3 replies to this topic

[Lüt]

It's been a busy 6 weeks.

The first week of July, I was looking at a blank screen with no idea what to do or how to even use the ZQuest editor.

Now this second week of August, I've completed a full-size overworld, a half-size underworld, 7 primary dungeons, 3 optional Treasure Vault side-dungeons, 3 trial/passage caves, and part of an 8th dungeon.

I'm a bit irritated that the project's gone into its 6th week, as I intended to do a strictly classic quest in no more than 2-3 weeks. But then I got carried away testing new features, editing new tiles, hacking together "new" enemies, playing with new items, trying to implement them in constructive ways, designing custom dungeon palettes, arranging and editing new MIDI files so they'd have a proper internal consistency, etc. etc.

But now development is coming to a close, and I'm hoping to have a fully playable beta by Monday evening (or Tuesday at the latest).

As for feedback, all I'd be looking for is notes about bugs or malfunctional layouts (i.e. intended effects not working, designs being breakable, getting stuck in impossible situations) and general feedback on gameplay and difficulty. Shouldn't be some big commitment. More thorough feedback would certainly be welcome, but I do have to clarify that I won't be ripping out and redesigning entire chucks of dungeons or outside worlds; rather, this is just my final tweaking phase, and though I'll try to implement as many fixes/suggestions as I can, there won't be incredibly significant changes to layout and game progression.

I'd like to use the sign-up method for beta testing, but since I'm new and unpopular, I'll just post a demo if I don't get (m)any responses. Either way, the thing's getting released before the end of August. If you want to give it a try, just say "hey" (no application essay or anything) and I'll put you on the list.

As for current status...

Completed: Overworld, Dungeon 1, Dungeon 2, Dungeon 3, Treasure Vault 1, Dungeon 4, Dungeon 5 (1B & 2B), Treasure Vault 2, Dungeon 6 (1B 2B & Basement Cave), Dungeon 7 (1B 2B 3B 4B 5B 6B 7B), Treasure Vault 3, Cave Of The Dead, Underworld, Cave Of Mastery, Cave Of Life.

In Progress: Cave Of Defense, Dungeon 8 (Basement, 1F & 2F are complete - 3F 4F & 5F in progress), path to Ganon's Palace, and of course, Ganon's Palace.

Once that's all done and I give it a final play-through, I'll have the beta available.

And before signing off, I have to say thanks to Zoria and the others who've helped me tie up my loose odds and ends in the editor forum, as well as EddyTheOliveira for the YouTube tutorials that somehow managed to get me started in ZQuest despite the amount of ruckus in the background. Hey Eddy, if you're reading this you ought to sign on for the beta and see exactly what it is you're responsible for unleashing

[Anarchy_Balsac]

The screen layouts seem, unique, even using the default graphics.  It's easy to make your screens unique with custom tiles and combos, but it takes a special touch to do so with default ones.

[Lüt]

Well thanks, I try

 

As for screenshots... I'm one of those guys who thinks the movie previews always show way too much, so I make a point to never post my best stuff - for games or anything else. Admittedly, given the impressive screenshot competition around here, it's challenging to save the best for the game itself. But I'd rather have people say, "it was better than expected," instead of, "yeah there were those few cool scenes, and the rest was decent too."

 

As for progress, I finished Dungeon 8, path to Ganon's Palace, got some new sounds in, tweaked some enemies/difficulties, and figured out how to add a new shield and place the sprites/offsets for it. Unfortunately, there was a power outage today (leave it to Chicago to have thunderstorms on bright sunny days), so everything will be set back another day. I'll have a new batch of screens to go with the beta package as well, so you'll see a few more somewhat-unconventional layouts, as well as some of the new palettes I made.

[Lüt]

Quick note: I had an offer for help with some scripts to fix certain impending gameplay issues, so I'm going to wait for that to be completed before posting the beta. It should only be a day or two, but I don't rush people who offer to help with no recompense.