Jump to content

Photo

Retro Quest Contest Entries


  • Please log in to reply
13 replies to this topic

#1 Moonlight

Moonlight

    Hero of Time

  • Moderators
  • Pronouns:She / Her

Posted 10 January 2025 - 04:42 PM

The deadline for the contest has been reached, so now its time to post the entries! Thank you again everyone who participated in the contest, whether you got an entry in or not! It was a very successful first contest for the revival of ZC Land.

 

Now for the entries:

 

Sword of Truth by JaydenPlaysStuff

 

Nestastic Gaiden by Mani Kanina

 

The Deku Within by Alex / Mr. Redead

 

Tales of Murdoch by Architect Abdiel

 

The winner of this contest will be decided by our panel of judges, based on a couple of categories.

 

Our judges are: Shane, Taco Chopper, Rambly and Haylee.

 

Our categories are:

 

Theme - How well the quest captures the retro theme

Aesthetics - How well the quest utilizes the retro tileset

Soundtrack - How bangin' the quests midis are

Gameplay - How well constructed / enjoyable the quest is to play

 

Each category will be scored from 1-7. Best of luck, everyone!


  • Anthus, Taco Chopper, Professor Bedwetter and 6 others like this

#2 Mani Kanina

Mani Kanina

    Rabbits!

  • Moderators

Posted 10 January 2025 - 06:28 PM

Nice! If anyone streams or screen shares my entry, feel free to ping me on discord and I'll watch. (Assuming I'm not at work or otherwise occupied).

Also, I'd like to note that there seems to be some sort of ZC engine bug with item collision in shops with 4-way movement when using newer player movement. So actually buying things in shops is uh, harder than it should be. You might need to manually align yourself with the 8x8 grid in order to successfully buy things. It's awkward, to say the least but you can buy stuff.


Edit: There is apparently an sequence break that neither me nor my playtesters caught. However using it can get you a bit, uh, stuck. I've patching it on my own end for the later database release, but do be careful around sequence breaks on the overworld.


Edited by Mani Kanina, 11 January 2025 - 04:02 AM.


#3 Shoshon the Elegant

Shoshon the Elegant

    White Tiger King!

  • Members
  • Real Name:Michael
  • Pronouns:He / Him
  • Location:Florida

Posted 11 January 2025 - 07:16 AM

Hello, Shoshon the Elegant Architect Abdiel here.

Tales of Murdoch, my quest, was made to be retro, but I know it missed in some areas. I was going for more of a “make it simple and try to make it feel retro” approach.

Hopefully you’ll still enjoy the quest despite that.
Might lower its retro score though. Hope I got enough of the feel that it at least feels pretty retro.


The quest will be released on the database, but this is pending some changes and feedback from the judges.

#4 Shoshon the Elegant

Shoshon the Elegant

    White Tiger King!

  • Members
  • Real Name:Michael
  • Pronouns:He / Him
  • Location:Florida

Posted 15 January 2025 - 01:29 PM

So, my quest was not properly set up to remove arrival squares.

I thought I had fixed it but I checked the wrong QR.
I’ve fixed this in a the newest version for Database release.

For the contest version, you can use the default cheats.
1, 2, 3, 4

Believe you need 4 to walk through walls or warp to specific screens, just in case you need to use it.

#5 Shoshon the Elegant

Shoshon the Elegant

    White Tiger King!

  • Members
  • Real Name:Michael
  • Pronouns:He / Him
  • Location:Florida

Posted 16 January 2025 - 08:28 PM

Play mine in 2.55.7.

Rambly was playing in 2.55.8 and the dungeon item in the Haunted Workshop just doesn’t work.
I’ll be reporting the bug to the Devs.

#6 Mani Kanina

Mani Kanina

    Rabbits!

  • Moderators

Posted 19 January 2025 - 11:44 AM

I'm not a judge, but I've been playing the other entries than my own since I've been curious. I've gotten through two and I'm on my way through the third ATM.

Here's my thoughts on them in case anyone wants to read them:

Sword of Truth:

Spoiler


The Deku Within:
Spoiler

 

Tales of Murdoch:

Spoiler

Edited by Mani Kanina, 19 January 2025 - 02:38 PM.


#7 Shoshon the Elegant

Shoshon the Elegant

    White Tiger King!

  • Members
  • Real Name:Michael
  • Pronouns:He / Him
  • Location:Florida

Posted 19 January 2025 - 03:51 PM

I’m curious about the missing small key. It hasn’t been mentioned to me and I believe there should be enough keys for all doors.

 

Or is this related to the water dungeon thing where if you grab the rupee in the room first the chest doesn't have the key?


  • Mani Kanina likes this

#8 Mani Kanina

Mani Kanina

    Rabbits!

  • Moderators

Posted 19 January 2025 - 05:07 PM

I’m curious about the missing small key. It hasn’t been mentioned to me and I believe there should be enough keys for all doors.

 

Or is this related to the water dungeon thing where if you grab the rupee in the room first the chest doesn't have the key?

It was in the water dungeon, so yeah, it was likely that glitch that I ran into. I did have an empty chest there.



#9 Shoshon the Elegant

Shoshon the Elegant

    White Tiger King!

  • Members
  • Real Name:Michael
  • Pronouns:He / Him
  • Location:Florida

Posted 19 January 2025 - 07:07 PM

It was in the water dungeon, so yeah, it was likely that glitch that I ran into. I did have an empty chest there.

Gotcha.
I did fix that after Rambly pointed it out.
Just moved the rupee to a different screen.
But I didn’t upload a new version cause I want people to experience what I submitted for now. Don’t feel it would be fair if I just shared it and had some people play what wasn’t submitted even if it fixes those issues (the spawning in walls and key chest being the big ones).

Oversight on my part, but glad it’s being found before I eventually upload to the database.

Wondering for my own potential.
You mentioned the dungeon flow.
Which dungeons do you feel are the biggest offenders?

And for the overworld, is it just the looks, or a lack of secrets or both?

Gameplay is my top priority so I’m trying to tackle things like that.

#10 Mani Kanina

Mani Kanina

    Rabbits!

  • Moderators

Posted 21 January 2025 - 12:00 PM

Wondering for my own potential.
You mentioned the dungeon flow.
Which dungeons do you feel are the biggest offenders?

And for the overworld, is it just the looks, or a lack of secrets or both?

Gameplay is my top priority so I’m trying to tackle things like that.

The dungeons just felt kinda weird in places. The first one you go to is just a mini dungeon to get the key for the 'real one', if you will. But the main progression is bombing a random wall when you don't have a map. Maybe I missed something obvious but that struck me as weird. Especially when there was a more obvious chest with reward, but that one had a heart piece. (And was behind a push block you seemingly could only push from one direction). Generally I feel if it's main progression you need to bomb a wall for the player should have a map so they can figure it out rather than bombing randomly.

Stuff like that made the dungeons feel weird. I don't have any more concrete examples, but direction on where to go in some of them just felt a lil bit off.

For the overworld it's kind just everything. The aesthetics feel underbaked... but it's like everything in the overworld is very utilitarian. There are pits because you need the hookshot or boots to get over them, etc etc. For the most part it didn't feel much like a real place. I don't think it's just looks, because it kinda affects how you play it too.

Also, it took me a while to figure out that the dark gray blocks on the overworld were, in fact, pushable.

Edited by Mani Kanina, 21 January 2025 - 12:01 PM.

  • Shoshon the Elegant likes this

#11 Shoshon the Elegant

Shoshon the Elegant

    White Tiger King!

  • Members
  • Real Name:Michael
  • Pronouns:He / Him
  • Location:Florida

Posted 21 January 2025 - 12:59 PM

The dungeons just felt kinda weird in places. The first one you go to is just a mini dungeon to get the key for the 'real one', if you will. But the main progression is bombing a random wall when you don't have a map. Maybe I missed something obvious but that struck me as weird. Especially when there was a more obvious chest with reward, but that one had a heart piece. (And was behind a push block you seemingly could only push from one direction). Generally I feel if it's main progression you need to bomb a wall for the player should have a map so they can figure it out rather than bombing randomly.Stuff like that made the dungeons feel weird. I don't have any more concrete examples, but direction on where to go in some of them just felt a lil bit off.For the overworld it's kind just everything. The aesthetics feel underbaked... but it's like everything in the overworld is very utilitarian. There are pits because you need the hookshot or boots to get over them, etc etc. For the most part it didn't feel much like a real place. I don't think it's just looks, because it kinda affects how you play it too.Also, it took me a while to figure out that the dark gray blocks on the overworld were, in fact, pushable.


Good point. I wasn’t thinking thoroughly enough on the mini dungeon. It would be pretty easy to just drop in a map or have the player have it by default. I’ll definitely work on that. I think the water mini dungeon did the same thing too. One dungeon I’m a bit unsure on is the Haunted Workshop. I had it set up to where you had to go one side and come back the other side and go back to the other side again. How noticeable was that? I’m considering putting a passageway in the room with the Patra as a shortcut to get from each side of the dungeon to the other.

Some of this will be addressed with NPCs, but I’ll be doing some more playtesting to see what else might stand out.

Also yeah, the overworld was rushed. It was the first thing I did, but I didn’t spend a whole lot of time on it after making dungeons. Mainly because Christmas pretty much knocked me out of being able to actively develop for a couple weeks and I wanted to hop on secrets and a basic story.


I know the blocks are out of place too. I have an NPC in the ghost cabin that mentions it now, but I may entirely replace the block. Just was trying to avoid making custom combos as much as I could, and wasn’t sure what else to put there. At least since I used a rock to block off the first mini dungeon.

Also, the main reason I didn’t fancy up the overworld was because I knew the grass would be an issue, with being set up to use undercombos, instead of a slash->next thing. I’ll look into that as well. Doing more paths, maybe rivers and such like that should help.

#12 Mani Kanina

Mani Kanina

    Rabbits!

  • Moderators

Posted 21 January 2025 - 01:08 PM

One dungeon I’m a bit unsure on is the Haunted Workshop. I had it set up to where you had to go one side and come back the other side and go back to the other side again. How noticeable was that? I’m considering putting a passageway in the room with the Patra as a shortcut to get from each side of the dungeon to the other.

It was for the most part fine. Like, the red doors blend into the walls a bit so I had to look at the map to figure out where to go next, but that's fine. That dungeon was probably one of the more interesting ones in the quest. Honestly my bigger gripe was that it put me in the wall when I died or hit F6, but you know about that already and AFAIK you fixed the missing quest rule.

#13 Shoshon the Elegant

Shoshon the Elegant

    White Tiger King!

  • Members
  • Real Name:Michael
  • Pronouns:He / Him
  • Location:Florida

Posted 21 January 2025 - 01:36 PM

It was for the most part fine. Like, the red doors blend into the walls a bit so I had to look at the map to figure out where to go next, but that's fine. That dungeon was probably one of the more interesting ones in the quest. Honestly my bigger gripe was that it put me in the wall when I died or hit F6, but you know about that already and AFAIK you fixed the missing quest rule.

 

Yeah, that was the biggest, baddest thing that didn't get ironed out, alongside the potentially missing key.

The key was all due to me making last minute additions of adding rupees, and just putting one in the wrong room.

The other one was because I did a full play test in one sitting, and never F6ed or died... That's something I need to consider more in the future, cause it's not the first time I've had that problem in playtesting.



#14 Shoshon the Elegant

Shoshon the Elegant

    White Tiger King!

  • Members
  • Real Name:Michael
  • Pronouns:He / Him
  • Location:Florida

Posted 21 January 2025 - 04:11 PM

Like Mani, I am not going to share some more full thoughts on all of these quests.

I'm actually going to skip the rating part though. I'll do more of a pro-con, suggestions, sort of review.

 

 

Sword of Truth:

Spoiler

 

Nestastic Gaiden:

Spoiler

 

The Deku Within:

Spoiler




1 user(s) are reading this topic

0 members, 1 guests, 0 anonymous users