11 replies to this topic

[CyberGamer1539]

Recently, I've been brainstorming ideas for a new quest I might start making. It would be a very non-linear, story driven game, filled with secrets, fleshed out characters, and very unique dungeons. The dungeons are actually why I created this thread in the first place (and also to just tell you about some of the things I have planned).

 

I've already come up with some pretty cool ideas for dungeons, ones that I think are very creative and would include many interesting gimmicks. However, I've only done this for a few dungeons. What I am looking for are some ideas from the community, since you guys would be the ones playing the quest, and I've seen so many great things from this community over the few years I've been here.

 

So if you have an idea for one of the dungeons I have down below, please tell. Or maybe you have an idea for a dungeon I don't even have listed! Feel free to post those too!

 

 

Hyrule Castle: This dungeon would be the first dungeon the player goes to, and currently it is under siege by an army that I can't go into detail about for the sake of keeping things secret. It would be chock full of enemies, and there could also be friendly soldiers helping you fight through the army in order to get to the main goal of the dungeon, probably finding Zelda.

 

 

These next three dungeons will be able to be completed in any order. I also would really like to add a feature that increases the difficulty of the enemies in the other dungeons when one is completed, so they aren't all the same difficulty.

 

Forest Dungeon: No ideas yet.

 

Death Mountain Crater: In my opinion this is the best idea of the ones I have so far. There would be multiple levels of the crater, all surrounding a big hole in the center. At the bottom of the crater, there would be a central temple area floating on the lava. The gimmick would be that you can actually raise and lower the level of the lava in order to move this temple up to different layers of the crater. I really love this idea because I could get really creative with dungeon-wide puzzles.

 

Water/Ice Dungeon: This is pretty much exactly what you would think it is: A dungeon where you can freeze and melt the water in the dungeon. Currently I feel like this could be a decent dungeon, but it still isn't very creative. I still plan to use this, but any ideas that could go well with this would be appreciated.

 

 

Now that Link has gotten whatever Macguffins he got from these past three dungeons, he can finally make it to the fabled...

 

Palace of Mirrors: This dungeon is a place of deception. The dungeon would of course be littered with mirrors, but not any ordinary mirrors. These mirrors can reflect objects and enemies that normally couldn't be seen. They also reflect magic and light, allowing for some puzzles, too.

 

 

That last dungeon was mainly a transition dungeon into the second part of the game. Now we're into the serious stuff... which I also haven't put to much thought into yet. These dungeons can also be done in any order.

 

Desert Dungeon: No ideas yet.

 

Technology Dungeon: There will probably be lots of electronic gates, moving objects, and robotic enemies here.

 

Wind Dungeon: This will end up being a tower reminicent of that one dungeon I can't remember the name of from Light of the Heavens by Russ. There will also be many wind themed puzzles and outdoor sections.

 

 

This next dungeon has to be done after the last three are complete, as it is another "transition dungeon.

 

Undead Dungeon: No ideas yet, except for story relevance.

 

 

Then of course, there's the final dungeon. I won't spoiler anything yet, but it will be a very epic climax.

 

 

Now, lots of these ideas will require scripting. That is why I said I might start making it earlier. Anyway, if you made it this far, then congrats, I guess. If you have any ideas or even just comments, then PLEASE say them. Thanks for reading!

Edited by CyberGamer1539, 03 December 2016 - 10:00 PM.

[Alucard648]

1. Forest temple. What about hiding passage to otherwise impentrable dungeon inside Link`s house? You unlock innocently looking staircase, go through passage and BOOM.

2. Desert Dungeon:

Holy Grail quest, anyone...

3. Undead Dungeon: What about vast, horriful, non-euclidean city full of eldritch abominations?

Welcome to R`LYEH!

Edited by Alucard648, 04 December 2016 - 12:34 AM.

[CyberGamer1539]

Actually, I was planning on doing some crazy stuff with physics and stuff in the final dungeon... That is if I can get a good scripter or just get off my lazy butt and do it myself. I've actually tried making a custom pallet for the main overworld of the game, but it doesn't seem to be working so well. At least I'm starting some work on the quest.

[Castelia]

Before the forest dungeon, you could have an area where you get a fire-based weapon, enabling access to the dungeon itself, as well as making the player able to solve puzzles within said dungeon.

 

For the desert temple, you could make it ruin-based, and you could even have a puzzle where you have to find a missing piece of a statue and put it back in the statue to go deeper into it.

 

Just ideas, but they could work.

[CyberGamer1539]

So, I think this has been done in a quest before, but to be honest, it's the only good thing I can think of for a Forest dungeon. The dungeon itself would be a massive tree, like the Deku Tree or something like that, but it would be withering and dying. There would be lots of broken paths and dead bushes/patches. Eventually Link finds a way to replenish the tree's water supply and fix everything back up. However, in this state the enemies would be stronger because they feed of of the tree's energy so to speak. Also paths that were open before could be covered in leaves. The dungeon item would probably be the Candle or a related fire-type weapon.

Edited by CyberGamer1539, 04 December 2016 - 10:14 AM.

[Reflectionist]

I like your ideas, and they seem pretty compatible with some of my dungeon ideas in another thread.  I'm focusing my entire quest building around the overworld, with only an outline of the dungeons.  Maybe you can give me some pointers on my overworld stuff?

Your water dungeon.  You could have it to where in separate rooms, or down branching symmetrical paths, there are different controls for the middle room--at different times, you may have to flood, evaporate, freeze, or melt the water in your dungeon.  A combination of different "gimmicks" 

[CyberGamer1539]

So I went and read your other thread. Are you just wanting ideas for your overworld? I suppose I could help with that, if that's what you want.

 

EDIT: I read a bit further and noticed you were interested in a collab. Perhaps you could do the overworld and I could do the dungeons? Also thanks for liking my ideas, I put a lot of thought into some of them!

Edited by CyberGamer1539, 17 December 2016 - 01:12 AM.

[Reflectionist]

Yeah, that's the notion; I'd love to collaborate, since the ideas seem pretty inline with each other.  This is my first honest foray into ZC, and I don't want you to commit to doing a collaboration until I have a testable portion of my overworld idea completed.  I'll PM you with some other ideas of mine if you're interested, and if not, no big deal.  I just didn't want to derail your thread. 

Plus, in the interest of supporting the community, I want to playtest a little, so that might set me back.

Edited by Reflectionist, 17 December 2016 - 11:07 PM.

[CyberGamer1539]

Ok, sounds good to me!

[LikeLike on fire]

it is hard to think of things never done before. and then you get silly quests here. so you can't do a "windows 95 dungeon" because it has been done before.

 

or even "let's convert a Twilight Princess dungeon into ZC function"  or when I go "screw it. flip everything 180 degrees and call it a day, Let's make level 4 purple"

 

I almost wanted to do a melt it dungeon but it's a lot of work.

 

or what you do is take a "flood and drain" concept but apply it to a forest temple. and go "haha, gottcha. didn't expect that?"

 

which quests are best known for gimmicky dungons?

Edited by LikeLike on fire, 21 December 2016 - 10:12 AM.

[Reflectionist]

or what you do is take a "flood and drain" concept but apply it to a forest temple. and go "haha, gottcha. didn't expect that?"

Hehe.  Deluge.

Anyway, on point... I see what you're saying.  But I look at ZQuest as a tool to help me see if I'm interested in game design.  I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel, I'm trying to make a Zelda game.  Nobody here is making Breath of the Wild.  Part of the fun of Zelda and playing these quests we make for each other is because Zelda is familiar, and accessible.  I'm 28, and it looks like that other dude is 14.  We're not career oriented game developers.

We're fans of Zelda, working with a program we don't fully understand.  Of course, we're going to be proud of coming up with something pretty similar to what's already been done, as anybody should.  Heh, I'm going to be super proud just coming up with something that can actually be played.  

*shrug*

You're right, trying to put that much into a ZC dungeon is a long, arduous process. Namely, because you half to make maps for every conceivable combination of melt and flood, for every floor, then you have to make sure your flags make your warps work right--which means you have to set up a Dmap for every conceivable combination of melt and flood, for every floor.  Then you can put enemies in.  And that doesn't even guarantee that it works, because you haven't thought about progression, keys, locks, items, and you've spent so much time on making sure it works at all that you haven't designed any puzzles, so you're just fighting enemies and hittin' switches and you did a lot of work for not a lot of effect.

Yeah, the turnaround is pretty low.  But if I can do it like that, I can probably do it better next time.  And the stakes will be higher because then it won't just be "Lake Hylia in Hyrule" but "Lake Fantasmagoria in Burgerland" and that'll be a completely different level of proud that will be worth it when we get there.  

EDIT -- I imagine it would be damn difficult in ZC to make a complete working Light World / Dark World duplicate from LttP using any one of the DoR / Pure tilesets on PureZC... but after doing a little bit of reading, I found out the Nintendo didn't even make complete maps for both.  They used clever layering and palette swaps for the Dark World.  Some of the speedrun glitches for the game show this stuff off by running around in a "Grey World" that looks absolutely ridiculous, because some of the layers are turned off and the palettes don't match up right and, yeah... you get the idea.  But Nintendo took something that seems like a lot of work, and made it rrreeeeeaaaaallll simple, didn't they?
 

Edited by Reflectionist, 21 December 2016 - 02:13 PM.

[CyberGamer1539]

EDIT -- I imagine it would be damn difficult in ZC to make a complete working Light World / Dark World duplicate from LttP using any one of the DoR / Pure tilesets on PureZC... but after doing a little bit of reading, I found out the Nintendo didn't even make complete maps for both.  They used clever layering and palette swaps for the Dark World.  Some of the speedrun glitches for the game show this stuff off by running around in a "Grey World" that looks absolutely ridiculous, because some of the layers are turned off and the palettes don't match up right and, yeah... you get the idea.  But Nintendo took something that seems like a lot of work, and made it rrreeeeeaaaaallll simple, didn't they?

Wow, those lazy developers! Also, about the whole melt/flood dungeon, I imagine it could be made a whole lot simpler with some scripting, but that might just be what you're implying with your above statement about swapping palletes and layers.

Edited by CyberGamer1539, 21 December 2016 - 11:59 PM.