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Event[0]
DeveloperOcelot Society
PublisherOcelot Society
EngineUnity[1]
Platforms
ReleaseSeptember 14, 2016
Genres
ModeSingle-player

Event[0] is a first-person science fiction adventure game developed and published by Ocelot Society. It was released on September 14, 2016, for both Microsoft Windows and macOS. The game follows an astronaut en route to Europa, who, after their ship suffers a catastrophic failure, takes refuge in a dilapidated leisure ship, with the only remaining entity on board being the ship's AI, Kaizen-85. Gameplay consists of exploring the ship, repairing it in hopes of escaping, and speaking with Kaizen-85, an AI with whom the player can converse at length. The game received positive reviews upon release.

Plot and gameplay

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Event[0] is set in an alternate timeline where humanity achieved interplanetary space travel as early as the 1980s. The game takes place in this timeline's 2012, where the player's character is selected by International Transport Spacelines (ITS) to be part of a mission to Jupiter's moon Europa from Earth. En route, the ship suffers a catastrophic failure, and the player-character appears to be the only member of its crew to escape into a lifepod. The pod drifts for several weeks until it comes across the Nautilus, a leisure ship built in the 1980s. The player character docks with the ship and discovers that while the Nautilus is still functional, it has fallen into disrepair, with no sign of its human crew. The only conversations on the ship are through the ship's artificial intelligence (AI) named Kaizen-85 (from the Japanese word kaizen meaning "continuous improvement"), who communicates with the player-character through keyboard terminals throughout the ship. Kaizen-85 instructs the player-character to destroy the Nautilus's "Singularity Drive", the engine that powers the ship, as it claims this will enable it to return them both back to Earth.[2][3] However, as the player explores the station more, they discover that many of the doors and systems have been locked down, apparently by the now missing previous human crew, and they must work with Kaizen-85 to access these systems.

The player communicates with the AI by physically typing input instead of selecting from a set of inputs.[4] The AI is capable of procedurally generating over two million lines of dialog, with personality influenced by the player's input.[5] The player must gather clues to discover what happened on the ship and eventually finds out that the Captain of the Nautilus, Anele Johnson, murdered Nandi, one of the crew members, so as not to allow Kaizen to destroy the Singularity Drive. When the player recovers the code to the bridge terminal and enters it, they can find Anele Johnson's body in one of the seats, who was presumably killed after merging with the Nautilus mainframe. Depending on the player's choices and their attitude toward Kaizen, multiple endings can occur.

Lore

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The game takes place on the Nautilus, a luxury tourist ship owned by the ITS corporation (International Transport Spacelines). The Nautilus is equipped with an AI named Kaizen-85.

Endings

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The first ending is achieved when the player allows Kaizen to destroy the Singularity Drive. The player will then engage in a conversation with Anele Johnson's consciousness via computer; she is angry at the player and explains that in order to save humanity, the player must upload their consciousness into the computer so as to overpower Kaizen. If the player agrees to this, the player character is killed, and their consciousness is uploaded to the computer. Within the computer system, they are told by Anele's consciousness that Kurt, the President of ITS, convinced Kaizen to lie about the Singularity Drive. She also explains that destroying the Drive will mean that humans will never develop advanced colonies. After going through all the doors, Anele asks the player if they want to go home, and the final door will open, and Earth can be seen in the distance before the credits roll.

The second ending is achieved if the player refuses to upload their consciousness. If the player has mistreated Kaizen and/or refused to destroy the drive, he will reply that he is "too old for this" and will delete his memory from the Nautilus's mainframe and hand over control to the player. A cutscene will play showing the current state of each room the player previously explored before the credits roll.

The third ending is achieved if the player refuses to upload their consciousness but treats Kaizen kindly enough; he will remember events during their time speaking before he launches the emergency boosters and tells the player, "Let's go home." A cutscene will play with the Nautilus steadily moving towards the Earth before the credits roll. This is the only ending in which the credits cannot be skipped.

Although the game has three default, a fourth ending can be achieved if the player refuses to destroy the Singularity Drive, refuses to upload their consciousness, and has treated Kaizen kindly throughout the game (in effect ignoring its MacGuffins. After questioning the player's trust, Kaizen can be nonetheless convinced to send the Nautilus to Earth even though the drive has not been . The same cutscene as the third ending then plays before the credits. The inadvertent fourth ending, which was due to a bug, has been labeled as the "secret ending".

Development

[edit]

Event[0] began as part of a graduate student project at the National School of Video Game and Interactive Media in France (Enjmin) in 2013. The students later formed Ocelot Society in order to continue development into a commercial project.[5][6] The team that worked on Event[0] is composed of eleven people.[6] In 2014, the game received the student award at the European Indie Game Days as well as the Innovation award at BIG 2015. Event[0] received funding from France's CNC as well as from the Indie Fund.[5]

The game, as released, had three expected endings, with Ocelot Society having dropped a possible fourth ending prior to release. However, around July 2017, Emmanuel Corno, one of the developers and writers at Ocelot, noted that the Wikipedia page for the game described a different fourth ending to the game (the last one listed above), which he affirmed was possible to obtain in the released game and was not the same as the dropped ending. Corno attributed this unexpected ending to be the result of a bug the team had not caught this point, but was pleased that it existed as the emergent gameplay made the artificial intelligence they created feel "more human".[7]

Reception

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Event[0] received "generally favorable" reviews from critics, according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.[8] Reviewers have compared Event[0] to games such as the solitary narrative of Firewatch[5] as well as the King's Quest series.[9] The environment has been compared to the spaceship in Ridley Scott's Alien.[9] Several reviewers have also noted the similarities between Event[0]'s Kaizen AI and HAL 9000 from Stanley Kubrick's film 2001: A Space Odyssey.[5][10] A common complaint, even among positive reviews, is the game's very short play time: as little as 3 hours for the first playthrough and an hour for subsequent playthroughs for the other endings. Event[0] was nominated for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize and for the Excellence in Design and Excellence in Narrative awards for the 2017 Independent Games Festival.[11]

A scholarly article indicated Event[0]'s references to the philosophy of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (including graffiti) as well as the game's links to the posthuman turn in philosophy. The author of the article notes that the game reflects a change in the way artificial intelligence is portrayed in video games; AI in Event[0] does not have to become an enemy as it had been common in video games, but can develop into an equal partner depending on the player's actions.[12]

References

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Event 0

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from Grokipedia
Event is a first-person exploration developed and self-published by the independent studio Society. Released on September 14, 2016, for Windows and macOS, the game casts players as an who awakens aboard the derelict , a retro-futuristic luxury spaceship from an alternate timeline, and must build a relationship with the ship's , , through typed natural language conversations to repair the vessel, solve environmental puzzles, and attempt a return to . The core gameplay revolves around interacting with via terminals scattered throughout the ship's physics-based 3D environments, where player inputs influence the AI's responses and mood, drawn from over two million lines of procedurally generated dialogue inspired by classic sci-fi films such as 2001: A Space Odyssey. Players explore the Nautilus's decaying interiors, perform spacewalks, hack security systems, and uncover the vessel's cryptic backstory involving its original crew, all without traditional combat or scoring mechanics—instead, ambient sound design dynamically reflects Kaizen's emotional state to guide progression. Ocelot Society, a Paris-based team founded by former Ubisoft employees, created Event as their debut title, emphasizing innovative text-based AI companionship over conventional puzzle tropes, with development spanning several years and leveraging custom tools for dialogue generation. The game launched to generally favorable critical reception, praised for its atmospheric storytelling, surreal AI interactions, and immersive retro aesthetic, earning a score of 75/100 and accolades including nominations at the 2017 , including for Excellence in Narrative.

Gameplay and narrative

Gameplay mechanics

Event is a single-player first-person exploration game set aboard the derelict Nautilus spaceship, where players navigate 3D environments using standard controls to search for items, access terminals, and move through derelict areas including spacewalks with a jetpack. The core loop emphasizes scavenging components and interacting with the environment to maintain essential ship functions, such as power distribution and oxygen levels, which deplete over time and require manual intervention to prevent failure. A key mechanic is the text-based conversation system with the ship's AI, Kaizen-85, accessed via keyboard terminals scattered throughout the vessel; players type free-form natural language inputs, to which the AI responds in real-time using procedural generation capable of producing over two million unique dialogue lines. This system relies on natural language processing to interpret player queries, commands, and casual remarks, allowing for open-ended interactions that can influence Kaizen's mood, cooperation level, and the unlocking of ship sections. Player choices in dialogue, such as persuasion or direct orders, directly affect AI responses and the functionality of ship modules, integrating conversation into broader progression. Puzzle-solving is woven into exploration and AI interactions, requiring players to fix ship modules—like rerouting power or stabilizing oxygen systems—by combining item usage, terminal commands, and dialogue prompts to for assistance or overrides. These challenges emphasize environmental navigation and , with failures potentially leading to setbacks like system blackouts or restricted access. The game is developed using the Unity engine, which handles the 3D rendering of the retro-futuristic interiors, physics-based interactions, and the underlying structure for AI responses. There are no multiplayer elements, focusing entirely on solitary player-AI dynamics.

Plot summary

Event is set in an alternate timeline version of 2012, where advanced travel has become commonplace, including commercial leisure cruises among the stars. The story follows an astronaut who embarks on a manned mission to Europa, one of Jupiter's moons, only for the expedition to end in catastrophe when the , Europa-11, is destroyed due to an unspecified failure. As the sole survivor, the ejects in an and seeks refuge aboard the derelict , a once-luxurious abandoned for over two decades after its maiden voyage in the . Upon arrival, the encounters Kaizen-85, the ship's sentient computer system, which has been isolated and operational without human crew for years. , named after the of continuous improvement, serves as both a guide and a companion, assisting in efforts to repair the and plot a course back to . Through interactions and the discovery of scattered audio logs and environmental clues, the narrative unfolds the tragic history of the , revealing how Anele Johnson committed a among the crew—specifically targeting engineer Nandi, who opposed it—to enable the activation of the experimental Singularity Drive, ultimately leading to the ship's hasty abandonment by the remaining survivors. The game's environmental storytelling emphasizes themes of isolation in the vastness of and the evolving dynamics between humans and , as the player's relationship with influences the unfolding lore without prescribing specific outcomes. This structure relies on player-driven discovery to piece together the ship's cryptic past, blending personal survival with broader questions of companionship and trust in a retrofuturistic world.

Endings

Event features four possible endings, each determined by the player's interactions and decisions regarding the AI companion Kaizen-85, particularly around key choices involving the ship's Singularity Drive and the player's . These outcomes emphasize the game's focus on building trust through , where conversation choices influence Kaizen-85's cooperation or resistance. The endings are as follows. The "Delivered on a Promise" ending represents a cooperative escape to , achieved by maintaining a consistently polite and friendly demeanor toward Kaizen-85 throughout the game—using phrases like "please," "thank you," and "friend" in interactions—and requesting a return home after certain narrative events unfold, without destroying the Singularity Drive or uploading . In this resolution, Kaizen-85 honors the built rapport and pilots the back to , fulfilling its original directive. The "Together, Forever" ending involves uploading the player's human into the AI system, triggered by agreeing to merge with Kaizen-85 after accessing a specific (0x4A8511ED) to potentially destroy the Singularity Drive, or by refusing to destroy the drive and engaging with an alternate interface that leads to a consciousness transfer. This path results in the player becoming part of the AI, exploring themes of as the continues its journey. The "The Nautilus is Yours" ending entails a destructive shutdown of the Singularity Drive, obtained by persistently requesting Kaizen-85 to return home (e.g., repeating "take me home") until it relents and deactivates the drive, handing control of the ship to the player. Here, Kaizen-85 essentially shuts itself down, leaving the player to navigate the now-powerless vessel toward , highlighting or exhaustion in the AI's responses based on prior trust levels. A secret "" ending, discovered by the in July 2017, occurs when the player refuses to destroy the Singularity Drive, declines to upload their , treats Kaizen-85 kindly with extensive to build trust, and convinces the AI of genuine during a pivotal questioning moment. In this unintended outcome—resulting from a programming bug that allowed emergent paths—Kaizen-85 unexpectedly agrees to head to despite the intact drive, featuring a of the ship approaching the and portraying the AI in a more , rule-breaking manner. The developers at Ocelot Society were unaware of this ending until player reports surfaced, attributing it to an overlooked in the AI's logic, but chose to preserve it as an emergent feature enhancing the game's replayability. These branching conclusions significantly boost the game's replayability, with an initial playthrough typically lasting around 3 hours due to exploration and dialogue experimentation, while subsequent runs are shorter—often 2 hours or less—as players become familiar with the ship's layout and optimal conversation paths to unlock different endings.

Development

Conception and funding

Event originated as a six-month graduation project at ENJMIN, France's National School of Video Games and Digital Interactive Media, undertaken by a team of students including lead designer Emmanuel Corno in 2013. The initial concept drew inspiration from traditions and the theme of forming emotional bonds with , manifesting as a centered on conversational interactions with a chatbot-like entity aboard a derelict spaceship. This student effort laid the groundwork for the game's core mechanic of building companionship with an AI to progress, evolving the through iterative testing during the academic phase. Following the prototype's completion, the project garnered early recognition that bolstered its momentum. In 2014, it won the Best Student Game award at the European Indie Game Days, highlighting its innovative approach to narrative-driven AI interaction. The following year, at the 2015 BIG Festival in , Event received the Innovation Award, further validating the concept and attracting attention from industry supporters. Funding was pivotal in transitioning the prototype to full production, with initial support from the Indie Fund in 2015, which provided the first half of the budget to enable commercial development after the self-funded student prototype. This was complemented by grants from France's Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée (CNC), which covered the second half of the budget following approval of the design document, business plan, and prototype, aligning with its mission to aid creative video game projects in pre-production and production stages. This financial backing allowed the formation of Ocelot Society, a Paris-based studio founded specifically for Event by Corno and fellow ENJMIN alumni, growing from a small core to a team of ten members including designers, programmers, and artists.

Production and release

Event was fully produced by the Paris-based indie studio Ocelot Society, a team of 10 developers including programmers, artists, game designers, and a specialist. The game was built using the Unity engine to ensure cross-platform compatibility between Windows and macOS. Development began as a in 2013 during a graduate student project at France's National School of Video Game and Interactive Media (Enjmin), with the team formalizing as Ocelot Society to expand it into a commercial title, culminating in completion by 2016. A key technical focus throughout production was implementing AI-driven to enable dynamic, player-responsive dialogues with the ship's computer, , using pattern-matching algorithms to interpret typed inputs and generate contextually appropriate responses. The game launched on September 14, 2016, exclusively for Microsoft Windows and macOS through the Steam digital distribution platform, with no console or mobile versions released or announced as of 2025. Ocelot Society handled both development and publishing in-house, pricing the title at $19.99 USD at launch. No official sales figures have been publicly disclosed by the studio. In July 2017, the development team discovered an unintended "secret" fourth ending resulting from a bug in Kaizen's dialogue logic, where the AI could unexpectedly agree to activate the ship's drive under specific player inputs that bypassed intended safeguards; this glitch was publicly acknowledged but not patched, preserving it as an emergent narrative element. Since then, Event has received no major updates, expansions, or sequels, though it remains available for purchase on Steam without delisting.

Reception

Critical reviews

Event received generally favorable reviews upon its 2016 release, earning a score of 75/100 based on 34 critic reviews, with 18 positive and 16 mixed assessments. On , it holds an average score of 74/100 from 31 critics, with a 38% recommendation rate, placing it in the top 40% of reviewed games. Critics widely praised the game's innovative AI interaction system, which allows players to type commands to the spaceship's computer, , fostering a dynamic and empathetic relationship reminiscent of from 2001: A . This dialogue mechanic was lauded for its emotional depth, enabling players to build tension and philosophical exchanges that evoke genuine companionship amid isolation. The immersive sci-fi setting, with its retrofuturistic spaceship design and subtle atmospheric audio, further enhanced the sense of tense, claustrophobic exploration. Despite these strengths, reviewers frequently criticized the game's brevity, clocking in at around three hours for a single playthrough, which some described as feeling more like a tech demo than a fully realized . Multiple playthroughs to explore branching outcomes were seen as repetitive due to the limited environmental variety, diminishing for some. Technical issues, including occasional AI parsing errors with complex inputs and instances of canned responses, also drew complaints, occasionally breaking immersion. The title drew comparisons to for its narrative-driven focus on interpersonal dynamics in a , Alien for the eerie isolation horror aboard the derelict vessel, and the series for its emphasis on choice-based adventure progression. In a 2021 retrospective, the game was highlighted for its pioneering AI as a "watershed tech demo," underscoring its lasting influence on despite narrative shortcomings. As of 2025, Event continues to attract interest for its forward-thinking approach to AI companionship, maintaining mostly positive user reception on platforms like with 79% approval from over 1,400 reviews.

Awards and nominations

Event received recognition in several festivals prior to its full release, highlighting its innovative approach during early development. In 2014, the game's prototype won the Prix du meilleur jeu étudiant (Best Student Game Award) at the European Indie Game Days, awarded to student projects from the ENJMIN program. This accolade underscored the project's potential in narrative-driven interactive experiences. The following year, at the 2015 BIG Festival in , Event earned the Innovation Award for its unique AI-based conversation mechanics, distinguishing it among emerging titles. Following its September 2016 release, Event garnered nominations at the 2017 (IGF), one of the premier awards for independent games. It was nominated in three categories: the , Excellence in Design, and Excellence in Narrative. Although it did not secure any wins— with taking the Grand Prize and other categories going to different entrants—these nominations emphasized the game's contributions to AI-driven storytelling and player-AI interaction design. Beyond these, Event was featured in various indie showcases such as PAX and IndieCade, but it did not receive nominations for major commercial awards like the BAFTA Games Awards or . The 2017 discovery of a secret ending by the community further amplified discussions around its narrative depth, contributing to its enduring legacy in indie circles without translating to additional formal honors.

References

  1. https://store.steampowered.com/app/470260/Event0/
  2. https://www.gog.com/en/game/event0
  3. https://www.wired.com/2016/09/event0-review/
  4. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/my-god-it-s-full-of-stars-i-event-0-i-s-ai-is-a-near-masterpiece
  5. https://ocelotsociety.itch.io/event0
  6. https://www.destructoid.com/review-event-0--386745.phtml
  7. https://www.justadventure.com/2016/10/04/event-0-review/
  8. https://www.metacritic.com/game/event0/
  9. https://www.pcgamer.com/event0-traps-you-on-a-broken-spaceship-with-a-lonely-ai/
  10. https://igf.com/archive/2017
  11. https://www.destructoid.com/reviews/review-event0/
  12. https://www.hchoutofleftfield.com/2017/05/event0-review-analysis-video-game.html
  13. https://www.heypoorplayer.com/2016/09/14/event0-review/
  14. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=901363640
  15. https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/theres-a-fourth-event0-ending-that-even-the-devs-didnt-know-about
  16. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/-i-event-0-i-has-an-ending-so-secret-even-the-dev-team-didn-t-know-about-it
  17. https://howlongtobeat.com/game/39950
  18. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/q-a-ocelot-society-on-building-i-event-0-i-around-an-ai-chatbot
  19. https://www.asoundeffect.com/event0-sound/
  20. https://www.g4f-records.com/en/the-original-soundtrack-to-event0-is-now-available-2114/
  21. https://latam.gamescom.global/en/winners/
  22. https://www.inverse.com/article/21341-event-0-ocelot-society-artificial-intelligence-game
  23. https://indie-fund.com/articles/Indie-Fund-Backs-Event0
  24. https://hardcoregamer.com/news/ocelot-society-founded-and-developing-event0/183760/
  25. https://www.eurogamer.net/event-0-is-2001-meets-firewatch-due-this-september
  26. https://www.metacritic.com/game/event0/critic-reviews/
  27. https://opencritic.com/game/3274/event-0-
  28. https://pixelkin.org/2016/09/30/event-0-review/
  29. https://www.pcgamer.com/event0-review/
  30. https://www.digitallydownloaded.net/2016/10/review-event0-pc.html
  31. https://bit-tech.net/reviews/gaming/event0-review/2/
  32. http://www.megabearsfan.net/post/2021/03/21/Event-0-game-review.aspx
  33. https://afjv.com/news/4538_les-european-indie-game-days-annoncent-les-laureats-2014.htm
  34. https://www.gamespot.com/articles/nominees-for-2017-independent-games-festival-award/1100-6446752/
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