QUOTE(kurt91 @ Apr 17 2012, 05:33 AM)
Graphics: I like the tileset pretty well, is it something you came up with yourself, or is it something off the database? The pastel look is pretty nice. The dungeon graphics are fairly standard, but please try to make some better tiles for the deep-area walls. You know, where it's still a top-down room, but you go down stairs so the walls appear to be 4 tiles high. The bottom 2 tiles worth of height look absolutely terrible, in my opinion. Also, the stop-sign graphics were a nice touch. At first I thought they were to show that you either pushed them or needed the Bracelet, but it dawned on me pretty quick that they led to unfinished areas.
It's sort of a fusion, really - it's the Demo tileset, which Exate modified and released on here, which I ran with for ALTTS... and then modified heavily again for this quest, although the changes are more internal. (You'll still see plenty of differences, though!)
As for the lower walls... that's really a difficult spot for me. I've actually been having trouble with them since the original quest, and that was pretty much the best I could get them. (I didn't draw these either, but rather got them from Peteo's Ages tileset that he released a while back. Don't know where it can be found anymore, considering I downloaded the thing back in 2003...)
QUOTE(kurt91 @ Apr 17 2012, 05:33 AM)
Sound: I'm not really that knowledgeable on music, actually. Everything sounded pretty good, not painful to listen to. Yes, I played it with the added sound files like they were meant to be used. Did you make it yourself, or did it come from somewhere else?
Unfortunately, I didn't compose the music - that'd be akin to a cat walking around on a piano. They were grabbed from themodarchive, and the creators can be seen by opening the modules up in a media player such as Winamp. (I do plan to credit them in the actual quest upon its completion, however.)
QUOTE(kurt91 @ Apr 17 2012, 05:33 AM)
Overworld Design: Normally, I tend to avoid Classic quests. Unless they're very well made, I don't really like them that much. This one was an exception. You actually used the newer tiles (big interlocking trees, as an example) very well and gave it a fairly modern feel with a retro tileset. I liked it. Now, the caves were a bit odd. Were they meant to be an interlocking cavern system, or a full-out Dark World? If they were meant to be caves, then you need to come up with a more cavern-looking tileset to show that. If they're meant to be a Dark World, then it would be nice to allow us to continue using the space-bar map. I got lost a lot. Also, you might want to tone down the sword-less portion. It's fairly long and seems a bit too open when you're still searching for a weapon.
Glad to hear you like the way the overworld's constructed - what you're describing is exactly what I'm shooting for, and I'm glad to know I nailed it! The caves using the overworld tileset is more of a throwback to the way the original game handled its caves... I suppose alternate mountains would be possible, but unless inspiration strikes and the planets align properly I don't know what I'll do. It's supposed to be a sort of cave/underworld type thing, in that it's more open than traditional caves (and can take you many places on the overworld). As for being without a sword, I've since made it a bit easier to grab after uploading the demo. Might find ways to make it harder to get lost on the way to the right cave, though, after seeing a stream of it.
QUOTE(kurt91 @ Apr 17 2012, 05:33 AM)
Dungeon Design: Holy crap, those dungeons are HUGE!!! I've found that most people will usually make a small and interesting dungeon, or a large and boring dungeon. It's very difficult to make something that big and keep it from feeling like it's dragging out immensely. You've managed to build a very large dungeon, that seems to be paced out nearly perfectly. I like how you kept a more modern feeling design going while using the classic tileset, that needs to be done more often in my opinion. The only drawback in size is that it's very easy to get lost, still. It took a fair amount of backtracking for me at one point when I found a key but had no idea where the appropriate door was. You may want to consider allowing the space-bar map here as well.
I appreciated how you avoided the unfair-type puzzles, such as unmarked bomb-required doorways and walk-through walls that provide absolutely no way of knowing they're there without test EVERY SINGLE space in the walls. It would be nice, though, if you could come up with a consistent tile to show where a block needs to be placed, and have some sort of mark to show which blocks are push-able. However, situations like this are fairly far apart. I also really appreciated the midway warp shortcut. If you decide to continue this project in RC3, you might want to use more than one, with the added warps per screen.
So, anyways, I really enjoyed this demo, and I gave it a 4 out of 5. Not perfect, and could use a couple (very) slight improvements, but very enjoyable.
First off... a spacebar map is a no-go here, unfortunately! It's more due to the technical limitations of ZC than my ideas, though, as Dungeon type DMaps don't allow it! As for the "more modern" design comment, thanks again - again, this is what I'm shooting for! (Even was in the original quest to an extent, although this expands on the idea somewhat.) Glad to hear that the levels remain interesting even with their large size! I'm not even sure how I started off with huge dungeons, admittedly...
As for the puzzles, I'll see what I can do. I can't make it
too obvious or it'll lose the concept of being a puzzle, but I'll see if there's a few spots where something's a bit too open-ended. (As for "traditional block puzzles", don't expect those ever. I can't make them, I hate solving them, they're just generally a headache. Not great at puzzles to begin with, though...) Not sure how I'd implement multiple warps (as in making them fit into the dungeon, not technically) either, honestly... trying to keep things sort of LA-like here. Wanting to keep the quest in 1.92 might also be a bit of a block here - rather keep it going in the version I started it in, since I remember taking the original from 1.90 to 1.92 being a bit of a pain.
Thanks for playing the demo and providing feedback, and glad to hear you enjoyed it! Feedback like this is incredibly helpful. Let me know what you think of Level 2 once you've finished it! (Unless I'm misinterpreting something somewhere and you already have...)
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