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thoughts on “main” dungeon rooms

dungeon design dungeon

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#1 Taco Chopper

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Posted 15 June 2022 - 10:36 AM

I’m just curious on people’s thoughts on having a “main/central” dungeon room/area/chamber. essentially having a room where multiple minor events have to occur in there in order for the player to move onto the next area. similarly, smaller rooms/pathways branch off of this room too, but loop back around to it.

I’m thinking a lot more of 3D zeldas off the top of my head in regards to the term - stuff like the great deku tree, dodongo’s cavern, skyview temple’s first area where you have to flood it. I can’t really think of much like that in a 2D, specifically gameboy environment. Some that come to mind are the moonlit grotto’s turnstile needing to be dropped down a level, or the slate room in ancient tomb in ages, or the giant lava area in the bottom half of sword and shield maze in seasons.

My assumption is that it has been done to some degree in ZC; but I also figure there’s got to be a subjectively good way to do it. obviously placement is crucial - you’re not going to place this very important room out of the way too much.

my questions for this thread are:
- are “main/central” dungeon rooms practical in the limited space in each screen by ZC?
- what are some good examples of this by other creators?
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#2 Architect Abdiel

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Posted 15 June 2022 - 11:39 AM

Are they doable? Definitely. But they are more complex, especially if you are limiting them to one screen. For that reason, I actually suggest expanding that thought to make the main room maybe a group of screens, 4 screens, 6 screens, whatever. It's actually a new design philosophy I'm trying to implement, particularly in one of my quests. Think of your dungeon, and what type of central screen you could practically have in it. ZC does give you the opportunity to be creative in how you do things. Though, scripting certainly makes things easier.



#3 Twilight Knight

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Posted 16 June 2022 - 02:19 AM

First thing I think of is Garden Gallery in Ballad of a Bloodline by CastChaos. It has a huge 2-floor central room of 5x5 screens (or so) and I think it works really well there.

So I agree with Architect Abdiel and the notion you make yourself TC, central room could work well in ZC, but probably must be bigger than 1 screen. Yet I also think the central room in the level 7 of Isle of Rebirth works really well, which is 1 screen, but multi-floor central room with a warp maze.

At least I think that if it's just 1 screen it shouldn't be that you can explore all of the dungeon starting at that screen. Perhaps it could be good for unlocking shortcuts from that central room? 



#4 Taco Chopper

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Posted 18 June 2022 - 08:45 AM

Are they doable? Definitely. But they are more complex, especially if you are limiting them to one screen. For that reason, I actually suggest expanding that thought to make the main room maybe a group of screens, 4 screens, 6 screens, whatever. It's actually a new design philosophy I'm trying to implement, particularly in one of my quests. Think of your dungeon, and what type of central screen you could practically have in it. ZC does give you the opportunity to be creative in how you do things. Though, scripting certainly makes things easier.

 

First thing I think of is Garden Gallery in Ballad of a Bloodline by CastChaos. It has a huge 2-floor central room of 5x5 screens (or so) and I think it works really well there.

So I agree with Architect Abdiel and the notion you make yourself TC, central room could work well in ZC, but probably must be bigger than 1 screen. Yet I also think the central room in the level 7 of Isle of Rebirth works really well, which is 1 screen, but multi-floor central room with a warp maze.

 
I have an inkling a multi-screen "room" is the way to go; particularly considering the size of a single screen isn't particularly large to define itself as a main chamber. I feel like a room using this design idea would need two screens, at the very least. My thoughts keep wandering back to the Skyview Temple, and how the side rooms are used to give Link a vantage point to a higher point in that main room. That also drags use of the Z-axis into the process, but I think that's much, much easier to work with nowadays because of scripts like Moosh's GB cliffs.

 

I also really need to play Ballad of a Bloodline and Isle of Rebirth, among others and this post reaffirms that notion

 

 

At least I think that if it's just 1 screen it shouldn't be that you can explore all of the dungeon starting at that screen. Perhaps it could be good for unlocking shortcuts from that central room? 

oh totally, I don't think dungeons should be easily explored from the first entry; shortcuts are meant to reward the player after all. That's something I'm figuring out a lot with Three Crests, especially with the three main dungeons being able to be completed in any order. How do you reward the player for beating dungeons out of order? The answer I've come to with that is by giving shortcuts that can only be accessed with other dungeon items themselves. A touch off-topic but definitely still an idea worth considering to this design idea after all


Edited by Taco Chopper, 18 June 2022 - 08:47 AM.

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