4964 replies to this topic

[Eddy]

I didn't do as much as I had hoped today, however I did get a couple screens done of West Labrynna.

[Matthew]

Hurray for Zelda 1 overworld

 

[KingPridenia]

Say hello to the new Northern Ruins, under construction and being rebuilt fully from scratch! Northern Ruins is level 3 from Adam's Quest, but due to the god-awful design of the original, it's out with the old and in with the new. Will be pretty interesting to see how the remade version pans out.

 

[Erdrick]

That looks pretty good so far. I hope the remade version of Level 3 works out for you.

 

I didn't do too much yesterday/today in Zelda Classic, other than experimenting with the enemy/item editor.

[Matthew Bluefox]

I think I finally finished Zelda Remastered and Mini today by putting the Nudgeballs in the LOZ-R quests and fixing a few final dungeon rooms which didn't look just right yet. Now I hope I'll never have to apply any further patches to any of the five quests I've created.  And some time ago (not today) I've beaten Lust Isle, also quit sum accumplishment.

Edited by Matthew Bluefox, 30 March 2015 - 09:52 AM.

[KingPridenia]

Level 3, Northern Ruins completed up to getting the dungeon item. Since Koten makes every screen 100% pitch black when using the dark room flag screen, I decided to make the "dark rooms" simply have a plain black transparent screen overlaid on top of everything. That way, it still gives the illusion of the room being dark, but takes away the annoyance of having to whip out your candle every other room. The original loved its dark rooms like it liked its bosses; spammed to death. Will be testing shortly for errors and rebalancing purposes.

 

EDIT: Tested and after making a buff to the Fireball shooting Wizzrobes, I decided to nerf it back to the way they were. Also I need to add a one-way door in because I thought I could just leave a door to come out of a wall, but the game wouldn't let me, likely to the "smart screen scrolling" rule. Other than that, I forgot to add the mini-boss music in. Thankfully, while the fight is annoying, I was smart to make the damage taken just half a heart a hit instead of a full heart. I got roughed up worse than I thought I would.

Edited by RedmageAdam, 30 March 2015 - 02:12 PM.

[KingPridenia]

Level 3 is fully tested and fixed up. Made a change or two and fixed the following errors:

 

-Decided to make the piercing traps deal 3/4 heart of damage. They're scripted to always do that much damage, regardless of what ring you have. That should be a fair compromise between the default 1 heart damage and my proposed 1/2 heart damage. After all, 3/4 hearts with a Red Ring is equivalent to touching a Bomb Octorok (3 hearts base damage).

-Boss roar properly added to surrounding rooms.

-An "Enemies > Item" flag I failed to set has been set.

-Made Link hold up the Boss Key instead of just collecting it.

-Made level 3's mini-boss instantly spawn. Have fun fighting him by the way.

 

My only concern is the hint in level 3 may be a little too vague. See spoiler:

 

Spoiler

The old man talks about a little girl named Lulu that supposedly wandered into the Northern Ruins and got lost. He then mentions to avoid getting lost yourself, you should think of Lulu. The significance of Lulu? Can you figure out what it is without being told? Or is that too cryptic?

 

For the record, the original hint for the original dungeon design was "If left right in a maze, go right where you left off." Obviously, the room has been moved. So anyone think I'm being too cryptic?

 

Well, in other news, all I have to do is patch up a few things, double check to make sure my dungeons are properly made and double check for bugs and then finally fill out the rest of the overworld up to this point in the game's progression. After that, I am going to go for it and release a demo. Again, it is a more Z1 style quest, so I understand it isn't everyone's cup of tea.

[Limebeer]

I believe I know what Lulu means, I don't think it's all too cryptic myself once you put a little thought into it

[KingPridenia]

I believe I know what Lulu means, I don't think it's all too cryptic myself once you put a little thought into it

 

True, but every time I think something is "easy" to figure out, it ends up being something that nobody can figure out. My failed expo highlighted that nicely; I assumed people would try pushing every block in every room (like 2-3 rooms had them), but most people kept trying to kill the Moldorms with bombs then trying to bomb the boss when you're meant to get the Red Candle first. Had a nice idea, but the execution and relying too heavily on player faith is what made it fall flat on its face. I mean I don't want to put a sign with a ton of arrows pointing at a block saying "Hurr durr, push this block stupid", but at the same time, I don't want people to end up getting lost or possibly getting into a situation they can get perma-stuck.

 

The biggest failure on my part is that I need to stop assuming everyone will use the same thought process as me and accept that Z1 clone quests are not as popular as they once were. It's very difficult sometimes to find the happy medium between having the player figure out what to do versus hand-holding and more or less spelling it out every time. Example:

 

Too guide dang it:

-"Go find the next dungeon."

 

Too much hand-holding:

-"Go up 3 screens, left 2, down 1, left 1, up 3, right 4 and up 1 screen to find a cave leading to level 2. Once you get out of the cave, go down a screen, then right two more and you'll be at level 2!"

 

I suppose though in that example, it would be best to say like "Your next destination is in the east." Or if I prefer not to do that, have a sensible means of halting your progress until the correct item is obtained so you can unlock the next overworld section.

[Whiterose]

I worked on my quest by adding copious amounts of tiles and changing combos so they flow better and I got rid of the dead wood. I also polished my storyline which was mostly outside of ZC but little parts were done in it so that I could see what would happen and if they could happen.

 

And not in ZC, but outside it again, I sketched some ideas for characters and level designs. All in all a productive day.

[Limebeer]

True, but every time I think something is "easy" to figure out, it ends up being something that nobody can figure out. My failed expo highlighted that nicely; I assumed people would try pushing every block in every room (like 2-3 rooms had them), but most people kept trying to kill the Moldorms with bombs then trying to bomb the boss when you're meant to get the Red Candle first. Had a nice idea, but the execution and relying too heavily on player faith is what made it fall flat on its face. I mean I don't want to put a sign with a ton of arrows pointing at a block saying "Hurr durr, push this block stupid", but at the same time, I don't want people to end up getting lost or possibly getting into a situation they can get perma-stuck.

 

The biggest failure on my part is that I need to stop assuming everyone will use the same thought process as me and accept that Z1 clone quests are not as popular as they once were. It's very difficult sometimes to find the happy medium between having the player figure out what to do versus hand-holding and more or less spelling it out every time. Example:

 

Too guide dang it:

-"Go find the next dungeon."

 

Too much hand-holding:

-"Go up 3 screens, left 2, down 1, left 1, up 3, right 4 and up 1 screen to find a cave leading to level 2. Once you get out of the cave, go down a screen, then right two more and you'll be at level 2!"

 

I suppose though in that example, it would be best to say like "Your next destination is in the east." Or if I prefer not to do that, have a sensible means of halting your progress until the correct item is obtained so you can unlock the next overworld section.

Yeah I'm the same way. I like having the player have to think out hints as well. In the first dungeon of my quest I had a hint that told the player to shoot the first statue they saw on the right in order to get the boss key, but I was told that the hint was too cryptic even though I just thought that the player just had to think on when they first saw the statues.

I do admit though that I need to put up a better hint for my third dungeon rather than just have a feature that I had no where else. While it's something that I myself, if seen, would go to explore, it seems that people didn't quite like how obtuse it was in it's location.

Also, who doesn't push all the blocks in a Zelda game? even if it's not for progress, you would do so to see if there's any goodies hidden around!
But I agree, it's hard to know how the player will think and know what is obvious, what is a good challenge and what is just impossible for alot of people to discover. It's something that I struggle with as well.

[Eddy]

Been trimming out 3 possible MP3s which may be used for AR3. I've mostly been making them loop perfectly without the song abruptly ending. I also made a quick update with these 3 songs since I have absolutely no idea which one to choose for a bonus dungeon lol

[Limebeer]

Added more trees to some screens today and I started working on a midi for my tower level! Hopefully I'll be able to get it to work and transfer over without too many problems!

[Limebeer]

Sorry for the double post...
I did more trees today! Here they are:

All in all, coming together nicely in my eyes, though yes there is still alot more to be done... (I'm still adding in more on these screens, and the screen at the middle right I haven't decided on how the trees should go yet hence why it's so bare there)

[Binx]

I don't feel like scripting or doing cutscenes, like I should, so I started on the first overworld map you come across:

 

http://i19.photobuck...as/zelda501.png

 

 

It's not even close to finished (obviously), but that's just what I've gotten done in the last 3 hours that I've been working on it.

 

EDIT: I'm headed to bed, now. Here's what I got finished (the trees are mostly placeholders, I've already started replacing them)

 

Edited by Binx, 02 April 2015 - 02:22 AM.