows the other thoughts. All members fulfill their role in that society without quiestion. They are not
even capable of free thought.
"It is here that the game begins,you, the player suddenly have developed thoughts of your own. At first these thoughts tease you and then you start to act on them. You start to question what you are doing and where you are going. Zero knows your mind and detects these thoughts. From that moment on you are on your own with everything around you now hostile.
"ZERO is about a desperate bid for freedom against all odds."
Stone adds "If you collide the Borg from Star Trek with the concept of Logan's Run then you get a pretty good idea of what ZERO feels like. But it is, I think, more terrifying than either." |
