Good lord, my watch that tracks the time between now and the last project update to The Legend of Zelda: Crucible Crest on PureZC.net tells me that it’s been a long time between those two points!
Sheik and I apologize for the wait. I wanted to post some things that have been churning in the tank over the last year, and get to when you can expect another release of new content. As a reminder, you can find marginally more frequent updates at the alsoLIONSoft Discord - where you can also track progress on Peril of Rectangle Country, Three Crests, Glenn Loses His Imagination, and more (?)!
https://discord.gg/c6pAMZt3
New Subscreen
One of the late features to grace ZC 2.55 was full-featured subscreen control via script. This has allowed for implementation of some really, really neat features for Crucible Crest. If you recall, the subscreen in our demo was a bit… underdeveloped:
Now we have the full-featured subscreen that’s been planned since the project inception:
- Item Descriptions: When you hover any item or piece of equipment, you can now read a full description of that item, including mechanical and story information. You can freely scroll each description with the L and R buttons, allowing us to pack as much or as little information as we want.
- Item Portraits: Thanks to some kind assets created by Discord user Ulmeyda, we have some incredible sprite art for some of the items, and this helps show it off.
- Pages: Pages allow us to structure information much more sensibly and help regain the page space we lose from item descriptions. Collectibles and Triforce Pieces now get their own page to shine!
- Options: Now, controller options such as number of buttons and layout are editable. You can force Crucible Crest to only use two buttons if your controller or keybindings aren’t set up to use X and Y. Additionally, you can change the displayed ABXY layout from classic (SNES) to modern (XBox, Dreamcast) - this should make the subscreen display orientation much more friendly without rebinding keys. Health/magic warnings are also configurable with greater control than default ZC settings.
But by far, the most exciting element of the new subscreen is the jewel system.
Jewels can be found throughout Hyrule and have a variety of effects, with a little catch - they have to be set into a ring with an empty slot, so you can’t activate them all at once. Getting your jewel collection started and finding a magic ring will be crucial to getting your bearings in the world.
These are obviously our take on the ring system from Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons, but incorporating a lot of lessons learned. One of my frustrations with the ring system in those games is that ring effects are mostly very weak, which makes the useful ones way too centralizing. Not all Crucible Crest jewels are created equal, of course, but I hope people find a variety of jewels that they want to switch between, depending on the situation - and unlike in the Oracle games, you can freely switch between any jewel in your collection at any time.
Along with jewels, you may find some new chests around Hyrule, too!
That’s right - a select number of jewels may be randomized per playthrough and scattered throughout the land in blue chests. These jewels will require appraisal from a jeweler in order to view their effects and equip them - so you’ll have to find a jeweler (I wonder who?) to use them. These can obviously have a huge influence on your personal progression, and might give you a little push to replay from time to time.
Expanding the World
Of course, the world is at the core. Here’s some screenshots of new stuff that we haven’t quite posted anywhere. (Maybe. Don't fact-check this.)
While I was drafting this post, Sheik said something that I think was pretty cool: “I think we are kind of at a point in terms of worldbuilding where we can just pose a question at the world and the context of other events we already thought about makes a certain scenario likely.” This is a really fun spot to be in as a storyteller, and it made me reflect a bit on how we intentionally put the story on the backburner in demo 1 in order to push something out. I hope that people are excited to start really exploring the history of the world and seeing our take on a game whose story was so simple, yet formative.
Future Plans and Demo 2
Of course, that brings us to the hottest topic: what the hell is going on with demo 2?
When I approached Sheik about Crucible Crest, we pushed out demo 1 in about 3 months. Now it’s been over 3 years. One of the things that we really strove for was pushing the boundaries of presentation and polish in a Zelda Classic quest, and as a result we’ve taken a slow hand towards development. Aspects of the engine, such as jewels, have demanded a lot of development time to get working - but it’s been too long. We need to clear out the content.
Demo 2 will release in 2024, and I’m pushing to wrap up all level design in September. We are planning to include three levels (including Level 1 from the first demo) along with two other minidungeons. Of that, we have two main levels and one minidungeon complete - and the overworld (easily three times as large as demo 1!) is very nearly polished to completion as well.
Stay tuned, and maybe we’ll have some other updates come through the pipeline before then.
Edited by Mitchfork, 17 July 2024 - 11:44 PM.
