Project of the Month - September 2009
Ocarina of Time 2D
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Developer: Xfixium
Language: Game Maker
First Posted: September 6th, 2008
Last Update: September 13th, 2009
Throughout ZFGC's history users have made efforts to do better than what had been done. Whether it was improving upon an existing style or making their own mix of one, users have experimented with some of the outcomes being good. This is one of those projects.
Xfixium's OoT2D project was chosen for this reason. It also had some updates over the course of the month of September, it garnered user interest in what it was doing, and it showcased Xfixium's talents as a developer and more so as a skilled programmer. The sum of all those efforts is really why Xfixium's OoT2D project was chosen for the Project of the Month for September 2009.
Game Story/Plot
Before time was time, three great goddesses decended upon the chaos that was and created the land of Hyrule; Din, goddess of power, Nayru, goddess of wisdom and Farore, the godess of courage.Din, using great magical flames, created the land, the sea, and all the minerals which would be scattered along the length, breadth and height of this new world; in doing so, she gave this new world the materials it could exist with. Nayru poured out her rich soul and gave the Spirit of Law onto the world, so that rivers would flow and the sun and moon would rise and fall with each day; this allowed Hyrule to have the knowledge by which it could exist. And finally, Farore then created all the lifeforms which would uphold the law, from the tinest of insects to the largest and most powerful of animals; this gave Hyrule the will to exist.
The three great Goddesses, their labours completed, then departed for the Heavans. However, at the point where the Goddesses left their new creation, they each left behind a golden triangle which contained the essense of their power. This mighty artifact, called the Triforce, though able to grant extremely powerful magic to whoever touched it, was infinitely delicate: if one who did not hold all three aspects of the Triforce - power, wisdom and courage - within perfect balance, the Triforce would split into its three aspects and the person who first touched the Triforce would be left and only one force would remain in his hand: the force which he most believed in. The remaining two aspects would take refuge within the hearts and minds of two who best personified the remaining aspects of the Triforce.
It was for this reason that seven Ancient Sages, at least one representing each of Hyrule's races, decided to hide the Triforce within a hidden Sacred Realm using a complex magical seal. Firstly, the only gate to the Sacred Realm would be the magnificent Temple of Time within Hyrule Town. In order for the magical door to be opened, one would have to hold the three Spiritual Stones of Fire, Water and the Forest. Then, they would have to play the sacred Song of Time on a magical instrument, the Ocarina of Time. Only then would the great stone Door of Time open, to reveal.....the Master Sword, standing within the Pedastal of Time. This was the final key needed to open he gate to the Sacred Realm; only one with a heart and mind devoid of any evil would be able to lift such a blade. This complex seal ensured only the most determined of seekers could have a hope of obtaining the Triforce, and that those who did enter the Sacred Realm could only do so with entirely good intentions.
Though complex, this seal was necessary due to an age-old prophecy: if one with a pure heart obtains the Triforce, Hyrule would be led into a new age of peace and prosperity. But if an evil-hearted person obtained the Triforce, then he would begin a Great Cataclysm. Only the one who held the Master Sword would be able to stand against the man who began the Great Cataclysm.
Recent Screenshots
Crop circles. Link has 'em
About to be run over.
Developer Q & A
Q. What makes you think that you will triumph in making an OOT2D when others failed?A. Absolutely nothing, lol. The project is a major undertaking, no doubt about it. My idea however is to do as much as I can and on major releases I plan on offering the source code and resources up for future use by other people or dev teams.
Q.Does the fact that ahmio's OOT2D is progressing help you develop your game or hurt your development?A. I don't believe it has an effect one way or the other at this point.
Q. Are you using any specially made tools to help develop the game faster?A. Yes, I have software that I have about 90% written called GMare that makes the special room binaries for OoT2D.
Q. How many times/what did you do to finally settle on the graphics style?A. Well, once discussion was made to do the remake, as it was originally a small team of people doing this project, we agreed on FSA style based on a mock-up. I always enjoyed FSA's graphical style, and wanted to emulate it.
Q. Since you know other languages than GML, would you be thinking of porting your game to a more efficient language when the time comes?A. I'd love to, I just don't see it happening anytime soon.
Q. The mini-map in the screen shot looks complicated. Was it hard to create a mini-map like that? Where did you get the mini-map graphics?A. Actually, it's not very complicated. It uses some simple math in comparison of the room size versus the mini-map image size to Link's position. The hardest part was making the mini-map jive up correctly with Link's position; which involved me testing the map, and making changes in my image editor. The mini-map is a custom to match the FSA styled map. The end result is very nice. Also having Link's marker (a Minish Cap rip) face the way Link faces is a nice touch, in my opinion.
Q. Do you have any music in the game currently? If so, where did you get the music? Is it directly from Nintendo, or from an indie source?A. I do have some music gathered. It was taken from VGMusic.com, and all in midi format. I'm sure many people have used them, lol. They are currently just place holders. This helps me get a "feel" for the environment.
Q. Your version of Kokiri Forest seems much more detailed, are there any new areas/things included in your game? Do you plan on including anything new?A. My Kokiri Forest is influenced by daz123's OoT2D Kokiri Forest as I found it was very close to OOT's mini-map layout. There are some changes to the overall layout that will be made, and things that I have forgotten will be added. As for new things, I don't really have anything planned. I am trying to keep it as close to the original as possible. However, I'm open to suggestions.
Q. How far has this progressed in terms of cut scenes? Do you have the opening cut scene ready?A. None at this time. Right now I'm working on some basic functionality. Getting a solid template down on all resource styles, and creating some new sprites from scratch. Like the Deku Tree. These tests will dictate how my cut scenes will look like, so that I waste little time rendering them.
Q. If someone needs help with programming an aspect that you accomplished in your game, are you willing to share some techniques you used for your game? Do you think that the game will ever be open-source?A. It definitely will be an open source project. All code and resources free for use by anyone. I will answer questions freely, if I am able to.
Q. It seems like you are developing your own version of the room object in Game Maker. What makes your version different?A. True, it's not a conventional Game Maker room. The main thing is that the room holds no actual tile objects. There won't be any of those. Instead the tiles are drawn dynamically to a surface, by an object. This allows the filters to be applied on the fly. Which was something that should have been obvious to me from the get go. Only when working on GMare did I come up with the idea. The only drawback is if a graphics card does not support surfaces, the game won't run. Most modern cards shouldn't have this issue though.
crappy colors, you can replicate it though (this was a collab effort from the community, mostly BrokenArrow, I just mixed peoples parts and made this gif)
). How do I get rid of the issue, and figure out where the new starting point should be and the width if the user does go into the negative axes?
re-vectoring one of my favorite pictures / vocaloid songs :]