An AZTMM game · private beta

Book One

Troy · Ismaros · The Lotus Shore · The Cyclops' Cave

Troy has fallen. Twelve ships and six hundred men turn for home, and you are the one who has to bring them there. A pixel-art adventure retold from Homer's Odyssey. Four chapters, about eighty minutes, free in your browser.

▶ Play Book One How to play

Nothing to install. Best on a phone held sideways with the sound on. Works offline once loaded. This is a private beta: testers sign a short agreement before playing.

01 · What this is

A small studio's retelling of the oldest adventure story

Nobodyssey is an 8-bit adventure game made from Homer's Odyssey, chapter by chapter, by one person and the AI working beside him. This page is Book One of four: the first stretch of the voyage home, from the night inside the wooden horse to the morning you sail away from the Cyclops' island.

Private beta means the whole of Book One is here and playable start to finish, by invitation, and we are listening. Keep it to the people we invited. It is free, and will stay free. What you tell us shapes what we fix before Book Two.

The name. Odysseus tells the Cyclops his name is Nobody, and it is the lie that saves him. The game is about the man who had to become nobody to get home.

What it is not. Not a film tie-in, not a copy of any other game. Every sprite, tune and line was made for this, from the Greek text, with the old translations open beside it. There are no purchases, no ads, no accounts, and nothing leaves your device.

Who it is for. Teens and grown-ups who grew up on handheld adventures, or who read the Odyssey once and want to feel it under their thumbs. Rated Teen: fights land, men can die, never in gore.

02 · The story so far

The way home is longer than the war

Ten years at Troy end in the belly of a wooden horse. Thirty men in the dark, one lamp, a city hauling you through its own gate. Then the drop into the streets, and the worst fight of the night at the house of Deiphobus. By dawn Troy is burning and the war is over. Twelve ships, six hundred men, and the sea between you and Ithaca.

Book One follows the first four landfalls, as Homer tells them. At Ismaros the men sack a city and stay too long for the wine, and the Cicones come back at dawn with horns. On the Lotus Shore three scouts eat the flower and forget they ever had a home. In the Cyclops' cave a giant eats your men two at a time, and the only way out is a sharpened stake, a jar of wine, and a name that is not a name.

You play Odysseus. Not a superhero: a captain who counts his men every night, and loses some. The ones you lose stay lost. The game keeps their names in the Roll so you remember them too.

03 · How to play

Learned as you go, eighty minutes to finish

  1. Open the game with the Play button. On a phone, turn it sideways; the picture gets bigger and the controls sit under your thumbs. On a desktop, the keyboard works at once.
  2. Press New game. Chapter One teaches one move at a time. A button only appears on screen the first time you need it, and one of your men tells you what it is for. By the time you reach Ismaros you have every move.
  3. Read the goal line at the top of the screen. It always says the one thing you are doing now. The chart between chapters shows where you are on the voyage.
  4. Lose a man, keep going. A torch is a checkpoint; if something goes wrong you rewind a few seconds, not minutes. Your place is saved on the device at every torch, and Continue on the title picks it up, even after you close the browser.
  5. Listen. A cough in the dark, the giant's snore, the horns up the river: the sounds are tells. Sound on is the way it is meant to be played; Captions and Mono are in Settings if you need them.

The controls

StickLeft thumb. Move, any angle. It floats to wherever your thumb lands.
X · JumpLeap, hop, climb. Hold for a higher leap. In a fight, with the stick held away, hop back out of reach.
A · HandCatch, hold a man, use, pick up. In a fight, tap to strike and hold for a heavy blow that breaks a shield.
B · VoiceA hush in quiet places, a call in loud ones. In a fight, hold to raise your shield and tap to shove.
Y · PowerAsk the gods at a torch. The bow: hold to draw, aim with the stick, let go.
MenuPause, settings, the Roll, the Voyage Book, credits.
KeyboardArrows move, Space jumps, Z hand, X voice, L power, C menu.
GamepadLeft stick and the four face buttons, the same way.

Settings: stick size, left-handed swap, button opacity, text size, text speed, read aloud, less motion, music and sound levels, challenge (Gentle, Standard, Bold).

04 · The four chapters

In the order Homer tells them

The sack of Troy at night: Odysseus cracks a Trojan shield in the street while his men hold the edges, stars over the burning city
I · Troy

The Horse and the sack

Keep thirty men silent while Troy hauls you through its own gate. Then drop into the dark streets and fight your way to the house of Deiphobus, with Menelaus at your side.

Hush, slide, strike, guard, shove. The chapter that teaches you everything. About 23 minutes.
On the sand at Ismaros: Odysseus raises his shield as the Ciconian captain swings his spear overhand, the crews watching from both ends
II · Ismaros

The ships at Ismaros

The first landfall, the first plunder, the first bad decision. Hold the beach till the horns, take up your own bow from Troy, face the Ciconian captain, and learn what staying for the wine costs.

Run, leap, the bow, the captain. An action level. About 15 minutes.
The Lotus Shore: Odysseus carries a scout back through the pink haze while another stands dazed on the cliff
III · The Lotus Shore

The sweet hollows

Three men went to ask who lives here and did not come back. Go in after them through the haze, and carry each one home before the flower takes you too.

Carry, duck, hop, hush. A rescue in four parts. About 14 minutes.
In the Cyclops' cave: Odysseus drives the glowing stake toward the sleeping giant's eye, the cheeses stacked beside him
IV · The Cyclops' Cave

The giant's house

A cave full of cheese and a door nobody can move. Work by day, hide by night, sharpen the stake, learn his snore, and ride out under the ram with a name he will never forget.

Craft, hide, the count, the ride. The Book's boss in three phases. About 26 minutes.
05 · Inside Book One

What you are getting

LengthAbout eighty minutes at a player's pace: four chapters of side-view levels, with the voyage and the hubs between them.
The sourceHomer's Odyssey, Books 9 and 12, from the Greek with Murray and Butler open beside it. Nothing from any film.
Your menSix hundred names on twelve ships. The ones you lose stay lost; the Roll remembers them.
The economyBronze, cups, tripods, cloaks and wine, won in play and spent on offerings and gifts. Nothing is bought with real money, ever.
The relicsEach ship's crew holds a relic for the one who earns their trust. The Swallow's bowstring is the first. Twelve of them make something, in Book Four.
The fightsFought hand to hand, as they happen. Every soldier shows what he is about to do: strike first, raise your shield, or shove. Break his footing and he staggers. Fill KLEOS, the glory the bards sing, and one blow finishes him.
Your witsMETIS is Odysseus' cunning. Spend it to feint, to read a rival, to bargain with a god. Rest to win it back.
ChoicesAt each landfall Homer's question is yours: sacrifice before you sail or put out at once, who goes ashore, whether to go back for the man who will not come. The voyage remembers.
The godsAthena, Poseidon, Apollo and Hermes answer at the torches, and not always kindly. Athena watches whether you honour her. Poseidon does not forget his son. Your crew mutters when you push them too far.
SoundFourteen songs, the wind and the sea under them, every effect made on your device as you play.
Tech320 × 180 pixels, plain code, one file, no download, works offline. Phone, tablet, desktop, gamepad.
Made byPeople and AI together, under one person's eye, at AZTMM.
06 · Watch

The trailer: twenty seconds of real play

Cut from the current build, not staged: a shield cracking at Troy, falling stars over the burning city, a fight won with one last blow, a choice at the gate and the stake in the giant's cave, with the score and the game's own sounds.

The trailer is the one thing from the beta you may share as is: vertical (9:16) for TikTok, Reels, Shorts and Stories. Everything else in the Build stays between us until release.

07 · Support us

The game is free. Here is what helps.

Play it and tell us

Finish Book One, or get stuck trying, and write to game at aztmm dot com: what annoyed you, what you could not work out, where you stopped. Every note gets read and most of them get fixed before Book Two.

Share it

Send the link to one person who would like it, or post the clip above. A small studio lives on word of mouth, not ads.

Follow the voyage

Books Two, Three and Four are coming: the Laestrygonians and the stars, Circe, the dead, the Sirens, Scylla, and the hall at Ithaca. Write to us and we will tell you when each one is out.

Read the full tester agreement, or sign it again. Beta notes. Known: held upright, a phone shows the game small, so turn it sideways; the small words in the fight bar are hard to read on a phone. Your saves live only on this device.