ZERO_DAY

by willops

ASSEMBLE YOUR CYBERJACK

DEFEAT YOUR OLD BUILDS

No generative AI was used in the making of this game. FL Studio and Toon Boom project files are included in the source.

Tools used:
- Unity (game engine)
- Toon Boom (sprites)
- FL Studio (music)
- LabChirp (sound effects)

Post-submission changelog:
- Added a different message if you beat the game on hard. This is just so people can post their wins in the comments and should NOT effect your rating of the game
- Made some sounds quieter

Controls:
- Aim with mouse
- W to thrust
- S to reverse
- Shoot and place parts with left click
- Remove parts with right click

Hints:
- Wave enemies with a red arrow coming out of them will copy whatever Cyberjack you make for the current wave
- Each enemy has its own AI with its own weakness. Tailor your builds to exploit the enemies that copy them
- Mouse over enemies in the wave view to see a description of their AI
- Remember you can reverse with S! This is useful for kiting enemies like the TROJANs
- Your first build needs at least one weapon or you will softlock

I added a rebalanced version to the itch downloads as some people are having trouble with the early difficulty, however this build should just be used to experience all the content in the game and shouldn't effect your rating.

Comments21

Gevernus19 Oct 2026, 12:45

green phosphor terminal, scanlines, the typed-out "hard drive corruption 97%" intro, good tension. only got through the intro so i cant talk about the shooting. letting a click finish the text would help on replays

zevwax19 Oct 2026, 13:52

Thank you for the game!

WeLoveGames20 Oct 2026, 04:07

I wanted more room to experiment with the construction system, but the early difficulty made that hard. After six attempts, I still couldn't reach 1 MFLOPS. Fewer enemies and less frequent enemy fire during the first three levels would have helped me learn the game and try different builds.
The intro also felt too long and text-heavy. More building options and a gentler start would have made the game more enjoyable for me.

Willopsauthor20 Oct 2026, 04:11

@welovegames Dang... and here I was thinking that I made the game too easy XD

wewrutuwertrer20 Oct 2026, 04:27

Cool sound design and graphics!! I like the idea of seeing your previous cyberjacks in the game, forces you to be a little more mindful of your decisions. But overall the gameplay was a little too hard for me >_

nathmate20 Oct 2026, 04:43

I liked the audio, and the risk-reward balance of designing a build you'll have to fight later. It would've been cool to be able to rotate the components, but I'm guessing you didn't want to have to write enemy AI dealing with weird layouts, or make a control scheme for weird thruster orientations.

One QA quibble is if you go into the first level with no weapon it'll deadlock. Also it'd be nice to be able to speed up or skip the intro.

mikeware20 Oct 2026, 06:48

It'd be great to repeat the controls in the game description on itch. I added the health box on top, then the gun, and got stuck in the corner with an enemy on each side I couldn't shoot. But love this concept and the aesthetic. So cool! Caught your game on TigerJ's stream. Great chatting with everyone there!

Blus720 Oct 2026, 07:22

I think I’ve hit a softlock.

Willopsauthor20 Oct 2026, 18:54

@blus7 Yeah I didn't quite have time to fix that, I just kinda hoped that it would be self-evident you needed at least one gun, sorry about that

Willopsauthor20 Oct 2026, 18:54

@mikeware Added em! Thanks for the suggestion

Willopsauthor20 Oct 2026, 18:55

@nathmate Yeah I considered being able to rotate components, but it was too exploitable with the enemy AI. I would've had to write very complex enemy code to get that to work

Ulziton20 Oct 2026, 23:29

AMAZING GAME, such a cool idea, the amount of feedback and mechanincs is enormous

Cheeks20 Oct 2026, 23:47

The game is cool, I wish the r to restart would work before you die, I went in with no gun and the enemies had no gun so they just pushed me around until I refreshed the browser and had to rewatch the long intro, and then I did it again by accident when I thought I had a gun and had to just give up at that point. But I unlocked every attachment on my first run.

Grizwhirl20 Oct 2026, 23:48

Would be neat to have a bit more play with the upgrades early, difficulty curve is maybe tuned a tad steep. Seemed like I could only get past further levels when the ai glitches out and runs away the whole time

Willopsauthor20 Oct 2026, 23:54

@cheeks Ah yeah that would have been a good feature, unfortunately it was really down to the wire to cram in all the features I wanted so some polish had to be left out

Willopsauthor20 Oct 2026, 23:56

@grizwhirl Yeah... it was a bit of an oversight. Part of me wishes you could make balance changes and tweaks post-submission, but that'd be against the spirit of the compo

bigwhiteshogun21 Oct 2026, 00:06

Hard? Naaah. I think it's spot on. Beat it on the first try, though when it says in the end screen to press any button to continue the game froze and I couldn't do anything. Even when I left the full screen mode on itch it wouldn't let me to open full screen again. I'm also a huge fan of unlocking "special" stuff for people who want a little extra on top. High replay value is always a thing I appreciate a lot and know it's not always easy to add it so kudos to you for doing so.

This game peaked my interested when I saw Tiger playing it on their stream yesterday. It is fun, clever, well polished and rewards players skills and their strategy. Even simplistic artstyle fits this title really well. Great entry!

For people who struggle, be a TANK! You do not have to be fast or mobile in general if they puny guns cannot hurt you ;)

Willopsauthor21 Oct 2026, 00:14

@bigwhiteshogun That's kinda what I thought. Reloading the browser and playing through hard mode is more of a genuine challenge, but I didn't feel the normal mode was THAT hard, but it seems most people can barely get past the first few waves

YibiRabbit00721 Oct 2026, 01:53

I think it would be great to turn the theme of Zero Day into an antivirus software to attack malicious patches on web pages. The current airplane battle is also very pleasant to watch ❤

Eugenik21 Oct 2026, 02:23

I really liked the premise of designing your cyberjack from the ground up. That risk/reward feeling of assembling a powerful build just to have to fight your own previous, less capable versions is a fantastic mechanical loop. Great concept!