Taken down
Zombie Hazard
Our first game on Steam. Online co-op, an upgradeable Wraith Suit, and a lab of mad scientists who let a virus out. Made at sixteen. Two reviews, and later, the end.
Steam pageZang Inc. — Built for the long take.
Zang Inc. makes games, software and, in time, films. One house. One standard of craft.
Scroll01The House
Every story we love began in a dark room, with the lights going down. Zang began with a twelve‑year‑old and a game engine. Now it is a company with a few rooms: one builds the tools, one makes games, one makes things for other people, one is trying to make meeting someone feel human again. Not everything we built survived. All of it taught us something. The screen we are walking toward is the big one.
Zang Inc. — games, software, film
02The Slate
Five names. One roof.
Everything under Zang shares one environment: the same engine room, the same library of assets, the same taste. Each project starts further ahead than the last.
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01
Zang Inc.
The house · Est. 02.02.2020The parent. We build the software, the assets and the shared technical environment every team under the roof works in. And we are building toward film.
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Zang Games
Games · Est. 02.02.2020Where it started. Our first game, Zombie Hazard, shipped on Steam when we were sixteen and failed, completely. We kept every lesson and we are still making games.
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Heartstrings
Connection · Pre-seedA connection company. Co-operative games two people play together, and a place to meet one person at a time, for a reason.
Visit
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Axile
Software · Built in-houseProduction management for studios and creative teams. Built inside our own house, shipped as we need it.
Visit
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Obscura
Teams for hire · Open for projectsSmall teams of verified people, built around your project and your budget, run by a project manager until the last file is delivered.
Visit
03Now showing
The internet used to be a place where you met people. Then it became a place where you rated them.
Heartstrings is a connection company. It builds co-operative games that two people play together, and a place where you meet one person at a time, for a reason. It feels more like meeting people in real life than swiping does.
One note is a note.
Two notes make harmony.
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i.
No feed of people.
No search, no grid, no nearby. You can never see two people at once. The only way to a person is to meet them.
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ii.
The Evening.
A few introductions arrive in your own evening, each carrying the reason. Nothing expires. No streaks, no badges.
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iii.
The game is the introduction.
Co-op only, never competitive. Two strangers, something to do together, and never an empty message box.
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iv.
Designed to be kept.
Monetise the games. Never monetise the connection. Here, finding someone is not a cancellation.
- Audited join events
- 6,168
- Verified by a live human
- 1,962
- Active profiles
- 614
04In-house software
Work, directed.
Production management built inside our own studio, for studios and creative teams. Tasks, owners, blockers, deadlines and hours in one place, and every week prints as a timesheet you can verify.
axile.zanginc.net
Call sheet · Wk 39
00:00:00
- SC 04Lighting pass, hallIn take
- SC 07Co-op puzzle, act twoReview
- SC 09Score stems, cue 3Blocked
- SC 12Build, store pageQueued
Timesheet · verified
05Now open
Everything falls into place.
Obscura makes things for other people: games, video, design, web and 3D. You bring an idea, a budget and a date. Obscura pulls a small team of verified people around it, runs it with a project manager, and sends back finished work.
- For clients
- You never hire, chase or replace anyone.
- Pricing
- In the open, before you commit.
- For freelancers
- Nobody pays to apply. Nobody works for free.
06The Cutting Room Floor
What didn't make the final cut.
Every one of these was a real attempt, and every one of them closed. What they taught us, and most of the infrastructure they ran on, stayed in the house.
Taken down
Closed
Availify
Lead generation for service businesses, in one city only: Toronto. It ran for a year and then closed.
Inactive
Cozy Care Inc.
Leads for home care services, co-founded by three and run heavily on Zang Inc. infrastructure. No longer operating, still incorporated.
Canada · Corp. No. 1591976-2 · info@cozycare.ca07The Long Take
Nine years, one shot.
Age twelve. A game engine, an empty scene, and no idea how long this would take.
00:00:00:002 February. Zang Inc. and Zang Games are founded. The name came first. The work to earn it came after.
03:00:00:00Zombie Hazard ships on Steam. We were sixteen. It failed, completely. The most useful thing we ever made.
04:00:00:00Availify opens in Toronto, selling leads to local service businesses. It closes the next year.
06:00:00:00Cozy Care Inc. is incorporated on 4 April by three founders and runs on Zang's infrastructure. It stops operating.
07:00:00:00Heartstrings begins on Discord. A laboratory, not a destination. People verify with a real human before they get in.
08:00:00:00Axile ships in-house. Heartstrings opens its pre-seed round. Obscura opens for projects. Zang becomes a house.
09:00:00:00Film. When we have earned it.
--:--:--:--08House Rules
How we work.
- I
Story before feature.
If we cannot say why it matters in one sentence, we do not build it.
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Build it once.
Tools, assets and systems belong to the house, so every team inherits the last one's work.
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Ship what we promised.
A feeling sold before launch is a debt owed at first contact.
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Taste is a thousand refusals.
Most of the work is deciding what not to make.
09Founder
Ankit Zang.
Started making games at twelve. Founded Zang Inc. on 2 February 2020. Shipped a game that failed, co-founded companies that closed, and kept building the house anyway.