My philosophy in game design has always been to create the game first, the story is merely a passenger in the video game car. I value gameplay above all else.

The story/plot in my game has never been set in stone. It is all vaguely anchored around the format of an exploration-based game with 8 dungeons + 1 final and some number of side/bonus/mini dungeons, with a wide variety of tools to make exploration easier and open up more of the world. Combat being primarily sword and shield based. Also a variety of environments/biomes. Finally, some semblance of difficulty. Both in combat, and puzzles

The "plot" just boils down to "whatever I think is cool and could feasibly fit a middle fantasy world that's vaguely medieval. Some grand quest to save the world that is not immediately revealed and the protagonist has some connection." By "middle" fantasy I mean something along the lines of, "yeah people can potentially throw a sloppy fireball but it's very intensive and even the best ones at it put forth great effort to do so", but fireball is just an example.

Finally, I have restarted from scratch. I'm still going to use the previous quest file and its contents as a sort of guide, but with the advent of more features in ZQuest 2.55 and my realization that the screen-by-screen format was heavily influencing my map designing, gonna start fresh. This will be an "evolution" of what existed before but still be based on the previous incarnation. If you want to see some portion of what previously existed (although to be honest, it's most of what existed), see here: https://youtu.be/K7Y5hpQKHs4(also comment!)

I don't know how frequently I will be able to update, but I'm forcing myself to work through this. Not that I hate it or anything, I just really want to make a video game.

Several years ago, a bright light crashed down from the sky not too far from the forest village, accompanied by terrible booming noise. The sight and sound greatly terrified all the villagers, but a few children snuck out after a bit to try to investigate. This investigation was cut short by the discovery of an unconscious woman nearby.

She was dressed in strange clothing that seemed like armor, and carrying a strange implement that appeared to be a weapon. The children carry her back to the village with great effort, owing to the woman's statuesque physique. She is taller than any villager and well built. On the back of her left hand is a strange collection of red triangles that form a star shape. They shine like glass but are indistinguishable in feeling from the rest of the skin on the back of her hand.

Upon waking, she spoke a language no one understood, and she couldn't understand them. However, they at least learned her name is Zenevyva. A villager gestures to the rod-like implement they found with her, and she picks it up. In an open space, she delivers some incredibly precise and intentioned strikes and swings, but Zenevyva seems confused by it. Despite her amnesia, she possesses inherent fighting ability.


Ever since she appeared, the villagers have reported strange sounds and sights in the woods with growing intensity over these few years. Whenever the medicine woman takes children out into the woods to replenish supplies and teach them, Zenavyva accompanies to protect them.

This comes to a head when the medicine woman, who had to suddenly go alone to a nearby ruin to collect medicinal mushrooms for an emergency, has not returned.


Something like this