10 replies to this topic

[Shane]

While I haven't fully completed Spellbound Temple (which is currently sitting at ~95%) I decided to start working on another dungeon called Ancient Waterworks located in the swamps of Novalin. I might redo the exterior, but right now, I'm fully working on the interior part and it's showing some promising progress (the main floor is ~50% done). It's more open compared to Spellbound Temple and I'm currently enjoying the direction it's taking. Hopefully my personal goal with this dungeon is met.

It might seem weird, but I might disable flippers in here, they're not needed and could cause [keyword: unwanted] sequence breaking and a few walkability errors. The main mechanic of this dungeon is pretty self explanatory this time around but there's a few neat twists (I like to think, at least) to the typical gimmick that makes more interesting puzzles and exploration. So let's get to the screenshots, shall we? Sponsored by Cheat 4, or something.


Entrance has undergone a few changes since I last showed it.


Damn, switch out of reach... how to reach it?


Damn it, both ways are locked!


Hm, these pipes are not coloured at all... what could this mean?


Damn, I skipped that chest. Ah well, what's up ahead?


Does this control the blue pipes? ... It won't budge, seems it's already activated.


Damn, another lock. Seems this valve needs to be turned on.

Please note the last few screens are a slight WIP and will get more additions to them as development goes on (I am also going to make a small addition to the map section of the subscreen (F1, F2, etc.).). I want to also announce that progress might slow down. School is starting up (I got to get this huge project done by July or else goodbye education) and I'm dealing with another personal loss. Hopefully it won't halt completely, I want to finish this ASAP regardless of what's slowing me down. I will make another update on this dungeon when it's nearing completion.

 

(And maybe hopefully complete Spellbound Temple within that time... :V)

Until next time, have a good day/night.

[Russ]

Damn, switch out of reach... how to reach it?

Damn it, both ways are locked!

Damn, I skipped that chest. Ah well, what's up ahead?

Damn, another lock. Seems this valve needs to be turned on.

Easy there Shadow.

Anyways, this looks really cool. The aesthetics are unique, and the mechanics seem interesting. There seems to be a conspicuous lack of enemies, but that I can chalk up to WIP screenshots. My only concern is with the flippers being disabled in the dungeon. It'd seem odd if they were to suddenly not work, so I'd suggest finding some in-universe way of justifying this. But otherwise, looking good. Good luck with the project, and with school!

[Shane]

Anyways, this looks really cool. The aesthetics are unique, and the mechanics seem interesting. There seems to be a conspicuous lack of enemies, but that I can chalk up to WIP screenshots. My only concern is with the flippers being disabled in the dungeon. It'd seem odd if they were to suddenly not work, so I'd suggest finding some in-universe way of justifying this. But otherwise, looking good. Good luck with the project, and with school!

Thanks! Yeah, enemies will come later in development. As for flippers, I was thinking perhaps I should make the water turbulent (as also suggested by someone on Skype) so I might change the water graphics and do some minor alterations.

 

And yeah, upon reading after I posted this update, damn, I used a lot of the word "damn"... wait, damn it.

[CDi-Fails]

Looks good, but so far all of your dungeons have opened up to a symmetrical starting screen. You should change that up for later dungeons.

[Eddy]

Looking really awesome so far! I like what you got going here. As for your flippers thing, I guess you could make the water look like deep water or swamp water so that it looks like it's unsafe to swim in? That would probably be a good reason for not being able to use flippers here.

[Demonlink]

(BIG IMAGE AHEAD!) This looks legit to avoid swimming.

[Anthus]

If you want to keep people out of the water, it could be electrified. This would keep in line with Zelda having more advanced technology in the past for some reason, in a place called "Ancient Waterworks".

[NoeL]

Depending on how much work it is, your best option is to design AROUND the problem of having flippers (if the player has access to the flippers at this point). Disabling them for no reason or having some lame excuse just comes across as lazy design. If the flippers let the player traverse a path that you intended to only be open once the water is drained, have a gate or wall with an opening below the waterline, or even just a pipe that sits at water level and blocks Link's way unless the water is drained first. You can even use this to your advantage in the reverse way - have floating platforms or raised doorways to make paths that are only accessible when the water level is up, and let the player swim there.

[Shane]

Depending on how much work it is, your best option is to design AROUND the problem of having flippers (if the player has access to the flippers at this point). Disabling them for no reason or having some lame excuse just comes across as lazy design. If the flippers let the player traverse a path that you intended to only be open once the water is drained, have a gate or wall with an opening below the waterline, or even just a pipe that sits at water level and blocks Link's way unless the water is drained first. You can even use this to your advantage in the reverse way - have floating platforms or raised doorways to make paths that are only accessible when the water level is up, and let the player swim there.

Actually, the quest's flippers are purely optional (you have to beat any two dungeons of your choice before they become available to the player), so the problem is I can't design the dungeon with or without the flippers in mind. Which brings me to spriting new water animations which look extremely unstable to swim in (IIRC, disabling flippers will mean Link will drown within the waters). New water tiles generally means it has different properties, and with the owl statue outside the dungeon explaining the "water is very furious" within the dungeon, I think the player should get the message and there is some effort and thought within the reason as to why Link can't swim in the dungeon.

[Sheik]

How about you make it acid (or well, polluted water) instead and you loose hearts rather fast if you try to swim in it so that you will just plain die? More like a sewers kinda place almost, even.

[NoeL]

Actually, the quest's flippers are purely optional (you have to beat any two dungeons of your choice before they become available to the player), so the problem is I can't design the dungeon with or without the flippers in mind.

Sure you can. Just do the first bit of what I said (blocking water-filled passageways) but not the second bit (blocking drained passageways). It'll mean you can't have any meaningful swimming sections but if the flippers are optional you couldn't do that anyway (besides having secret rooms).