We've finally reached the conclusion of this years Two Week Contest!
I'd like to give a big shout-out to all of you, yes, all of you, for making this contest what it ended up being. A lot of cool entries and projects got started, but also a lot of community interaction with those quests took place. The amount of activity in the threads have been a joy to see. It can not be overstated how cool this has been!
Still, we have got some results to announce, so we shall get on with that. First up:
Community Vote Winners!
For Best use of Contest Time our winner is: Link's Quest for the Hookshot Zero, by Moosh.
This accolade was very much a 'no contest' with a few other quests getting a couple of votes while this one ended up snagging the vast majority!
For Most Needed for an Expansion / Full Version our winner is: Sideview Sunday, by coolgamer012345.
This one was a lot closer with it the second place, Deedee's Smol Quest, just being a single vote behind. Well, you heard the people- you better finish this one now, we're all waiting!
For Overall Favourite our winner is: Link's Quest for the Hookshot Zero, by Moosh.
Less of a complete blow-out victory here, but it's quite clear that the community favours this one; good show! It's definitely a quest that will be remembered long past the end of this contest!
If you're curious about the complete score break down in the polls you can still view the polls: Here!
Judge Panel Results!
Coming in at First Place is: Deedee's Smol Quest, by Deedee, with an aggregated score of: 46/50!
Next up we have Second Place which was taken by: Link's Quest for the Hookshot Zero, by Moosh, with an aggregated score of: 45/50!
Finally, but not least, comes Third Place won by: Nestastic - The Witches' Curse, by Mani Kanina, with an aggregated score of: 42/50!
For those following the discussions and trends I'm sure it's not much of a surprise which two quests would land in the top two slots, it was just a matter of which one and by how much. Still, I'm surprised I edged out a third place myself given everything; but perhaps that's just my own lack of self confidence.
None-the-less, for those interested in the complete scoring you can find the spreadsheet below as well as some fun trivia:
Spoiler
Ryu was the judge that ended up giving the highest scores on average, far above everyone else. Moosh's quest, despite not winning, was the favourite among the most judges, with two judges having it as their top pick. Deedee's and Mani's entries were the ones most swayed by individual judges; since entering the contest themselves meant it was one less judge providing scores for each.
No quest scored under 10 by any one individual judge, which I feel is a huge win.
Each of the judges thoughts on each entry, including my own, will follow in the post below. And once again I'd like to thank everyone who entered, regardless of how you did be it in the community polls or by the board of judges I think it's important to highlight that you made something, and that's always worth taking some pride in. I hope each and every entry gets finished and gets submitted to the database in the future, regardless of current state of completion.
There's a lot of text here for those who are curious about everyone's thoughts. Some of this has already been expressed before, but this is the first time anyone get a write up from me, for example, since I didn't want to share any thoughts before judging was done. The notes will be presented here as they were given to me, as best as possible.
Mani's Thoughts
Dark World's Return
Spoiler
I like it. It's very obviously a demo with clear signposting for what is part of the experience and what isn't. The tileset in question isn't one of my favourites, but the quest uses it pretty well as far as I can tell. The caves and dungeons stand out to me more than the overworld does when it comes to the visuals.
I haven't played many quests with scrolling regions before so that was a nice thing to see. The quest being a remake of an older quest cause for some interesting things to note about the general screen design. I wonder if some of the hard edges and design could be changed even more now that regions are a thing. My mind travels to all the log tubes in the forest, they work great as a screen separator but in the middle of a region they feel a bit more superficial.
I did struggle at a few points in the quest during my playthrough. I didn't expect walk-through walls in the tomb, so I ended up leaving looking for (the assumed) missed bombs, since I did spot a cracked wall. I only came back after I exhausted all other options. Likewise, I did miss one key in the island grave, causing me to need to loop around two more times before I found it. I don't think it's particularly well hidden or anything, I just didn't get the gimmick of the gibdoes guarding keys and on my second lap through I mentally excluded the location since "I've already been there". Still, needing to backtrack from town to the grave again wasn't ideal, since the dungeon don't allow backtracking.
I'm excited to see where this ends up going with the finished version. I don't think I've played the original and this has a lot of retro ZC vibes yet now with a weird new-ish texture what with regions. My biggest gripe is probably that the quest leans too much on the player supposedly already knowing what to do without the game itself explaining anything; draining the well comes to mind. But I'd presume that kind of issue will be solved in the final quest.
Super Zelda Adventure
Spoiler
I think this is a exciting idea of a quest. The ability of being able to switch between topdown and sideview of the same screen at will seems like something that is ripe for exciting gameplay. At first I found the graphics a bit plain, but after the gimmick was revealed I can at least understand the need for hard clarity on what is and isn't solid. I'm not sure this graphic set is a good match for the switching idea though, since everything looks distinctly top-down.
Unfortunately this quest also has quite many issues. There's a lot of enemy spam, especially early on, that is hard to deal with with the tools provided. I don't think dying in a video game is really a big deal, but how frustrating the loss of progress is depends entirely on just how much of it is lost. The overworld level design is best describe as a series of long tunnels that forks off of a main one. This means that when you die you often get sent back quite far and have to repeat a lot of rather tedious navigation and enemy filled rooms.
There's also plenty of bugs and behaviour that feels bugged, the visual glitches and hitching in music track playing are the obvious ones. But some enemies just don't seem to behave like they should.
It also feels like this quest wants to lean into being somewhat of a puzzle game. But I can't help but feel that it doesn't do all that much with the central gimmick, and some of the execution with that gimmick feels like it wasn't considered properly. The massive amounts of enemies is honestly a bit too much in topdown mode, but compressed down to sideview it really does not work. In dungeons this also has enemies walking and falling down the "pit" where the south facing door is.
There's a lot more work that needs to be done here I think. To put it plainly, I don't think I enjoyed this quest much at all in its current inception.
Deedee's Smol Quest
Spoiler
I think what stands out the most to me about this entry is the attention to detail. And not necessarily in the way that phrase is usually used. There's lots of fine details in this quest, stuff you wouldn't expect but it's there. There's slopes you'll tumble down and can't get back up from and they have the appropriate sound effect and visual effects to really add in the flair to it all. And this is for a feature that is essentially not put to use more than once.
This kind of attention is given to everything, which makes for something that is a joy to play. I was especially fond of the rolling mechanics. It's not the sort of thing I'd dare to put in a quest myself because I'd worry how much it limits design space, yet it's without a doubt incredibly satisfying for the player. This quest's lone boss leaning into Four Sword Adventure gimmicks is also really wild to me, and is something that makes it hard to not smile.
The dungeon itself is perhaps not incredibly remarkable, but it's solid and delivers one of the best executions of a stealth section in ZC history. Though perhaps that is faint praise since stealth sections in the past have been somewhat of a sticking point in how bad they are often executed. Regardless, I enjoyed the dungeon and the mild challenge and puzzles it offered; things don't need to be super difficult to be fun, which is something people tend to be quick to forget.
As for the fetish material? The stuff the quest mandates you to take part in just for playing the quest is frankly unremarkable. There's more content if you're there for it, but even so I'm not even sure this would qualify as a fetish game; even if that was in part the intent. It's kind of how I'd not describe Ocarina of Time as a fetish game despite the fact that it absolutely has a dungeon that I'm sure vore enthusiasts like.
I've been around the trenches of the net long enough to know what constitutes a fetish first game. Even things like Changed which you'd find on steam rather than some obscure site and is on the more mild side-- for not safe for work material --far outpaces this quest on the topic of fetshising things.
The presentation in this quest is also really good. The intro and outro cutscenes are both neat and really sell the experience, and I like the wholesome ending of aspiring to go and do what you like in life.
Sideview Sunday
Spoiler
This quest is very pretty. I'm not sure how much else I've got to say about this entry since it is quite short. It's hard to leave an impression when there is just so little of it. Generally it looks really good, the platforming still feels fairly awkward in the way ZC usually feels, but the scrolling regions do help with allowing you to actually make platform-y terrain. Unfortunately the built in enemies aren't really made to work well in sideview, so there's lots of awkward stuff here.
I don't think I'd hate a fullsized sidescrolling quest, but I do think there's probably a lot more leg work that needs to be done to make it feel satisfying. This is in many ways far ahead of previously full sidescrolling quest I played, but on the flip side there's still a long way to go to make things feel truly satisfying. Enemies that actually work in sideview, a more satisfying feeling jump arc, I could go on, there's a lot more I'd want to see. I hope this gets further developed, because right now it feels like we're looking at a prototype with a lot of potential, not much else.
Unfortunately that fact makes it hard to judge it all that well.
Evening Star
Spoiler
I really like this entry. It feels like a very typical 2.10 quest. And what I mean by that is the era of 2.10 where people dreamed really highly what could be done, aiming to capture the feel of A Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time, and some of the later Zelda titles. Often these quests fell flat because they ran up against the limitations of what the engine could do, which unfortunately led to a bunch of bad compromises that made plenty of those idea not worth it in the first place.
This quest manages to actually deliver on that kind of vision. And for me? That's some special kind of vibes, it it's the nostalgia of me playing early ZC quests and dreaming what they should be, rather than what they were. Beyond just that though it's a very solid dungeon. There's a couple of complaints here and there, like it doesn't make sense that pits in the same room can be both damage (a hazard) and fall-down (progress) pits. But things like that are still fairly minor while also not that hard to adjust in the future.
I want more of this quest, I can imagine a fully finished version and I want to play that. And while this is far from the longest entry, what is here is a very good vertical slice with a lot of polish and thought put into it. The only unfortunate part, aside from it not being a full quest, is that it's not really my favourite cup of tea. But I don't see that as a flaw with the quest itself; you can't make something that appeals to everyone.
Link's Quest for the Hookshot Zero
Spoiler
Hookshot go brrrrr.
Okay, so, on a more serious note: This isn't a very serious quest. I don't think the writing in it will land any awards, but I also can't deny that several jokes made me chuckle; and even more made me groan and roll my eyes. And I do think it is important that at least a good chunk of it lands given that a sizable amount of time is spent reading text.
I really like large portions of this quest, most of the time I had a blast while playing it. But on the flip side of the coin there were also a lot of instances where something was maybe bit too obscure or contrived in a way that made it hard to progress. I'd imagine with a bit of polish the more troublesome aspects of the quest could be sanded off into something I'd happily display in my living room.
I can certainly see why this wouldn't be for everyone, but really, it is for me. It far exceeded my expectations of what a entry in this contest would bring to the table too.The visuals in many places were also mind blowing, I still don't know how Moosh manages to pull off all the amazing effects so consistently while seemingly making it look effortless. All around it's just a really good quest that I had a blast playing. Are there things I'd wish were a bit different? Yeah. But this feels like a fully complete quest with not only all the bells and whistles, but the whole sled too. And boy is it a wild ride.
General thoughts from Mani
I admittedly wish this contest saw more completely finished entries than it did. It seems, as is usual, that people aimed for the skies for this one. I wanted to try and steer people more towards smaller bite sized projects for this contest, but frankly I didn't manage that very well myself; so who am I to judge? If I'd stuck more directly with the NES roots like I'd plan I think I would have finished all my originally planned content, but alas, I ended up falling into the pit of making something a bit more detailed, a bit more feature rich, and suddenly I spent three hours coding a warp item; when in that time I could probably have modeled two fully NES-only scope dungeons.
I still really like all the community engagement we got this time though, it's more than I expected and I'm glad so much happened on the forum board itself.
Ryu's Thoughts
Link's Quest for the Hookshot Zero
Spoiler
going to give game play a 26. The quest was definitely fun to play, and there werent too many parts where i had to wander around clueless as to what to do. the items worked as intended and I found quite a few hilarious breaks on stream. If it had just a tiny bit more, it would be near perfect.
aesthetic I'll give an 8.5. sometimes even the simplest of looks can still be nice to look at when done in certain ways, and I feel that these screens had a very good flow to them. one of the dungeon themes in particular completely blew my mind into pieces. still, im sure moosh could have done more with it if they would so choose, so I'll leave space for improvement.
scope is getting a 10 for sure. The quest is content packed. moreso than the others, but it was the safe kind of packed. lots of familiarity in the exploration and secrets. Im still being wowed every time i play new quests, finding out about new things that i didnt even think possible for quests years ago. moosh used the time well and in another life, id love a hookshot 3.
overall i feel like moosh knew what he wanted to do with his entry from the start, and succeeded in his overall vision. If i wanted to dip my hands into the well of content that is ZC and create something of my own, I might seek help from moosh as one of the main heads of the community.
Nestastic: The Witche's Curse
Spoiler
gameplay, ill definitely give it a 27. Ive never got to play as a cute bun before in a ZC quest, and yours was quite the lil romp. I actually loved the main UI of the quest and its subscreen, and am extremely curious as to what kind of things are going to fill all those spaces.
would have loved to see more of course (this will be a recurring thing with these).
for aesthetic, going to give a 9. The quest has a lot to look at with its short length and it made my eyes wander, instead of just looking directly at the middle of the screen the entire time. puzzles were fair, combat took a bit of getting used to with the spear weapon but i have to say that in particular was my favorite part of the whole quest.
where will the bun go next? tune in next time to find out.
for scope im going to give this a 9. solely for the fact that I know you want to do more with it, and the only thing gating that progress was the time. the true vision for the quest is still out there, and im sure all the players of your quest want to help you achieve it in whatever way they can.
many questions were left unanswered.
overall I definitely had fun with this one. from the moment i booted it up i had a cheesey smile on my face that wouldnt quit. you definitely seem like you had fun creating the quest, and while there may be more work to be done, this is one of the quests id gladly play through its entry more than once.
Super Zelda Adventure
Spoiler
this one unfortunately gets a 19 in gameplay. the quest is definitely functional, but it feels still very empty and full of potential. I was spending alot of my time getting very frustrated with the amount of backtracking i had to do, and the lack of a working map on any screen outside of the intro made navigation very difficult. some of the overall dungeon exploration felt very cryptic, which for me makes me overthink things to the point of unfairness.
aesthetic, 6. The game had a good idea with the use of the mirror being able to swap from sideview to topdown, but I feel that outside of a few specific screens, it wasnt very well executed as a whole. the emptiness as a whole also took away from the experience a bit. I would love to give this one another chance down the road, with a bit more prep and polish.
scope 5. pressure was felt when designing this quest, and it shows. while there was a vision in mind, it needed much more time in the cauldron to stew.
final thoughts for this are that It was a solid effort. I have no right to speak poorly about something that I myself wouldnt even be able to begin, but there are many ideas in my head on how I can help this quest improve. I want to see it succeed, and I would love to see the inevitable gem that it could possibly become
Evening Star
Spoiler
gameplay im giving a 25. while it was just a single dungeon, I loved the overall feel and exploration of it. there was a slightly tricky puzzle inside, but it didnt take away from the overall experience. very Z3 inspired.
aesthetic. 9 here. I can only imagine the effort needed to make just this one dungeon work as intended, let alone any added in the future. Im sure that one of the screens in particular will hit many players with a bit of nostalgia for the snes days.
scope. 9. there is a bit of quality over quantity feeling here. spending your days designing a single dungeon and making sure you do it well would be easily preferred over having multiple lower quality dungeons without any fun gimmicks. I was almost sad that i couldnt exit the dungeon and just take a tiny peak at what was in store for the future, but I feel that the dungeon quality could only improve further from here.
Final thoughts for this are that it was made for fans of Lttp. there were multiple floors to explore, and plenty of tools at your disposal to get a taste of what was planned ahead. this will be one of the quests I keep my eye on eagerly.
Sideview Sunday
Spoiler
gameplay 25. how could something be this short, but fun at the same time? thats what I asked myself when i started this up, and finished a short while later. in that time frame, i saw many things stick out. I absolutely love the metroidvania style visual sideview quests with their very helpful maps and eventual newly opened paths to explore.
aesthetic 9.5. one of the quests that surprised me the most with its visual eye candy on each screen. even if alot of what was in those few screens wasnt finished yet, it was still enough to make the world seem fuller in the space provided. it also managed to make dark rooms not seem like a total chore to navigate, which i struggle with in more complete quests.
scope 8. This is starting the foundation for what will probably end up being one of my fave quests in my portfolio of classics.
Final thoughts for this quest, It was short, sweet and straight to the point, kinda like me on a good day. another quest I will be watching and waiting for with high anticipation
Deedee's Smol Quest
Spoiler
gameplay 29.5 smol subtraction for not including the option for a pacifier to be an armor upgrade. This quest was definitely one of my tops. rolling around and being able to go fast are what I live for in anything I play. the quest is cute, silly and the confidence one must have to create such a gem lets you know that for the most part, the creator is not afraid to make something outside of the general scope of a quest. there were many oohs and ahs in my mind while playing this, as well as twice as many awwws.
aesthetic 10. this quest was one of the brighter ones submitted. lots of cute and silly ideas that worked well in the context of what was attempted. even going out of the way to add small touches like costume changing, the blocks being moved around so smoothly when you ran through them, or the sound of the games wand weapon having its own special sfx. there was love put into this, and im happy that i got to have the experience.
scope 10. a blueprint was laid out, and i think that with what Ive seen, this was what I myself think is how quests should be for a contest like this. deedee should be proud of what she's created, and not look back, only forward for good things to come.
final thoughts. The smol one should rest. the work was hard but in the end, this will absolutely be one of my most memorable experiences as a first time participant in the 2 week contest.
Dark World's Return
Spoiler
gameplay 27. I'll leave most of my thoughts for the other categories, but gameplay wise, this was another of my faves from the contest.
aesthetic 8.5. I can see why so many folks love the specific tileset used here. they are an entire feast for your eyes when made well. my only gripes with it for the most part, were that at points, it was very very dark. as well as the slower walking speed which put me off slightly.
scope 9. I dont really know whether i should rate this higher or lower but this was the only quest where i was a bit conflicted. on one hand, a goal was definitely reached with what was planned for the quest, but a part of me feels like its not quite there by just a tiny inch for me.
final thoughts. I need to go and try the quest that this reboots, to get a better feel for what the true vision is. i did have lots of fun with it, but due to the nature of its length, I 100% want to see more.
Twilight Knight's Thoughts
#1 Nestastic: The Witches' Curse
Spoiler
Gameplay 26/30
Aesthetics 10/10
Scope 8/10
Total 44/50
This was a proper little adventure! The dungeons were well themed, challenging enough, but also fair and appropriate for a mini quest. The overworld is fun to explore, just is lacking some more secrets to find. Visually the quest is spot-on, the graphics fit well together and look great.
I appreciate the short and non-prententious story, just feel that could be fleshed out a little more, maybe with some more NPC dialogue. Overall I had a great time with this, especially the custom melee weapons.
#2 Deedee's Smol Quest
Spoiler
Gameplay 30/30
Aesthetics 8/10
Scope 5/10
Total 43/50
Incredibly smooth gameplay. The character abilities and movement are great. The boss fight was the true highlight and very enjoyable. Visually it was very pleasing, but felt a little to simple in the dungeon. I would've enjoyed a little more detail there. Otherwise this was perfect, just too short! I was there was more to do, especially in the overworld, but the dungeon was also rather straight-forward.
As for the theming I thought it was cute and very well executed. I would love to see an expanded version of this quest.
#3 Link's Quest for the Hookshot Zero
Spoiler
Gameplay 24/30
Aesthetics 8/10
Scope 10/10
Total 42/50
Very impressive, the scope of this quest is just insane. I really appreciate and admire the hard work done here. Visually this was very pleasing, but lacking consistency. Still the overworld was great to explore. and the dungeons were very challenging and interesting.
My biggest concern with this quest is the difficulty, some rooms have pretty unfair enemy placement and sometimes the quest or puzzles are too cryptic. It was a little too challenging at times. I believe this is caused by time pressure and I'm sure that after some more testing and tweaking this mini quest will near perfection.
#4 Evening Star
Spoiler
Gameplay 24/30
Aesthetics 7/10
Scope 3/10
Total 34/50
Solid dungeon and I had a good time with this. The puzzles are neat, just I wish some of them were permanent and didn't need to be done multiple times. The dungeon layout and enemy balancing were also very fine to me. Visually this was pleasing and very consistent with LttP, which is a good thing, but in another way I was missing something fresh and unique in theming and visuals.
The obvious part where the quest is lacking is that it is small, it was done so soon. And too much playtime was spent on redoing puzzles that became tedious. Still, it is impressive to churn out a proper dungeon in 2 weeks time. With some adjustments it will be a great asset to the eventual full quest.
#5 Dark World's Return
Spoiler
Gameplay 16/30
Aesthetics 9/10
Scope 4/10
Total 29/50
Graphically this was on point, ultimate use of the DoR tileset. The overworld and several interiors were fun to explore, but it was slow and there was a big lack of proper telegraphing. Many of the screens were pretty, but there was not that much to do. But I did enjoy this quite a bit. With some fixes, like Link's movement speed, this has a lot of potential.
#6 Sideview Sunday
Spoiler
Gameplay 16/30
Aesthetics 8/10
Scope 2/10
Total 26/50
This was graphically and conceptually very impressive. It was truly a short quest, but I did enjoy exploring. The dungeon entrance stumped me, it was quite obscure. With more polishment to the movement and other mechanics, I can see a full quest in this style being very succesful.
#7 Super Zelda Adventure
Spoiler
Gameplay 10/30
Aesthetics 3/10
Scope 6/10
Total 19/50
The concept is great, with switching to sideview by using an item. But this greatest strength of this quest was very underutilised. Instead the quest present you with a massive and rather uninteresting overworld full of tedious enemies to beat. I wish more effort was put into the quality than quantity.
Deedee's smolThoughts
Forewords:
So immediate thoughts before judging: Gameplay is mainly how good I feel something plays, as well as how satisfied I felt playing it. You can make something small and still feel satisfying.
Aesthetics are a thing where I will be judging based on visuals, polish, and small gamefeel things.
Scope is a thing where I will be judging based on how incomplete an entry feels. This is vague, so lemme specify a bit more:
-Most quests entered are demos, but the better walled off a demo is or the more obvious which aspects are demo aspects, the better.
-Obvious bugs that would have been caught with basic testing will be a knock against scope score.
-Meanwhile, something being clearly marked or implied as a demo within the game and is clear on its limits will get more leniency than something where it's not clear that the unfinished elements are unfinished.
Sideview Sunday
Spoiler
Sideview Sunday is a short pretty quest with what seems to be a lot of custom tilework. It's very nice looking. 3.0 has a lot of potential for a sideview quest, and it's cool that the concept is being explored. There really isn't a lot here unfortunately; it's over at the end of a short tutorial-esque dungeon that's maybe 6 screens big counting the boss room and end of the level? There's cool concepts here, like blocks that break and you bounce off of when you land on them, and pretty areas that could be cool to explore in a finished quest.
I think the biggest problem though is that the moment to moment gameplay just isn't doing it for me, and that makes it hard for me to say I'm looking forward to more; which is a shame because I want to play a quest that looks as good as this! Tweaking the jump physics or the player speed, maybe experimenting with adding some mild acceleration to the players walking with scripting so that there's a feeling of momentum could potentially make this feel really good to play! Adding some enemies from Moosh's sideview pack could give this more energy that would make these pretty screens feel even more lively. I understand that this is maybe a vague critique and hard to act on, but game feel is often like that, and I think with better game-feel this could be incredible. You seem to have a good understanding of game feel (see the blocks that you bounce off, that's incredible game feel), I have faith you could make something really cool.
Gameplay:
-sideview bow gameplay is neat
-the crumbling blocks you bounce off of when landing were the most memorable part, tutorialization is cool
-reliance on engine enemies feels a bit jank at times
-fairly obscure trigger in the dungeon, screen is dark and you can blink and miss that one of the statues is a cyclops.
-quest has no meat on it's bones, it's the shortest entry in the contest at about 10 minutes.
-nothing in the quest is unfun outside of the one trigger, but there isn't enough here for me to feel satisfied
-12/30
Aesthetics:
-very pretty screens
-incredible custom tilework
-cool mysterious intro cutscene really starts things off right
-custom camera is nice but sometimes gets stuck
-sound effect balancing feels rough with sounds being too loud for more ambient sounds
-presentation on the arrow triggers leaving the forest felt weird and off
-usage of engine enemies in sideview also bleeds into this, hurts the presentation a tad.
-have I mentioned I like the bouncing off the blocks when you fall on them?
-giving this anything less than a 10 given the tilework feels like a crime though
-10/10
Scope:
-clearly a demo with demo markers blocking off playable areas
-no ending cutscene or anything telling you that you're done besides some demo combos underneath the dungeon reward.
-bug with the quiver can leave you softlocked if you pick up the upgrade and use all your arrows
-continue point bugs
-bugs with receiving the same item multiple times from npcs
-5/10
Evening Star
Spoiler
Evening Star is a cute lil one-dungeon demo of what I'm told is a 4 dungeon quest. It's trying to go for a very LttP aesthetic, and pulls it off somewhere between being LttP and feeling like a 2.10 quest. It's quite nostalgic in a lot of ways while still doing modern stuff like Z3 regions.
I think what impressed me the most about this entry was the cool setpieces; a falling bridge from LttP where you have to fight off enemies while still getting across the bridge in time, a wall that expands to reveal a second half of the room when an eye is shot, even small things like a bridge expanding animation. I'm of the opinion that half of a good Zelda dungeon is some spectacle factor, and this dungeon does have some memorable moments. I also really liked the dungeon exploration, with there being two heart pieces to find in the dungeon (and starting with 2 heart pieces so that finding both give you an extra heart).
My main complaint here is difficulty; a torch puzzle that's extremely precise and might require doing it more than once if you missed the Big Key, enemies that hit hard or are placed in mean locations (see the aforementioned bridge room), or navigation that is sometimes unclear, like a pit that drops you down to a lower floor in a room where there are pits that damage you. This is in contrast to a boss that is a complete joke, letting you knock it back into a corner over and over until it dies. I feel like the two could be brought closer together; an easy boss is fine if the rest of the dungeon is on the easy side, a hard dungeon is fine if the boss doesn't immediately fall over or if it has spectacle to back up it's lack of difficulty.
Overall, I enjoyed this entry. It was a nice slice of a larger whole and I'm interested to see more of it!
Gameplay:
-good dungeon navigation
-interesting custom enemies
-visual indicators for whether pits are fallable or not is a bit unintuitive, but I did feel clever for figuring it out
-torch puzzle is wildly overtuned
-difficulty balancing on the dungeon is inconsistent; hard level, easy boss.
-cool gameplay setpieces like the falling bridge, even if it's a bit hard for a level 1
-it is a bit strange that you can't jump down wall ledges, instead only the wallless ledge in the boss room.
-22/30
Aesthetics:
-lots of effort into the presentation here, with jumpdown cliffs, a cutscene for a secret, bridge extending
-aesthetics feel very lttp-ish, very good
-pots being smashable by sword and arrows is a very good touch
-black omen for the dungeon theme is ominous, but also unsure if it's a good fit for a level 1.
-bridge combos should probably extend downwards more so it doesn't look like you're walking on the bottom edge of it.
-9/10
Scope:
-is fairly clear is a demo
-demo has a clear start and end, and gives you a full dungeon
-no notable gamebreaking bugs
-8/10
Dark World's Return Redux
Spoiler
So my expectations going into Dark World's Return Redux weren't very high; the last quest I played from Mr. Redead was not my cup of tea, and the forest area you spawn into didn't fill me with confidence. However, I ended up enjoying this quite a bit! Many people have complained about the slow step speed, which I do agree with, but I also enjoyed just taking a pleasant stroll across the overworld.
The overworld outside of the forest was pretty and cool to explore, some really good use of DoR here. I enjoyed searching for heart pieces, and the overworld hit the right balance of feeling unobtrusive enough to navigate without feeling empty. The decision to make every tree hookshottable was a good call, it makes navigating the overworld feel very fun once you get the hookshot (even though the demo is basically over once you get it). I especially enjoyed the callbacks to OoT, even though I think some of the mandatory OoT knowledge makes the quest a bit obscure and should probably be telegraphed better for people who didn't play OoT. I also liked the caves when I ran into them, they were pretty neat!
The dungeons were a bit more hit or miss. I didn't realize you could play the whistle to access the second half of the Royal Tomb because my first instinct was to go to the south and try it on the Gibdos. I also don't think I would have realized NES walk through walls were in play if I wasn't told, either. Shored grave I enjoyed, but I can also see it being frustrating if you miss a key and have to walk all the way back across the overworld for another go. I think a big problem with the dungeons though is over-reliance on dark rooms. I understand they're cool, but the coolness factor wears off when every dungeon is dark and you only have a small vision radius and most of the screen is muddied by ugly ZC transparency. I would experiment more with custom palettes to try and sell "dark" atmosphere more, or experiment with less obscuring dark room transparency.
Overall I was pleasantly surprised by this entry, and this is probably one of the entries I'm most excited to see get a post-contest version.
Gameplay:
-overworld was nice to explore, felt like a pleasant walk, good use of regions
-nice difficulty balancing, things didn't feel overtuned.
-not enough hinting on mandatory secrets, relies on OoT knowledge for some secrets (I felt clever for figuring out the windmill though)
-has NES walk through walls but doesn't tutorialize them or feel like you should be bringing in NES knowledge
-step speed is pretty slow, could be slightly faster and/or have a run button.
-17/30
Aesthetics:
-really good use of DoR, overworld is very good looking
-captures the vibe of the OoT screens it's trying to recreate really well
-not a huge fan of the Link sprite, Hybrid link doesn't do it for me.
-an overabundance of transparent dark rooms with a small light circle hurts the score here, it stops feeling special when every cave/dungeon does it and it just obscures/muddies otherwise potentially good looking screens
-8/10
Scope:
-it's a demo, but it tells you on the very first screen that it's a demo and where the stopping point is.
-dungeons that aren't in the demo are told upfront to you
-entire overworld is explorable and all the items you can't get are mostly blocked off by a singular item (with the exception of like one hammer peg I forgot until I booted up the quest to screw around in the overworld).
-didn't run into any obvious bugs
-a cutscene after the hookshot telling you the demo was over but you were free to explore would have been a nice touch, but it wasn't super necessary
-also would have been nice to tell you that bombs and hammer weren't available in the demo so players could keep their expectations low.
-7/10
Super Zelda Adventure
Spoiler
Super Zelda Adventure tries to do the Super Paper Mario thing of switching between two different dimensions at a press of a button; though in this case it's between topdown and sideview. This concept is cool, but I found the execution lacking outside of one or two instances. Its main use case is hiding items in one state but not the other, or hiding items in both states and you need to explore the screen in both. This could be interesting, but the sideview gameplay here is very lackluster. Enemies cluster together, you have limited mobility in sideview and limited dodging ability, it's almost always a downgrade except for letting you cheese the level 1 boss.
The overworld here is also tedious to navigate, consisting of boring winding paths made out of the same hedge tiles and a bunch of enemies that serve to chip away at your health, eventually sending you all the way back to the start of the overworld in a very linear path. There's also tile errors with black spaces being placed at random in the desert or secret combos leaving behind black tiles. Access to level 1 is arbitrarily blocked off by bushes until you go to the swamp and talk to the elder, at which point you then backtrack to the bushes to find they have gotten smaller.
The game's plot also seems a bit confused. You start off being told nothing, then you find the fairy and then the game's protagonist speaks, telling her they just woke up in a field, then they go find the elder and Link is talking about how Vaati kidnapped the princess and knocked them out, and then you're told to go find the shards of the Triforce but then they're referred to as Hearts... I don't understand why a simple plot is dripfed to you like this instead of being shown what happened, and the inconsistency in the macguffin you're looking for feels like an error.
Bosses are also overtuned, with them being wildly difficult for no reason. And then there's level 2, which features reviving stalfos that you're meant to knock into pits but because they only take two sword hits and don't get knocked back if they die, if you miss the first sword hit you have to kill them and wait for them to respawn to try again, or use bombs which nothing in the quest drops outside of a few bushes. Keys in level 2 are also found in weird places, with one key only being found in a sideview screen with no indicator like any other item that there's a key there. I'm not surprised that most people who played this seemed to have ran into the room with Zols and assume they need to abuse spawning mechanics to get past, instead of finding the earlier Roc's Feather.
Overall, I didn't have as bad a time as other people, but I also didn't really enjoy this much. It also doesn't help that the quest wasn't beatable without an update.
Gameplay:
-interesting concept with a couple neat usages like making blocks fall down or having gravity affect bombs
-unfortunately most of the quest is uninteresting winding paths and a lot of filler screens
-gauntlets of enemies make navigating the overworld annoying, especially if you die and get sent all the way back
-difficulty balancing on the bosses is overtuned
-level 2 isn't very fun, even if you know what you're doing
-I liked being able to cheat a second heart container by thinking smart
-6/30
Aesthetics:
-screens are boring and uninteresting to look at
-just the same hedges over and over
-presentation is also not great, with a bunch of typos and a story that isn't consistent with itself
-general lack of polish
-I liked the frog that ribbits though, nice touch
-3/10
Scope:
-quest ends after second dungeon with no fanfare or anything telling you that you're done, it's a demo
-quest as submitted wasn't beatable, required an update to fix a game breaking bug
-obvious graphical issues such as secrets leaving behind combo 0. protip: you can press X and then S in the editor to preview secret; and you can press F5 or go to Screen->Secret Combos to set up secrets.
-3/10
Nestastic - The Witch's Curse
Spoiler
Witch's Curse is a classic LttP-styled dungeon romper where you go get 3 things and then go climb a tower. It has nice custom NES-styled graphics (though not personally my thing), and custom SFX that gives it a nice indie vibe. It even has bunny player character; cute!
Dungeons are pretty cool, leaning heavily on LttP design choices with aspects like dark room navigation, multiple chests with rupees (multiple chests is pure dopamine btw), and a Big Chest blocked by a Big Key. There's some cool navigation going on in one of the dungeons with crystal switches and pitfalls, and I also enjoyed the final dungeon where you explored a basement before climbing a tower; suitably climactic. I like the screen design in the dungeons; the big open room in Overgrowth is very memorable, has very desert palace feel to it. Some of the custom bosses were really cool too; I'm biased cause I made the Naga for another quest of yours, but the Boulder boss is also great, even if I killed it before I could see all the things it could do.
I also thought the town was cute; going into the basement of the various houses and collecting rupees felt cool and good, with small little mini-puzzles to obtain treasure. I also enjoyed the shop system letting you buy various weapons with the rupees you find; rupees in general feel very rewarding to get and I appreciate that. The quest also features some fun weapons to use; I enjoyed the Katana quite a bit, the Bow felt nice to use, and the custom Bomb felt nice and powerful. The Warp Bell is also a cool and useful tool, letting you warp back to town to buy stuff pretty easily.
There were some problems I had when playing this quest though. Enemies were generally very tanky in a way that wasn't very fun, and I found the gamefeel on the spears to feel a bit lacking compared to the Katana (but the range and usefulness made the level 2 spear be my default option in the lategame). Bomb Arrows don't regenerate stamina fast enough, and the Bow doesn't work on Pols Voice effectively. The quest was also not beatable when originally submitted to the contest, requiring an update to beat it due to a pit bug. There's also a point where you need to pick up a pot to get a key underneath, but you haven't been told you can pick up pots or what button to pick them up with.
I also feel like the quest set expectations a bit poorly. The subscreen is a custom-made subscreen that hints at cool stuff you won't be able to find in the demo, like Guns and Magic. There are also a bunch of spots on the overworld where you can see places that look explorable but aren't, or items that are inaccessible. I get the vibe that a lot of it was cut because there were plans for those parts that couldn't be realized in time, but as a result I felt less like I was playing a full quest and more like I was playing an alpha build that lets you access the final dungeon early.
I also felt like there was a lack of things of interest or notable things outside of the intended main progression up until you got bombs; which you get right before the final dungeon and are going to beat the game. In that sense, getting bombs feels satisfying, but it comes at the cost of feeling like there's no point to exploring the overworld other than to just bumrush the next dungeon. The coolest thing you can find that's optional pre-bombs is the warp bell, which I enjoyed finding! I'd love to see a version of this quest that has more open caves from the start, even if the stuff inside them is item gated.
I think all in all, this is a solid contest entry, but one where I felt like I had the wrong expectations going in and because of that ended up with a lesser experience than I could have had. If the quest had done more to hide the stuff that wasn't finished I would have came away from this a lot more positive.
Gameplay:
-custom weapons are cool
-LttP balanced economy is a cool idea, I like making rupees feel like a worthwhile reward to get
-dungeons are fun to navigate
-enemies are way too tanky throughout most of the quest
-it doesn't feel like there's much optional stuff to explore in the overworld until after obtaining the level 3 item (what there is to find feels good and satisfying though)
-picking up pots isn't tutorialized or told anywhere, and the button to do so isn't intuitive (I associate the A button with interacting, and you can press A to talk to NPCs).
-bombs and bomb arrows sometimes get eaten by screen edge, bit annoying
-stamina regen is too slow for bomb arrows main utility of blowing up walls
-final boss needed more attacks
-21/30
Aesthetics:
-custom tilework is pretty good
-dungeons and overworlds look nice
-opening cutscene is nice touch
-more of a neutral thing, but the custom tilework is sometimes a bit noisy; it's not my thing and I'm not super huge on most of the visuals but I'm not gonna let it affect my score
-some sfxs could be balanced better; cave walk-in sounds way too loud to me.
-no ending cutscene and glitched graphics in the "THE END" screen isn't great
-not entirely sure why the quest is called the Witch's Curse when the antagonist is a Wizard
-9/10
Scope:
-quest goes from start to finish with an ending, so not a demo
-quest wasn't beatable as submitted to the contest, had a gamebreaking bug that prevented progression that needed an update
-many unfinished things can be seen on the overworld, such as overworld areas you can't access, or items that require items you don't have.
-subscreen also shows a lot of slots for items you can't get.
-making more of an effort to hide the unfinished elements would have gone a long way.
-6/10
Link's Quest for the Hookshot Zero
Spoiler
NOTE: I helped playtest this as it was being made. I don't know how fair it is for me to have done so, so I'll leave it up to the other judges to deduct points from my score if they feel it gave Moosh an unfair advantage.
Hookshot Zero is a full, 6 dungeon quest made in 3 weeks, with a whole 8x8 overworld and scipted bosses to boot. A sequel to Hookshot 2, it contains all the things you'd expect from a Moosh quest: cool scripting, interesting concepts, and in the morning, a little bit of [I T S N O U S E]. The scope of it given the timeframe is incredibly impressive; it is little susprise that this entry most likely made the best use of contest time.
The owoverworld of Hookshot Zero is fun to explore, with a decent amount of places to visit right from the get-go, as well as goodies to find or buy. The areas are quite varied, ranging from the ominous Mt. Woah to the chill area named... Bitchin'. What sells them though is how pretty all the areas are. The central area has shadows of clouds floating overhead, Bloodedge Deathlands has veins of blood in the background, and Bramble 3 is utterly gorgeous with the vines in the brackground. It's also really cool how after getting the Song of Storms, you can make it rain on any part of the overworld with a palette change, and it's cool how the rain turns Bitchin' into a two state overworld.
The dungeons are also really solid for the most part, and there is some degree of nonlinearity in how you can tackle them. Level 3 is a really cool dungeon involving platforming and creating platforms, level 2 does interesting things with darkness and the vision you can see at any given point, level 4 is charming as hell, and the final dungeon is really cool with the background effect and how it makes use of all the items (Level 1 gets no mention as it's good but average). The dungeons have some issues though; a recurring issue is obscure bomb walls for progression, some mean Roc's Cape sections, and sometimes-frustrating dark room gameplay. These issues could potentially sour a player on levels 2, 4, or 5, where these issues are a common theme. I personally didn't mind as much (though I had a miserable time in the original version of Level 2 when I tested before it got nerfed), but I can see these being issues.
One dungeon stands out to me here: Level 6. You get to play as Zelda turned into a dragon, and it is incredible. I had a big stupid smile on my face as I was playing it. Character switching to switch between puzzle solving and combat, with an adorable player sprite, I really enjoyed this level. I felt some kind of euphoria while playing this level, it's not fair that this level is in a contest I'm judging because it is aimed towards my interests so hard. 10/10 level, playing this made me so happy.
The bosses are fun (level 4 boss being an exception). Some cool concepts here like the level 1 boss launching you into the air, or having to bait the level 2 boss (dragon <3) to light up torches, having to switch characters and do platforming to attack the Level 6 boss, or the final boss which is fun to do self imposed challenges against on top of just being a cool spectacle. The final boss could have maybe used another phase, but it's already a good send-off to the quest. The quest also has some unhinged balancing that somehow works out; an insta-kill ability on a cooldown, unnerfed hammer, *a potion that just gives you a temporary small key*... I respect the balancing hustle here. It's a very unique feeling and I enjoyed it quite a bit.
Overall, Hookshot Zero is really good. Moosh did a good job here. Please stop hurting yourself for contests like this. Very good job; please make an expansion where you can play as Dragon Zelda for the whole quest, I need more euphoria in my life.
Gameplay:
-overworld is fun, feels satisfying to find secrets
-dungeons are a reasonable size and all feel unique
-level 6 <3 <3 <3
-bosses are pretty fun, except airquamantus
-unique concept of how the economy is balanced (thanks I came up with it)
-level 2 can be a bit obscure and frustrating if you don't find the lamp
-I just praised level 6 but that one room where you kill the darknuts is too random
-the diamond enemies in level 5 suck
-you don't unlock warp points retroactively
-Rocs cape is really finnicky
-25/30
Aesthetics:
-the use of parallax adds a lot
-backgrounds are gorgeous and have great atmosphere
-boss fights have good spritework
-im struggling to actually think of negatives here
-10/10
Scope:
-feels like a complete quest
-has no critical major bugs that I ran into myself; I know of a poor continue point in a boss if you die to it from seeing others play, but it's easily bypassed.
-only thing that feels missing is maybe a second phase to the final boss? but that's very meta and not a real knock
-also I don't know if I should be encouraging this? It's cool that you made this much in 3 weeks but christ Moosh, don't burn yourself out.
-10/10
And finally, I'd like to extend a big thank you to the wonderful judges that joined me in helping make this contest go smoothly. I appreciate the time and effort all of you put into playing all these and put your words and thoughts forwards.
*sweating bullets realizing I was the most harsh judge* It wasn't intentional I swear I just overthought a lot of entries and my scale was probably a bit off.
