33 replies to this topic

[Anthus]

Our first contest closes, and with 8 votes, and 44.44% of the vote, the first contest's winner is, Demonlink!!

 

 

Congratulations!

 

DotM 2 will begin when I receive three entries. We currently have zero, but that's alright. Take you time, get them in, and we'll start when we can. I hope this was fun for everyone, and that more people become interested in doing it. Thanks for making this possible, and a special thanks goes to our other contestants as well. Thanks, BigJoe, Joelmacool, RedTribeLionk, and grayswandir for your participation.

 

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Welcome to PureZC's first Dungeon of the Month Contest! Thank you all for submitting, and making this first contest possible. We have five entrants to this month's contest, and all of them look pretty good. The entries will be posted below, and can be downloaded and played. Once you have played all the entries, you can vote. It is highly encouraged that you at least try to play all the entries before voting. Links to each contest will also be posted in the discussion thread, for record keeping.

Voting ends April 1st, 2016. Since I can't close polls, a screen shot of the votes will be taken around that time, and be counted. Any votes after that time will not count. In the event of a tie (Which is likely) there will be a 'sudden death' re-vote which goes on for one week wherein voters can only vote for the entries who tied (Like Survivor, lol).

Without any more long winded walls of text, here are this month's entries!


Demonlink – The Forgotten Ruins

Spoiler

"The Forgotten Ruins are abandoned in the hides of Twila Forest. After meeting Myra the Fairy, she advises Link to go here to find the first of three Virtue Pearls. What awaits Link in this treacherous place?" (Note: After collecting the Map, use EX1 to examine the map, and the up and down keys to switch between floors. Credits to MoscowModder for this script)."

BigJoe – Skull of Fire and Ice

Spoiler

“This dungeon was was originally submitted as a demo in October of 2014. It features a lot of scripted interactions, and a custom boss fight. I have edited the quest to give subtle hints. (It is Level 1 after all). I have additionally turned Fast Dungeon Scrolling on, since it was such a problem before. As before, there are two NSF files within, which were composed by me specifically for the quest. I hope that people will enjoy this new, more sane version! ”

Joelmacool – Poisonous Sanctuary

Spoiler

“This is level 1 of "The Whistle of Wisdom", a quest of mine that I have been working on and still is working on. The dungeon is a pretty normal length (maybe 20 minutes?). This dungeon has 15 stray fairies which probably is useless in this demo, but if you like to complete quests 100%, then collect them! Don't expect anything hard, I supplied you with all the equipment you would need.”

RedTribeLink - Level 1: Swamp Shrine

Spoiler

“Travel through an ancient shrine filled with devious traps and cursed Skulltulas.

This is the first main dungeon in Secret Skies! There will be a message block in the first room that will give you some information on how some things work. Enjoy!”

grayswandir - Crystal Shrine

Spoiler

"Pick one of three starting items, and then get warped to the dungeon. It's 20-25ish screens long, and your path varies ever-so-slightly depending on which item you picked. You can find one item in the dungeon, and it's finished when you beat the boss.

The boss is kinda meh. I didn't have the time to make him interesting. :("

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If you would like to enter next month's contest, or look at a discussion about this contest, go to this thread. Also, give the submission guidelines, and rules a read too. Contest ends on the last day of the month, and will go up on the first of the next month. All votes are screenshotted on the last day, and will be posted. Any votes after the contest has ended will not be counted. Thanks for playing!

[Deedee]

I might be able to make videos for the dungeons, if you need a video. If you'd rather have people play them, that's cool too.

[Anthus]

Actually, it would be really nice to have videos of people playing them, not gonna lie. I thought about capturing them myself, but I'm not the best at making videos of playing stuff. I have to record audio/ talking in a really jank, and unproductive way. I'd invite any community LPers to play these. After all the point of this whole thing is to get people playing dungeons. I played through all the entries (honestly, except for grayswandir's, cause I just got it, but I am going to play it asap tonight) and think having a video would be cool.

 

I think it should be up to the submitter if they want their stuff recorded, but ultimately, I don't see an issue since IotM does this,too.

[Binx]

Just as a note, I think having the dungeons recorded in video form would really increase the occurrence of voting, since I think a lot of people don't have time to play through all these dungeons.

[Shane]

Note I will be updating this post as I finish each dungeon which might take from a day to an entire week. Hopefully I will complete all these dungeons and give them well thought out reviews. My vote is null until then. I refuse to watch a video despite my limited time: I think it's more fun to play a dungeon than watch someone else play it. It's not something trivial like an enemy, puzzle or item. Also existing reviews will be edited based on conditions.

 

Demonlink: I haven't finished this but I want to just point out how unfair level 2 Stalfos are on sideview screens and no shield. Otherwise solid dungeon so far, I beat the mini-boss(?). An actual review will be here once I finish the entire thing.

EDIT: I really liked this, it's a bit extreme on platforming IMO (then again I never was good at it in the Gameboy Zeldas...) but it was a great dungeon!

 

BigJoe: I personally liked it, despite it's size. The gimmick is neat and I immensely enjoyed it. The size is a bit of an overkill but the changes since the demo before the contest are welcomed. Tied 2nd favorite.

 

Joelmacool: I like your dungeon. It's pretty solid for a first dungeon. It has as much atmosphere as a classic dungeon can ever provide. Puzzles are fun and stray fairies add some depth in exploration. Otherwise, it's pretty basic, but the solid design - both gameplay and visuals - make up for it. So far it has took 2nd place.

 

Also on a personal note, if you, Joel, have changed anything since I beta tested this, please let me know ASAP and I will replay it. I haven't actually played your submission, but I assume it's no different to what I beta tested.

 

RedTribeLink: So far my favorite dungeon here thus 1st place. The screen-design is not my cup of tea for the most part (I did enjoy it in most cases) but it can be forgiven due to how incredible the gameplay was. The "gimmicks" of this dungeon were simple but effective. The "vine" gimmick was something I had in mind for a while now, it's cool seeing it in action. The puzzles were nice and the challenge is slightly above what I would expect from a Level 1 but it was tolerable and fun. Boss was cool too. VOTED HERE

 

I did find some small bugs, I will address them in a hidden tag:

• In the "cursed" room with the graves and whatnot, the west door overhang is not effected by the transparent shadow overhang.
• Is the message "the hidden treasure in not in a chest" (paraphrasing here) intentional? It sounds a little weird. Did you mean is instead of in?
• The message where it says you have to come back later for the chest, "Later" shouldn't be capitalized.
• Hints are great and all, but they are repeated when they are outdated and don't make much sense. I cut down that vine ages ago.

 

grayswandir: The items are cool and some of the gameplay is neat. I like some of the design choices but most of the visuals aren't my liking (I never liked "detailed"/"more colourful" variations of Gameboy unless done exceptionally well) and some of the design feels empty/samey compared to the above entries. It's tied with Joel's on the visual design factor but 2nd on the fun factor. This entry was the mixed bag this month for me, but I appreciate the effort in the items.

[Joaish (RedTribeLink)]

@ Shane: Yeah, that seems to be the number one thing that sometimes slips by me sometimes is a simple typo.  Also, the overhang thing will be fixed soon.  In any case, i'm glad you enjoyed it! 

 

Also, when time allows, I'll try to review the other entries.  I've already played Demonlink's (Which I enjoyed), so I'm 1/4th of the way there. 

[Anthus]

I think people should play dungeons to be able to get the full point of the contest, and I think the people that want to play dungeons will, ultimately. My hope is to create a hub of stuff for people to play, and also give quest makers some exposure. I thought about it a lot, and as much as I'd love to make everyone to play each entry, I know some people won't cause they just don't have the time. And that's okay.

 

A video is also a mixed bag, cause maybe the person doesn't enjoy the dungeon, or struggles a lot, and it reflects poorly, or maybe they don't play them all leaving some competitors without any exposure if people only watch the videos outside of their description. As someone who loves playing dungeons, and watching LPs, it is a win-win, but I can see why it could effect voting if people don't actually experience the entries themselves.

 

I guess my philosophy is, it is up to the person casting their vote to decide what they want to get out of their vote, and from the contest.

[Architect Abdiel]

Alright. I guess I will give my opinion having played each of the dungeons.

First and foremost I have to say I find the difficulty a bit high considering that most of these are meant to be level ones. If we're going for DotM quality here I feel like they don't need to be difficult as long as they are well designed. But that may just be a personal opinion and doesn't necessarily say that any of the dungeons were bad. Just that if we are trying a cool later dungeon style maybe make them higher level with more hearts.

Demonlink: I personally would do something to simplify the difficulty from an enemy perspective. Either by giving more health regen abilitiy or just making the rooms simpler in enemy choice. And that miniboss is pretty brutal. I wanted to enjoy it more but at least for me I'm not a fan of high difficulty unless it has to do with puzzles. The design is solid however and I love having sideview implemented.

BigJoe: Honedtly, I am completely lost on what I am trying to do. I came to a point within like 6 rooms where everything was abdead end. I'm not sure what I am missing but my enjoyment may go up with just a boost to know what I'm trying to accomplish based on the dungeon's concept. That said, the screen to the right at the beginning is a bit excessive even though the award makes it more worthwhile. Music and visuals are superb though.

Joelmacool: I loved it truthfully. I thought it was excellently designed and I felt perfectly rewarded for my exploration and effort. It had a couple puzzles which were solidly created. I actually felt the need to go past the boss door in the end to hit that one arrow switch that I had missed like 10 minutes ago and found all 15 fairies for it.

What I didn't like however is the enemies always respawning. I think this a terrible quest rule and concept but that has nothing that actually stops me from enjoying your dungeon as a whole. It did feel anticlimatic I must say. After the two minibosses I was a bit let down by the finale.

RedTribeLink: Solid gameplay and design. The concept was excellent. It however had the same issue I felt BigJoe's had which was me not knowing what to do. Also this is just a personal thing but I don't like hiding things below layers. Treasure is one thing but getting hit by floor trap feels a bit unfair. Other than that I do agree with Shane that it was a bit difficult for a first dungeon. And I was a bit confused on how to reach some of the Skulltulas. Not killing them. But when they were stuck behind bushes I didn't understand how to pick up their remains.

Grayswandir: Choosing between items and making the dungeon play to each of them is pretty brilliant I must say. And I LOVE the Phantom Cloak. Is this item ised in a quest? Cause if not, I would love to see it. The only path I didn't really get was the Tuning Fork path. I'm still lost on that one. Other than that I have to thank you for giving me six hearts. I would have quit your dungeon early with three because of the difficulty of some of the rooms. Which was still a bit high but not too bad. I still don't really like layers as "doorways" but at least yours were pretty logical.


So overall I have to say Joel's is my favorite. I felt like it was the most solid and balanced. Especially considering where it was supposed to be placed in his overall quest. Just a better final boss is the MAIN thing I'd say.

[grayswandir]

Alright, so I beat all of them, except for BigJoe's, which I can't figure out. If I were to vote, I'm currently leaning towards RedTribeLink's, but that might just be because I played it last. Otherwise they were all very well done.

 

Demonlink: I felt like your vertical detection for falling off ledges was wrong. You might want to consider making that more forgiving.

 

Grayswandir: Choosing between items and making the dungeon play to each of them is pretty brilliant I must say. And I LOVE the Phantom Cloak. Is this item ised in a quest? Cause if not, I would love to see it. The only path I didn't really get was the Tuning Fork path. I'm still lost on that one. Other than that I have to thank you for giving me six hearts. I would have quit your dungeon early with three because of the difficulty of some of the rooms. Which was still a bit high but not too bad. I still don't really like layers as "doorways" but at least yours were pretty logical.

 

I guess I really should've tuned the difficulty down more.

 

All the items are completely new. The Phantom Cloak was sort-of a last-minute addition. I'll probably submit it to the database sooner or later - it's actually the cleanest script in there, and it's meant to be easy to put into a quest.

 

I'm not sure if I like the layers, either, honestly. That's why I like this contest - it lets you easily experiment with stuff.

 

For the tuning fork:

Spoiler

It was too subtle, huh? Anyway, two things you may have missed about it: If you hit the black crystals with the red aura, they turn red. Also, the effect lasts between screens, so you can hit a red crystal on one screen, walk over to the next, and convert a black one to red. I tried to make these apparent, but I guess I'll have to outright mention them.

Edited by grayswandir, 02 March 2016 - 11:59 AM.

[Naru]

BigJoe - No idea, what to do here so far. Hope I will figure it out. [Edit1] This is by far the most difficult dungeon (still cannot open the one from demonlink) but if I have to endure a classic dungeon it should be difficult. I did need 2h to solve this one, more than for the other 3 together. Though I honestly doubt I want to play 9 dungeons of this kind in a quest. You should flag the enemys to the shooter position, since at times the spawn-effect can be seen. Also the fire-shooters tile does look odd for a non-sideview screen. There is one locked door I need a key, one walkthrough I need a ladder for and one heart piece is hidden behind a locked door that also will give you a new key, what I do not like but might fit to your quest design (especially if you not use level-keys) Also I have trouble to avoid the ice shooter, maybe you could make the vulnerable to the candle (especially since it is only a blue one)

Demonlink - can I open .bin without downloading a program for it? [Edit2] Hmm, I am a bit confused how to rate this. This quest is beautiful, but there are a few tiles that look off and the colour is also not mine though I cannot say why. The sound is great and all but I am not sure I like it in a ZC-Quest, especially the pot-sound. A few of the scripted stuff also felt not so great, I especially miss the first moment of pulling before you fall down.
Nahh, your quest is pretty great, I would play it for sure, I just cannot fall in love with it.

RedTribeLink - the tileset itself is not that bad, but the way you used it feels a little bit off for me. I had huge problems avoiding the traps which annoyed me a lot. The Design itself is solid, but I did not really like it. I would say this is mostly based on my personal preferences, but I did not like the dungron. I only enjoyed the boss.

Joelmacool - I love this dungeon, had a lot of fun, it is perfect in my eyes. The droprate of arrows was a bit unlucky for me, I ran around killing moblins for nearly 10 mins before my first arrow dropped, after that I had more luck, but there was no place to use them as weapon. Also the fearies can get out of range for some time. Aquamantus was OK for me, but w/o swordbeam would have been better and the music for him did not fit for the dungeon

grayswandir - the new weapons and enemies are a lot of fun to me but could need some finetuning. Since this is not a enemy/weapon contest, I will ignore them for my rating. The dungeon design itself is for me a bit behind joelmacools but can be done with different items. I also did not like your choice on colours too much.

Edited by Naru, 10 March 2016 - 11:42 AM.

[Joelmacool]

Thank you everyone for your feedback, I'll be sure to take these suggestions into consideration! 

Also, good luck participants! 

[Architect Abdiel]

Right. I actually forgot that in my review of your dungeon Joel. Arrow drops. Obviously since I forgot I didn't have such bad luck. But I would put some arrows somewhere where they are guaranteed to come up even if it's making a new pot tile that has a 100% arrow drop rate.

Edited by Maikeru D. Shinigami, 02 March 2016 - 09:06 PM.

[Anthus]

(still cannot open the one from demonlink)

It sounds like it might have only partially downloaded, resulting in an incomplete .bin file. Demonlink's entry is a straight up qst file so I'd recommend trying to redownload it. If the problem persists, let me know and I'll see what I can do.


On another note, I hope to fully review all of these tonight and tomorrow, and hopefully before I get TPHD lol cause I'm gonna be glued to that.

[Naru]

Hmm. Will be a few days before I can get Internet again with my laptop. Downloaded it 2 more times with handy resulting in .bin again, might be just to big for it.

BTW, shall we vote "objectively" or subjectively (hope the meaning of these words remains the same in english). I still have to play one dungeon, but so far I am troubled with BigJoe and Joelmacool. Subjectively I favor Joelmacool, it is a lot of fun and looks best to me and I would love to play a whole quest like this while BigJoes is just not my style. Objectively I think BigJoes is more complex an thought through and deserves 1st place.

[Architect Abdiel]

Hmm. Will be a few days before I can get Internet again with my laptop. Downloaded it 2 more times with handy resulting in .bin again, might be just to big for it.

BTW, shall we vote "objectively" or subjectively (hope the meaning of these words remains the same in english). I still have to play one dungeon, but so far I am troubled with BigJoe and Joelmacool. Subjectively I favor Joelmacool, it is a lot of fun and looks best to me and I would love to play a whole quest like this while BigJoes is just not my style. Objectively I think BigJoes is more complex an thought through and deserves 1st place.

Personally speaking, I would say that's up to you. I went with a mixture of the two myself. But mainly I went for what I liked in a dungeon.