26 replies to this topic

[LostInHyru1e]

Answer the polls! I personally think that Questmakers worry too much about Custom Graphics and the right tileset. A Quest can be great in any tileset. I think they don't worry enough about storyling and music/SFX choice, because music and story really set the atmosphere of a game.

What do you guys think? In the words of TriMaster...

CHATTER!

[CastChaos]

I think people worry the most about tileset choice, and yes, every tileset can have great quests, it's just that not everybody like/can handle all tilesets, plus it's quite a permanent choice, since upon changing tileset, the whole quest needs to be redone from scratch. I also cared tileset first. But when there's already a tileset chosen, people surely usually worry about detail, at least it's one of the biggest topics in the screenshot thread.

I think people don't care enough for storyline, but I think it's only my personal preference. I like when there's story even in dungeon type quests and I can be amazed if the story and game areas/items/enemies/etc. relate to each other.

But I don't see relevance between the title question and the polls. A quest can be great in many ways. In fact, a quest that is great in a certain way can fail in another. For example, a challenge type quest can be any hard, but if a "regular" quest gets hard near the end, I can get emo. Maybe other people, too.

[Feenicks]

Worry too much about - Detail: Detail is good, but when you obsess about it the quality of the other stuff goes down. And remember - in the end, the overworld (where the majority of detail is) is not the biggest part of the quest - the dungeons are (and need detail less than they need good design and puzzles).
Don't worry enough about - Music/SFX choice: Remember - when you are setting the mood of a quest, the deciding factor is the music choice. It makes the difference between a energetic dungeon and a tense one, or a happy overworld and a sad, end-of-the-world one.

[Beefster]

I just think individual screen design is underthought by most questmakers as many screens look plain and empty even though the wholistic design may be really good.

[Plissken]

Well, I'm extremely guilty of individual screen design. I can't seem to continue on until I perfect the current screen I'm working on, making development incredibly slow. I don't really care about stories so I don't fret about them in any way. For the 'don't' poll I said correct usage of tiles. I see incorrect usage so much and it's one of the most annoying things to me about ZQ for some reason...

[Russ]

Quest makers worry too much about tilesets and graphics, and don't pay enough attention to storyline and music. Storyline and music are, in my opinion, two of the most important things for quests.

[Joe123]

The most important thing is that your quest runs smoothly, there are few bugs, transitions are dealt with nicely etc.

This is the most powerful usage of scripting in my opinion.
You don't need scripting to achieve it, but it works so much nicer if you do.

Like having 'Press Start' on the title screen instead of 'Press Down'.
Things that simple can add a lot to a quest.

[Peteo]

Questmakers worry too much about the lenght of their quests:
Just finish a damn quest, it doesn't have to be long. Short quests can be good too, you know.

Questmakers don't worry enough about detail:
Almost all quests I have played lack detail. I'm a detail freak myself so that affects my opinion, but really, all the great little details can make your quest stand out from the boring mass.

[LostInHyru1e]

I surprised about how many people agree with me that Music is such a great deciding factor in the quality of a quest. What do you guys do for music when you want it to be great? Where do you go?

[elise]

I would say they don't really worry enough about the enemies they put in a screen , sometimes I just have a feeling they just press darknuts and a high number and don't even think about the weapons you have at that time to kill them .
and they worry to much of the need of a custom boss that has to do one trick after the other and never explain the player what the weapons are to use to kill the boss

[Eddard McHorn Van-Schnuder]

Gameplay and music, no doubt... graphics doesen't matter, really... THOUGH storyline is very important in storyline'ed quest... but a quest don't NEED a storyline... but if it HAS one, it NEEDS to be good...
Graphics is only an extra, ofcourse...

[Zemious]

Here is what I feel makes a good quest.

-Custom graphics that are animated with good lengthy frames. Meaning its not two frames...
-Time put into your quest making it higher thought-out quality.
-A plot ... I can not stress enough about this.
-An introduction, meaning you catch the players attention.
-An opening animation (The LoZ screen).
-Great music which has emotion/goes a long with your OW and Dun's.
-Custom bosses.. with scripts and dialog.
-Everything has Lore.
-Voice acting...! Its a must have.
-Portraits for your dialog box showing character/NPC emotion.
-Good graphics, GBA styled but SNES works as well. (or GB)
-Screen layout.
-Difficult, but interesting custom bosses.
-Cutscenes/cinimatics

-A saga/arc inside your quest. (This is what I'm doing with mine -->) After defeating the last boss, link is on his way back home and gets some rest. After resting, he hears somthing is going on over at a nearby village. (Saga or arc starts here) Link searches out information about the whereabouts of the village. He finds the village in a state of chaos, everyone is extremely angry. Being the Hero of Time and pure of heart, he is not affected by the 7 deadly sins, Wrath. He learns finally of the omnicent force behind this and searches out the location of it. (Cutscene)
Meanwhile, Wrath is watching over the village being affected and see's a person who is unaffected by him and finds him to be interesting.
(Cutscene ends)
Link finds the location of Wrath, and enters his dungeon/lair. Wrath has an introduction fight with him to test Links strength. Link completes the dungeon to get to Wrath's final battle.
Synchronizing music, voice acting, scripts, etc are taken place during this battle to make it as epic as possible. For the battle, I aim to make it so its not just another dungeon boss but instead an epic battle of the forces or somthing.

Edited by Zemious, 25 May 2008 - 11:53 AM.

[AaronJer]

To me the most important thing in a quest by far is that you get the first sword or a combat item in the first screen or at least within 10 seconds of active play. If this isn't the case, I immediately stop playing the quest. I have absolutely no interest in wandering around with 3 heart containers and no items for any amount of time. So far all of the quests I've tried playing didn't give me the wooden sword/anything that does damage immediately... and thus, I have not played anyone's quests yet.

[Gleeok]

To me the most important thing in a quest by far is that you get the first sword or a combat item in the first screen or at least within 10 seconds of active play. If this isn't the case, I immediately stop playing the quest. I have absolutely no interest in wandering around with 3 heart containers and no items for any amount of time. So far all of the quests I've tried playing didn't give me the wooden sword/anything that does damage immediately... and thus, I have not played anyone's quests yet.

What if you started the game with a maxed out weapons array and got to choose from different weapon types, would you play it then?



And L1H, Where's the waffle option in the poll? I can't see it anywhere. Maybe I need to emnpty my cache....

[Russ]

I surprised about how many people agree with me that Music is such a great deciding factor in the quality of a quest. What do you guys do for music when you want it to be great? Where do you go?

Where do I go? Simple. I go to VGmusic about once a month, and download an insane amount of midis into a folder for ZC. Then, whenever I need midis for my quest, I just dive into this folder and start looking.