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[Schwa]

"Just, one question... Dare I ask, hero from another world... Tell me your name?"

"My name? ...Call me Felix. Your last Hero of Light. ...You're welcome."

Hey guys. This is my official Project Thread for my new work in progress. Those who have frequented the Screenshots Thread might have seen a couple of previews liiiike...



Mhm. So this will be the official Thread for that. (And yes I will stop saying "official" now, I swear it.) While I believe I've picked out a stable name for this quest, in public we'll be calling it "Project RCS" for the time being. Yes, I enjoy being ambiguous. That's me, I'm nothing but a gigantic, socially-awkward walking cliffhanger. And I might not have a QPF anymore, but that's totally okay. Back before we even had QPFs, we did it like this. I'll be surprised if this annoys anyone, but if it somehow does, eh, I'll compromise somehow...

Anyway! I'm not above leaking a little bit of the story. Just don't expect me to be as open with production as I was with Molka Elite, that's all I'm saying!

As you may have gathered from the Quote'd snippet of dialogue at the top of the post, our star is a hero from another world, an ordinary boy evidently named Felix. As he's living his life like any normal boy, one day he begins to have violent nightmares, which intensify as the nights continue... and in the eye of his mind's storm, a vast, ravaged world appears to him in his dreams, a once-magical kingdom now on the brink of a cataclysmic end as an endless shadow strangles and milks it dry of all light and soul.

The nightmares continue to get worse. They don't stop. And Felix can't tell anyone about his curse... so in desperation, he calls out to the world in his visions, pleading for it to accept his aid...

And, as if the world itself were sentient, Felix was pulled into his own nightmare, pulled in by the desperate, clinging arms of the dying world, drafted to service as the next Hero of Light. What happened to the old Hero of Light, he wonders? Nobody has a clue. Most believed the shadows overpowered him ages ago before he ever stood a chance. What of the magical Princess? The darkness absorbed her too, consumed her heart and soul energy as it did with the whole of the world's population. And whatever came of the Golden Triangles people always used to talk about-- the ancient, holy artifact of amazing power over evil? People believe they were obliterated centuries ago, and most don't even remember it existed.

Armed with nothing but what appears to be a toy sword, Felix stands before the expanse of wastes, overlooking the end of the world, infested with absolute malice incarnate... and begins the first step of a journey that transcends more than just the fate of the world, but a secret as old as time itself, locked within his very own beating heart.

We wish you the best of success, Felix! So there, now you have the backstory at least. The basics of it. I'm sorta making this up as I go along in ZQuest, too, so by the time I'm done I doubt I could have predicted the results. S'how I roll.

As if you couldn't guess, this Quest is materializing in v2.5, wearing a massively-reworked Classic, and I'm already having way too much fun with it.


Got the Save Points working after some experimentation! REALLY nifty feature in 2.5, I have to say. I set this Quest to disallow Saving OR Continuing when you die-- it's all done with the Save Points.

Too bad for Felix, he's trapped here with the Leevers instead of on the other side where the Save Point is!


Felix takes on a Miniboss. It's the Armos Guardian! The screenshots don't show it very well, but it takes on three different "forms" as you fight it-- starting out with simply chasing you, then when you damage it enough it slows down and throws spears at you, then when you damage it more, those spears are thrown three at a time. Partway through the fight too you get the Fire Statues that suddenly activate, making things more intense, and... yeah, you know me and over-the-top bosses fit like bread and Nutella.

This is a combat-oriented Quest. There will still be puzzles, but they exist to compliment the action experience, not the other way around, and a lot of the time the combat IS the puzzle-- for example, bombs play a much larger role in fighting, as some enemies need to be "de-armored" with a bomb before the Sword will even work, so you'll want to plan on conserving your bombs-- things of that nature.

Let me introduce a new face that took me 7 hours to script. This is the (Lv 2) Pakkun Monster.

It's the flower-shaped one. This little guy knows where you are at all times-- there's no hiding from the steady assault of fireballs it spits forth, so you're only chance is to get in close and attack whenever you get an opening!

However, as shown in the second shot... I doubt Felix expected it to explode into a 5-second maelstrom of random fireball flurries when he got in the tenth hit. That's seriously what it's doing. An epic self-destruction counterattack. *wipes brow* I'd like to thank the really cute baristas at Starbucks for supplying the coffee I used to pull off the sufficient scripting. Thanks so much girls, love you~

Going back to what I was saying about the items in combat: note the Pakkun Monster is resistant to Sword attacks, but takes full damage from Bombs and Candle Fire. The way it's scripted, if it's hit with stronger attacks before it reaches its Kamikaze Explosion, the flurry of fireballs will be for a shorter time (because it ticks down from 10 HP for five seconds while flurrying the whole time). Assuming I didn't just tell you this, this is the sort of thing the player will have to figure out and play with to truly "master" this Quest, especially later on when enemies commonly have much more complicated defense systems.

There is one big thing I'm planning to add to the game that I want to share in advance: the Magic System, which will be rather specialized. Most "magical" items hardly use any Magic-- like, an almost minuscule amount, one you won't really have to worry about monitoring. But aside from that, Felix will acquire a small assortment of powers that are absolutely COSMIC-- as in, game-breakingly powerful, yet they play a very important and present role during the game and can't be just ignored or "conserved". I have hardly any details thought up on what those are or how I'll incorporate them, but that's currently my vision. I'll keep you posted.

And that's all I have to share for the moment.

Check back occasionally for updates on "Project RCS"! Keep being wonderful, PZC. Until next time, here's Schwa, signing out.

[Russ]

Wow. This sounds amazing. The graphics alone are incredible, and the story, wow. Nice, dark, depressing, and amazing. Sounds like you love scripting. The enemy ideas sound amazing. The only thing I don't think I like too much is the "no continuing after dying" thing. I can understand using save points, but not even being able to continue seems a bit harsh. Otherwise, it looks absolutely amazing!

[Eddard McHorn Van-Schnuder]

Damn dude, this sounds fantastic. You know, I say this over and over again, but I rarely actually play quests. Not because I don't want to, but because I often don't have the time to do so. I am however going to have to try this out whenever it's done. It's great to have you back, and it's fantastic that you brought us a gift from wherever you've been too, in the form of a new awesome-looking quest :3 Good luck man, and I seriously hope you actually finish this one

[Sheik]

Now this is something. Me likey!
I don't know if I'm too keen on the story yet, but that's only because it seems to move away from the Zelda-universe more than a Zelda game should, but I might be and likely am mistaken. Magical Princess and Golden Triangle sort of sound Zelda-ish. Sort of.
Oh, and I still am amazed by the way you work with your tileset. There aren't many good Classic remakes and this is likely the best among those that are any good. It's impressive how it still reminds me of the Classic (even colour-wise) but still features areas that look very different (and atmosphere-ish !). The green area sort of reminds me of the Tarm Ruins from OoS, which likely is the most epic place in the whole freaking Zelda-universe. May I suggest using the Tarm Ruins MIDI for that area? (Or a remix of it or something) That'd surely fit.
The dungeon shots are a little too dark imo, but since I doubt that every dungeon will be that dark, it's safe I guess. Still I think that colours closer to Z1's first dungeon would look amazing togther with the colourful bushes on the ground.

However. Schwa, I like it. I like the ideas and I like the way it looks. I know I will die a dozen times on every screen cause I suck at ZC, but I will love to play it anyways. Can't wait for a demo to try out! =)

[Sir Evan]

Damn you Schwa. Just when I start thinking that I can make a pretty mean Classic screen, you come along and show off those. Stop making me look bad, already.

The story sounds pretty cool, just for the fact that it sounds like it's more of a new spin on the classic tale than one of those huge new, epic stories that so many people want these days. It might not be, but at least that's what it sounds like to me. And then the only other thing to comment on would be the enemy/puzzle integration which, if pulled off correctly, could potentially be what makes this quest truly unique. But again, I said if, because I'm not sure how well the concept will work out in the end. I'll just wait and see then.

Good luck!

[Saffith]

Looks good. You'll have some scripted bosses as well as enemy editor ones, I hope? I mean, if you like them over the top, that's the way to go.

Say, do you offer copywriting services? If I ever get my big quest started, I'll need help with that part.

[Moosh]

I...I'm speechless...this...this is...AMAZING! I especially like the new link sprites. You can count on me playing this for sure. Bravo, Schwa, bravo!

Edited by Pokemonmaster64, 16 November 2010 - 02:06 AM.

[Schwa]

Wow. This sounds amazing. The graphics alone are incredible, and the story, wow. Nice, dark, depressing, and amazing. Sounds like you love scripting. The enemy ideas sound amazing. The only thing I don't think I like too much is the "no continuing after dying" thing. I can understand using save points, but not even being able to continue seems a bit harsh. Otherwise, it looks absolutely amazing!

So far so good, eh? :D Thanks man. My idea isn't to try and be depressing though; I'm aiming for dark yet upbeat, in sort of a dystopia/cyberpunk sort of way, but... the beauty of Quests is that they can be interpreted differently by everyone, just like any great form of art. :)

The Save Point thing simply speaks about the Quest's hardcore attitude, gameplay-wise. The player pretty much gets a Save Point before every Mini-Boss or Boss fight, one at the entrance to each major dungeon, one before/after any major game event, and a couple scattered here and there to make long-distance Overworld traveling actually plausible. You know, Paper Mario fashion! ^^ Shouldn't be as bad as you're thinking, honest.

Damn dude, this sounds fantastic. You know, I say this over and over again, but I rarely actually play quests. Not because I don't want to, but because I often don't have the time to do so. I am however going to have to try this out whenever it's done. It's great to have you back, and it's fantastic that you brought us a gift from wherever you've been too, in the form of a new awesome-looking quest :3 Good luck man, and I seriously hope you actually finish this one :P

I hope so too. <_< Now hey, the Molka Elite thing was an unfortunate accident out of my control, so if you're referring to that, give me a break. :P Molka Revolution was kind of handled irresponsibly though, I'll admit... I'm just happy 2.5 is so stable now; the biggest turn-off for me when I was starting Molka Revolution were the bugs, but it seems fine now. ^^

Now this is something. Me likey!
I don't know if I'm too keen on the story yet, but that's only because it seems to move away from the Zelda-universe more than a Zelda game should, but I might be and likely am mistaken. Magical Princess and Golden Triangle sort of sound Zelda-ish. Sort of. :D
Oh, and I still am amazed by the way you work with your tileset. There aren't many good Classic remakes and this is likely the best among those that are any good. It's impressive how it still reminds me of the Classic (even colour-wise) but still features areas that look very different (and atmosphere-ish !). The green area sort of reminds me of the Tarm Ruins from OoS, which likely is the most epic place in the whole freaking Zelda-universe. May I suggest using the Tarm Ruins MIDI for that area? (Or a remix of it or something) That'd surely fit.
The dungeon shots are a little too dark imo, but since I doubt that every dungeon will be that dark, it's safe I guess. Still I think that colours closer to Z1's first dungeon would look amazing togther with the colourful bushes on the ground.

However. Schwa, I like it. I like the ideas and I like the way it looks. I know I will die a dozen times on every screen cause I suck at ZC, but I will love to play it anyways. Can't wait for a demo to try out! =)

It's fun to be ambiguous. Try it sometime. ;D

And thank you! Versatility seems to be Classic's ultimate strong point. Using it is like playing Starcraft as Zerg; you can upgrade your techtree in an immense amount of possible combinations and directions, but it's weak starting out. And true, atmosphere is very important when you're designing your areas. (Feel free to learn from my style if anyone feels like it.) I picked out a MIDI for the Ruins area thanks to your reminder, and it'll be one that reoccurs somewhere else later, as the Ruins are kind of a small area (for now anyway).

I'm not entirely positive, but if I get enough work done before the 2011 Spring Expo, maybe you'll see something. :) No guarantees!

Damn you Schwa. Just when I start thinking that I can make a pretty mean Classic screen, you come along and show off those. Stop making me look bad, already.

The story sounds pretty cool, just for the fact that it sounds like it's more of a new spin on the classic tale than one of those huge new, epic stories that so many people want these days. It might not be, but at least that's what it sounds like to me. And then the only other thing to comment on would be the enemy/puzzle integration which, if pulled off correctly, could potentially be what makes this quest truly unique. But again, I said if, because I'm not sure how well the concept will work out in the end. I'll just wait and see then.

Good luck!

Ewwww, don't compare yourself and ESPECIALLY your work to other questmakers and theirs! v_v That's a good way to kill ZC for yourself. Just do what I do. Design something you like. You're not out to prove anything to anyone, so there's no reason to read so much into what should be a casual, enjoyable hobby, amirite? :) *hugs*

I worried a little about the plot, and if people might think of it as "cliche'd", but thanks to your input maybe I'll try to use that to my advantage instead. What you said is pretty much spot-on-- it takes the typical plot about a darkness/evil/shadow/etc rising to power and a hero of good/light/Link/etc set out to stop it, but it's a little deeper than that too, typically middle- to late-game, where the twists start showing up.

As for the gameplay style working or not, hey, that's why I'll have beta testers! :P

Looks good. You'll have some scripted bosses as well as enemy editor ones, I hope? I mean, if you like them over the top, that's the way to go.

Say, do you offer copywriting services? If I ever get my big quest started, I'll need help with that part.

Oh for sure. ^^ The Armos battle is a mini-boss, and thus wasn't as epic as something I'd probably do for a dungeon boss or a Big Event boss. The way I see it, over-the-top is good, but it starts to become pointless for a relatively low-level boss fight early-game and such. The more "advanced" the battle, the more leeway I'll have to get nuts with stuff and have it pay off in terms of gameplay.

Err, what? Copywriting? :sweat: No idea what you're talkin' 'bout, Willis.

:drool: I...I'm speechless...this...this is...AMAZING! I especially like the new link sprites. You can count on me playing this for sure. Bravo, Schwa, bravo! :clap:

♥♥♥ I love you too man! You're welcome, you're welcome. Don't hold me on a pedestal though; unlike me, you've actually finished one. ;) (Okay yes, I finished one too, but c'mon that was AGES ago... XD)

Ooh, should've mentioned this; the Link sprites might be subject to change. :o After all, I don't want Felix to look TOO similar to Link... I actually tried changing him once already, but it was too hard for me, so I gave it a rest and I'll try it some other time. The current Link sprites are courtesy of Koh, whom I hold in dearest regards. n_n

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

No progress today, sadly. There's no need for me to rush, though-- that's one of ZC's beautiful points, not to mention PZC's.

Edited by Schwa, 16 November 2010 - 03:33 AM.

[Neppy]

Sweet Schwa! This is looking great as I thought it would. Very clean crisp, spot-on screenshots you've posted. I absolutely love the ideas for the bosses, and that little flower thinger you came up with, things like that will make it quite an interesting quest. Well, keep up the good work, take your time, and I'll make sure to keep checking back in this topic every once in a while to see any progress. Great work!

[Purplemandown]

You're right. The Save Point feature IS amazing. But by the way, this does look really cool. Keep it up!

[Schwa]

Guess it's about time for another update?

Thing is, I've only made a couple screens in the past couple days... but they're pretty fantastic. More time has been spent scripting than screen-designing.


Ladies and Mentlegen, our first block puzzle! ...I won't explain what's inside the caves, other than that they're both mandatory visits.


In this Quest you'll commonly encounter dynamic obstacles such as this sinkhole. It scrolls meanacingly around in a little square pattern, and will drown you exactly like falling in water if it "catches" you. The enemies can walk right over it though. How is that fair!? Anyway it didn't take too long to set up once I finally got the hang of FFCs with Changers, so I'm pretty confident I'll be able to add a wide number of these novelties on different screens without any real trouble.

(Don't ask me how long it took to take that second screenshot. Oh my God. )


BEEEEEEEEEES!!

Guess what that beehive is summoning in a never-ending stream? And can't be destroyed?

Well actually I might make it destroyable. Bombs, fire and arrows seem to be my candidates. Certain regions of the Overworld as well as several dungeon areas will throw a variety of enemy spawners at you; I want to make them destructible most of the time, inspired straight from the Gauntlet series actually... As it is, the Beehive is a FFC. I've been debating whether I should leave it like that, or tie it to a stationary Fire enemy to "ghost" with x amount of HP and various weaknesses... I'm thinking I might change it to the latter, but I can hold off on that for now at least, since it'll only become an apparent thing to change when I introduce the Candle, Bow, other items etc. into the game as obtainable.

So, yep, that's my latest progress. ^^ Oh, that, and I now have a much sharper mental image on the design of my Overworld(s), the Quest's plot, and how to tie them into each-other. Basically the "flow" of my game here. Getting it more and more figured out. ^^ Still a debate to figure out the special treasure-item for the first dungeon though; I want to do a "Prismatic Rod", which is a color-changing magic rod with three types of elemental attacks, but I don't know where to go from there, 'cause the three attacks will obviously need to have different properties, so unless I figure out a game-wide gimmick to incorporate along with it, that feature would pretty much just take up space.

Open to your thoughts, as always.

[Sheik]

So, yep, that's my latest progress. ^^ Oh, that, and I now have a much sharper mental image on the design of my Overworld(s), the Quest's plot, and how to tie them into each-other. Basically the "flow" of my game here. Getting it more and more figured out. ^^ Still a debate to figure out the special treasure-item for the first dungeon though; I want to do a "Prismatic Rod", which is a color-changing magic rod with three types of elemental attacks, but I don't know where to go from there, 'cause the three attacks will obviously need to have different properties, so unless I figure out a game-wide gimmick to incorporate along with it, that feature would pretty much just take up space.

Loving it, obviously!
About you rod: Fire/Ice/Light sounds fairly Zelda-ish to me, but I doubt that you'd want that in the first dungeon. And you might not want to have, say, two fire-creating items (Rod+Candle) since it renders one of them (likely the candle) pretty much useless. So yeah, what else could do? How about "blue/red/green" magic that triggers specific triggers only? That would be quite nice in a red/blue block puzzle dungeon. There are certain crystals that control the red/blue/(green) blocks. If you shoot 'em with red magic, the red blocks sink into the ground, but the other blocks of the other two colours will remain blockades. Now, if you shoot the crystal with the blue magic it will turn blue and the blue blocks will sink and the red one will rise respectively. Hm, thats the best idea I can get it seems.

[Schwa]

Loving it, obviously!
About you rod: Fire/Ice/Light sounds fairly Zelda-ish to me, but I doubt that you'd want that in the first dungeon. And you might not want to have, say, two fire-creating items (Rod+Candle) since it renders one of them (likely the candle) pretty much useless. So yeah, what else could do? How about "blue/red/green" magic that triggers specific triggers only? That would be quite nice in a red/blue block puzzle dungeon. There are certain crystals that control the red/blue/(green) blocks. If you shoot 'em with red magic, the red blocks sink into the ground, but the other blocks of the other two colours will remain blockades. Now, if you shoot the crystal with the blue magic it will turn blue and the blue blocks will sink and the red one will rise respectively. Hm, thats the best idea I can get it seems.

Hahahaha, the Candle is useless?

I want to let you in on a little secret about the candle-- and yes, I programmed this in several days ago, but I was holding off on showing it. Until you persuaded me.

I haven't redesigned the subscreen yet, please forgive me.

Here Link has the "Kindler", which I gave via the Level 4 cheat. Just a demonstration.

Note the candle's graphics.


Here I let loose a Candle Flame. Note the graphics now.


Here I let loose two more Flames. The graphics changed again, to a burnt-out Candle, and now I can no longer shoot flames.


I just moved to the next Screen. Check out the Kindler now-- it's back to full power!

YES. I successfully created a Candle that allows you to shoot three flames max per screen, not just one and not infinite, and its graphics indicate how many shots you have left! This not only significantly heightens the amount of strategy you need to be able to effectively wield it (as a variety of enemies are weak against the Candle, and some are even immune to everything except for it... the Crumbling Stalfos are one early-game example), but it balances the Candle as both an early-game and a late-game utility, having a huge range of uses and not being outclassed by other items so easily (nor being overpowered early-on, in the Red Candle's case originally).

So yeah. I love the Kindler.

AAAAAAAAAANYWAY.

The Blue-Red-Green thing with the Wand was my original idea, yes. I keep bouncing back to the idea that the three different projectile types should interact with enemies and terrain differently, though, but the problem is, if I do anything grossly dynamic, I need to model the rest of the Quest around that to some degree. I don't want to add any flashy gimmicks if they're mostly just going to be in the way of things.

I think about Oracle of Ages, for the Game Boy Color... They had items like the Switch Hook, the Cane of Somaria, the Seed Shooter with five types of Seeds... A bunch of gimmicky, unconventional items, yet they made them all work with bizarre tricks and puzzles in the dungeons such as the Diamond Blocks (for the Switch Hook) and those rotating mirrors you could riccochet seeds off of... and in the case of the Switch Hook, it became useful in combat too, as you could render Ironmasks defenseless. It was all very extensive, but they made it all work... If I wanted gimmick-items like that to work, too, I'd need to be equally extensive. The tricks all need to have a purpose. It'll either require more brainstorming or groundworks on paper-- something, but I can't just think of something cool-sounding and then wing it, even if I can do it.

Molka Elite had that problem bad. It's why it never got done. Stuff just kept getting bigger and bigger and before long I'm 3 years into it and only 2/3 done on the Quest. Then my hard drive crashed.

o//o Excessive rant there, sorry. Anyway... I really really want to use the "RGB Rod" idea, but I need to put together something solid, both in terms of general gameplay, the individual screen-design. Something I can mold without too much difficulty and won't "gridlock" my Quest-building options so much, but something that's not just for show and plays a very present role in the game. When I figure this out... well, that's when I'll be competing with professional game-designers. 'Cause this is art.

[Shane]

I love this quest too much it has so much creativity it seems its never gonna end . Keep it up I love it.

[Sir Evan]

So, yep, that's my latest progress. ^^ Oh, that, and I now have a much sharper mental image on the design of my Overworld(s), the Quest's plot, and how to tie them into each-other. Basically the "flow" of my game here. Getting it more and more figured out. ^^ Still a debate to figure out the special treasure-item for the first dungeon though; I want to do a "Prismatic Rod", which is a color-changing magic rod with three types of elemental attacks, but I don't know where to go from there, 'cause the three attacks will obviously need to have different properties, so unless I figure out a game-wide gimmick to incorporate along with it, that feature would pretty much just take up space.

Are you me? I swear to God, you read my mind. I pretty much had that exact same concept in the quest I'm making. Like, right down to the red/blue/green concept (although I guess those are fairly standard colors. Oh well. I'm still using it, and I'll claim I thought of it first. With that said, I'd have some suggestions based on how I'm using it, but seeing as I haven't officially announced the item yet, I don't really want to say it in public yet.

...Damn, I feel unoriginal now.