38 replies to this topic

[Moonbread]

I'm actually pretty psyched about this, I love the... I guess, gritty feel of it all. Seriously, please finish this set. I would absolutely love to try it out.

[FnrrfYgmSchnish]

I'm still kind of stunned that there's so much interest in this random little project I started on because I was bored. XD

Definitely appreciate it, though--I've had stuff go completely ignored on other forums before, and it's always kind of depressing to see something you put a ton of work into go "0 replies" for a month straight.

I'm actually coming very close to having everything pretty much done tileset-wise... the only things that are really missing at this point are Ganon, Aquamentus, and Death Knight sprites, "ate a bomb" BS Dodongo sprites, most of the Din's Fire and Nayru's Love effects, and those "dungeon barrier" tiles from the default classic tileset that for some reason I haven't gotten around to finishing yet.


Some more dungeon tiles, including "pop in an out of the floor" spikes, stairs, and oddly-shaped blocks.


Sideview dungeon tiles. I guess the hover-boots make sense as a reward for an item that you need to jump to get.

Speaking of sideview... I'm guessing you need a script to make sideview ladders, right? I tried just making them Slow Walk combos but that didn't work at all.


Also, caves. No new graphics here (...though I don't think the old man or fire have shown up until now?), mostly just a new palette, since I finally got around to filling out the Z1 Cave palette in addition to the overworld and first dungeon.

Finishing up the palettes is actually most of the work I have left on this. XD I'm planning on at least having the default Z1 dungeon palettes converted to work with this tileset; maybe more, though I haven't decided for sure yet.

I figure I'll probably release this within the month, if all goes well with the palettes and the few remaining tiles (oh yeah, and the subscreens... I always forget the subscreen.)

Edited by FnrrfYgmSchnish, 10 September 2012 - 07:56 AM.

[Ventus]

I'm liking what I'm seeing here, I love when someone remakes the Z1 set. and with some BS aspects that's even better!
Keep up the good work

Oh and yes you'll need a script to make the sideview ladders. I think quite a few exists somewhere in the scripting forums.
I had to use one when I made my game Journey Of Link. (Which was all sideview dungeons...Except the last one. I cut corners there <.<)

[Moonbread]

One thing I recommend is changing the outline of the fire to, well, not black. Things such as fire, wind, clouds, etc. don't look good with black outlines.

Otherwise, everything else looks good so far.

[Lightwulf]

One thing I recommend is changing the outline of the fire to, well, not black. Things such as fire, wind, clouds, etc. don't look good with black outlines.

Otherwise, everything else looks good so far.

Thanks for bringing this up, Scootaloo. I made my own modified classic tileset, all with black outlines, and I've been wondering if I needed to put black lines around the fires. Thanks for clearing that up!

Back on topic, though, I'm really digging those dungeon tiles! Very nice job converting BS tiles to Classic. Link looks pretty cool, too.

BTW, did you remember to set up your Door Combos for the dungeons? (Having worked on a couple of tilesets myself, I know how easy it can be to overlook something. I see you have passageways, but since you didn't mention it, I thought I'd throw it out there just to make sure.)
Also, don't forget to set your "Game Icons" (the things that show up by your name before you hit enter to start your quest; normally set to a shieldless Link). I forgot that before releasing a tileset once.

[FnrrfYgmSchnish]

I think the fire looks fine with a black outline; from what I remember, most NES games that used black outlines at all put them around fire and stuff like that, too. Of course, I'm not limited to NES palettes here, so... maybe I'll give all the flame-related graphics a darker red or something for an outline instead of black. I think I may already have a color like that in my cset 8 (and even if I don't, I know there's still empty slots left for one), so that shouldn't be a very hard change to make. I'll probably include both black-outline and non-black-outline versions in the tileset, so I guess people can just pick whichever one they like after I release this.

BTW, did you remember to set up your Door Combos for the dungeons? (Having worked on a couple of tilesets myself, I know how easy it can be to overlook something. I see you have passageways, but since you didn't mention it, I thought I'd throw it out there just to make sure.)

Yep! I've got two full sets of door combos set up so far (only different in one detail, though--BS walls with the moai head statue things on the sides, and BS walls without them.)

I also have all of the game icons set to a generic "Link standing with arms to his sides" pose that isn't actually used by any of the in-game actions.

Speaking of easily-overlooked things tucked away in odd spots in the editor, I haven't set up relational mode water/pits or combo aliases yet. Mostly because they're features I'm not really familiar with... seems like they could be useful later, but it also seems like would take forever to put in every last water/pit tile or all those trees/dungeon entrances/big blocks/etc. into them. Probably one of the last things I'll fill in, if I decide to do some after all.

[FnrrfYgmSchnish]

First time I've done much work on this in a few days... but now I have that cset 0 bug I've been having figured out (and fixed) and have gotten back to the subscreen stuff I was working on when I first noticed it.



Here's the Zelda 1 active subscreen (Triforce/overworld version), the only one I've done much with so far. The "Use B button for this" area has been changed around so that it actually shows the item's name in addition to the picture and "Use B button" text (except... it doesn't in Zquest. The text is orange Z1 original font, placed just to the right of the active item box and set up so it's centered and word-wraps anything too long onto the next line... though there's enough room that this should realistically never happen unless you name an item something absurdly long. There's more than enough space for "Boomerang," after all...)

Other than that, no big changes, though the Triforce frame isn't just a couple of one-pixel lines anymore and the blue boxes are a bit different now (and all the items have new/edited sprites, of course.)

EDIT: And here's both the "Triforce collection" and "dungeon map" subscreens in action, showing what the current-item-name text looks like and such.



Dungeon maps are from BS Zelda, while the overworld map is my own edit of the default grid-map thingie (with a gray background to mimic the original Zelda's overworld minimap, but with the grid and borders to look like something more than a giant incomprehensible field of gray with a little green square in one spot.) The "DUNGEON ITEMS" text and decorative bits above and below that sections are in cset 2, by the way, so they change color to match the current dungeon. Also, not shown here, but the map title appears above the large map rather than above the minimap; mostly just to avoid having it partly overlap the minimap, but also because it's just kind of an interesting idea I had which I haven't really seen done before. It's too bad you can't get it to show up on just a single line, though...

Edited by FnrrfYgmSchnish, 18 September 2012 - 01:23 AM.

[Moonbread]

For some reason, the color of the Triforce inside the frame reminds me of salmon. Yeah. O_o Really like the idea of the bars/text matching the color of the dungeon, though.

It looks alright, but I'm not too big on the subscreen layout, although that's not really a problem when the subscreen editor exists.

[FnrrfYgmSchnish]

Heh, the salmonforce. XD

That's actually the exact same color the original Zelda used for the Triforce pieces (the default cset 8's orange.) The yellower border around it may make the "salmonyness" of it stand out a bit more than it ever did in the original, though.

I'll probably have at least two subscreen variations in the tileset by default (this edited Z1-style one, including versions with true arrows and magic, and one closer to the default Zelda Classic subscreen with every single item crammed into it.) But yeah, there's always the subscreen editor.

[Lightwulf]

I think a contributing factor to the orange looking like salmon might be the dark red text nearby. I wonder if it would look different/better with a brighter red text?

If the shading (the white and the brown) is the real cause, though, I wouldn't change it. Especially if it's the same orange used in the original.

Looking great so far!

[Moonbread]

Forgive me for bugging you, but any new progress? :x

[FnrrfYgmSchnish]

I've been doing some small things here and there over the past couple of weeks, but between being sick for a week and having a ton of homework (art classes in college = endless piles of homework!), I haven't had as much time to work on this as before.

I do have most of the tileset done at this point, though. Most recently, I've finished the last of the weapon/effect sprites (the spells and explosions were the last ones I had left, though I didn't really do much to the explosions), some extra item/effect sprites, and the subscreen stuff.

As far as what still needs to be done... it's pretty much just a few enemies I haven't finished yet (Ganon, Aquamentus, and the "just ate a bomb" sprites for the BS Dodongos), jumping Link, and the rest of the dungeon palettes. With all the other stuff I've been busy with, I don't know when I'll have time to get it all done, but it's probably safe to say I'll be ready to release this before the end of the year, at least...

[FnrrfYgmSchnish]

Though it hasn't been touched in over a year now, this project isn't dead!  It's actually... almost done. XD

 

Here's what's changed since my last post here...

 

• All enemy sprites are done (finally made Ganon and Aquamentus, and finished the Dodongos)
• All Link sprites are done (...except for the "hurt" sprites in the default classic set, but those aren't actually used yet, so... I may just leave them out?)
• All dungeon palettes are done (includes all of the default Z1 ones, plus most of the extras in the default Classic set, minus a few redundant ones)
• Subscreens are done (updated Z1 subscreens as shown in previous posts, plus a rearranged version of the ZC default, split into two so it doesn't have map+Triforce all smashed in on the same screen)
• Some new map stuff (I've gone through the old version of the tiles and picked out the last few that I for some reason left out of this tileset the first time around--most notably some houses, shallow/deep water transitions, and rain/cloud/snow weather layers.  Also edited the snow a bit to make sandstorm tiles.)
• A bunch of new enemy sprites (a few alternates for pre-existing enemies, plus a bunch of Zelda 2 monsters)

I've also added some custom enemies to use some of the Zelda 2 monster graphics:

• Myu: Basically a Gel that moves a bit more, hurts a bit more, and is a heck of a lot harder to kill.  To replicate the Myu's "too small to hit with regular attacks" status from Zelda 2, I set their resistance to most "arm-height" attack types (sword, arrows, boomerang, etc.) to "ignore."  Things that hit on/near the ground --ike the hammer, bombs, and fire--will still kill them, though (and Stomp Boots stun them.  Not quite Downward Thrust but better than just stepping on them with plain shoes, I guess?)
   
• Megmat: Obnoxious little hopping things.  Doesn't take or cause much damage, but they're fast enough that they can be a problem in large numbers (they're basically a very weak but fast Pols Voice without the arrow weakness.)
   
• Geru: Those super-strong lizardmen that appeared in Zelda 2.  Orange, red, and blue Geru all appear--orange ones throw spears, red ones wield maces and charge at you (basically a tougher Rope), and blue ones wield maces which explode when thrown.  They all take a lot of damage to kill and carry shields like Darknuts, though they aren't as heavily armored so they don't have all the immunities that Darknuts do.
   
• Aneru: Those crawling mushroom/Pirahna-Plant like creatures (why the heck does half the Internet think they're snakes now? seriously...) that spit either rocks (for blue) or fire (for red.)  Basically these are "medium-speed Octoroks" with more HP.
   
• Lowder: Cave-dwelling beetles that rush at you if you get into their line of sight.  Basically a slightly tougher Rope.
   
• Moby: Dive-bombing birds that appeared in Zelda 2's forests.  They use Keese type movement, but take (and cause) more damage and tend to home in on your location rather than fluttering aimlessly.
   
• Shielded Stalfos: Just like a standard Stalfos, but with a shield.
   
• Wosu: Sometimes mistakenly known as "Tinsuits" (or various other names) because the English version of the game/guides/etc. apparently didn't give them a name and fan-terms spread like the plague, these are those little wolf/fox/jackal guys that keep running at you in the Zelda 2 palaces but don't give any experience points.  My version is a weak enemy with Vire movement that steals 10 Rupees when you bump into them.
   
• Fokka: Scary bird knights that appeared in the last dungeon of Zelda 2.  They're fast, have shields, and shoot sword beams (sometimes 2 or 3 in a row, in the case of the blue ones) and hurt like hell (4 hearts per hit.)  They're basically a clear step up from blue Darknuts, without going to the might-as-well-be-a-boss extents of the splitting variety (or the "seriously? you're actually going to put these in your game? when do we get the Red Ring?" ridiculousness of the "Death Knight" version.)
   
• Geldarm: Giant sandworms from early areas of Zelda 2.  My version is basically just a longer (8 segments) Moldorm that does a full heart of damage when it hits you instead of just half.

At this point, this project is basically 100% done.  Here's some example screenshots showing off new stuff:

 

The rare mountain Lowder, seen here in its natural habitat.

 

The rare Geldarm, seen here... very far from its natural habitat (...unless that's the Parapa Desert after getting a freak snowstorm, anyway.)

 

Both spear and mace-wielding Geru (you may know them as "the lizardmen from Zelda 2.")

 

An example of the house tiles (in cset 4), used to make a big fortress for a dungeon entrance.

 

A Megmat hopping along next to someone's... random cactus plantation... or something.

 

Link flees from a small Moby flock.

 

A Myu next to a pond with a shallow spot in the middle.  Oh, and a fossilized Gohma...

 

 

 

I'm not sure when I'll actually get around to releasing this for people to use, but it will probably be within the next... month or so, I guess.  My little sister recently started using ZC and is making her first quest using my tileset (most of the above screenshots are from it... all of them except the Geldarm actually), so I may end up releasing the blank tileset quest file and her quest (as an example quest for the tileset) at around the same time.  If she's done with it in the next month or so, anyway (which seems pretty likely, considering that she has the full overworld plus 4 dungeons done already and is starting on the 5th dungeon now.)

[kurt91]

Two things...

 

First, how in the world did I not know about this until now? Pretty convenient for me, considering the massive length of time between updates, and I happened to be blissfully ignorant of this thread until the info-drought was over.

 

Second, this actually looks really cool. All of the graphics go together well with no style-clashing, and they actually look really nice. The fact that you took the time to create additional enemies is just great as well. I'd like to ask, is your example quest using any scripts? Since you obviously know how to use the Enemy Editor fairly well, I know a really easy script to use that lets you make 32x32 enemies through the Enemy Editor, if you'd like to have something other than the default bosses to use.

[Koh]

Since this is based off of the Zelda 1 tileset, the same problem with the mountains persist here:  "What in the world is the perspective with the mountain tiles!?"  But forgoing that, everything looks superb!  Nice pixel work, indeed.  If anything needs edits, I'd say it's the palettes.  I can see you have shades of the base colors present, but it's monochromatic shading.  Red to red, green to green.  This sort of shading doesn't give a pop, and is pretty bland.  Try doing some color shifting, so that the shade of green goes to a bluish green, and red goes to a purplish red, etc.

Edited by Koh, 06 January 2014 - 10:42 AM.