Project of the Month - March 2009
The Legend of Zelda: (TBA)
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Developer: Sahittam
Language: Game Maker
First Posted: March 14, 2009
Last Update: March 24, 2009
On ZFGC in the past years, the primary style of making a Zelda fan game was using a Link to the Past graphics. Sometime in 2003, that began to change with the introduction of the Minish Cap to the Zelda universe. Since then, the Zelda fan games here have been progressing towards that style. And by some coincidence these projects have exhibited some of our user-base's best creativity - i.e. The Shadowgazer, Guardians of Hyrule, The Petrified Realm, etc.
And this month's Project of the Month is evidence of this. Sahattim's Zelda project has taken advantage of the Minish Cap style to richly produce a Zelda world with graphical effects not seem in many other fan games. It is made all the more impressive in that he is also a new member to the community. Furthermore, the project has been updated this month and seems like it could be updated as time goes on. It is because of all this that Sahattim's still untitled Zelda project has been named Project of the Month for the month of March.
Game Story/Plot
Long after Hyrule was saved by the Hero of Time and years before Hyrule was flooded in his absence, a young boy named Link is growing up. Living with his father after the death of his mother earlier in life, Link explores and searches for his purpose. Somewhere in his travels he might find himself... or something might find him.
So traverse the land of Hyrule and venture out of it. Fight evil when it finds you and search out evil when it is not. Will you be a hero? You'll have to play to determine your fate.
Recent Screenshots
Years of Pokemon make the think that a battle is imminent.
Chests, pots, crates, boulders, and rocks galore.
Developer Q & A
Q. Since you are quite new here, how has being here been so far?A. It's been great, I really like being here. I might not post much (Ok, to be honest I don't post ANYTHING at all), but I like reading the forum topics and looking at all the great games here a lot. It is a bit empty at times though.
Q. Why did you choose to make this game with Minish Cap graphics?A. I always wanted to do a Zelda game. In the past I have planned at least 3 Zelda Games, and really thoroughly, but none of them ever made it into development because I just didn't manage to get a window on my screen in which I could run my game.
So one day I stumbled across this site and saw King Mob's Shadowgazer. Then I saw all the other games that are developed here and eventually I found out that many were made in Game Maker, so I downloaded it and after a few tests I started programming the game.
I didn't even think about using another style than Minish Cap, because I was so obsessed with The Shadowgazer, and I wanted to make a game just as good as it. Only later I realized, that it's harder to use that style or make custom sprites for it than it is with other styles, but since I like Minish Cap's graphics and since the game's engine is almost complete, I'm not going to change it.
Q. The use of lighting, weather effects, and smoke animation is neat. How do you do it?A. Night Effect:
For the night effect I have an object (of course with very low depth), which draws two rectangles over the area the view currently shows.(Handy Tip to cover all of the screen: view_xview[0]-1 not view_xview[0]. Same goes for y.)
Yes, two, not one rectangles. I don't simply draw one rectangle just darkening everything, I first draw one that removes some color with blend mode bm_subtract,and then one that adds nighttime colors with blend mode bm_add. And the sun rises in the east and goes down in the west so that's where the sun beams come from at the start/end of a day.
Rain:
Each raindrop is one object that is spawned randomly a bit higher than the screen. That part just above the screen is divided into several sectors, each about 20 pixels wide. First the sector is selected randomly and that sector is marked as 'true'. A sector that is marked 'true' can't be chosen when the sector is selected. Then the raindrop is spawned at a random point in the selected sector. Each Game-Maker-step one randrop is spawned. When all sectors are marked 'true', all sectors are marked 'false'.
Smoke Effects:
For this one it's important, that if in a Game-Maker-step a smoke object changes it's sprite, all the other's sprites stay the same; and if a smoke object is destroyed a new object is spawned one or two steps later an not immediately.
Q. There has some issues with the game speed being slow. Any ideas on how to improve it?A. No, not really. If anything it will possibly get even worse, with all the things I'm going to add to the engine. At first I wanted to make Hyrule Field one big room (I created it already, its unbelievable 4448x3072 pixels), but when the frame rate dropped to 1/3 of the normal speed (Every other room works fine on my PC) I decided to split it into several smaller rooms.
I'm sorry, but the only advice I can give is: Buy yourself a better computer! And by the time this game is finished you will anyway have done so.
Q. You mention that there will be other areas beyond Hyrule. What might this include?A. Well, when I was saying this I was mainly collecting facts that sounded interesting but didn't spoil too much, so it's nothing as important as a parallel world seen in some Zelda Games. With other areas I simply meant lands surrounding Hyrule, other kingdoms, and maybe a few islands. But most of your time you will be in Hyrule, and try saving it.
Q. Will there be any dungeons in the game which are unique and new?A. Unique dungeons? I don't really know. Dungeons will still be traditional Zelda dungeons with Keys, Boss Keys, Map and Compass, but I have planned some new and original gameplay and definitely puzzles, that you never saw before, so I hope they'll be quite interesting and not repetitive.
As for dungeon themes, I'm absolutely going to use them. Because that was one thing I didn't like about Phantom Hourglass: That almost every dungeon looked the same. I'll be using the old themes though, like Forest, Fire and Water, nothing new.
Q. Your game has some music and sound effects in it, is implementing this challenging?A. No, not really. The only thing that is a bit challenging is if a sound is played/looped several times and only one of them is supposed to stop (e.g. bombs fusing), but I've sorta done it. I will, however, recode all the use of sounds and music, that's why I haven't added sounds to a lot of things, like monsters. At the moment all the sounds are played by whichever object causes the sound. I want to have a central sound object though, so that I can make music fade or add a echo effect to sounds if you are in a cave.
Q. I noticed a Fairy Ocarina in one of your screens. What is that for and will there be any other unique items?A. It's for playing songs. But yes, it will play a role in the storyline, although not such a big one as the Ocarina of Time. There will be other unique items, some already known items that weren't in Minish Cap, but probably also completely new ones.
Q. Has the recent announcement of The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks given you any new ideas?A. Well, the game was never going to feature trains, and it is not going to now. I'm not planning to use that bunch of leaves or controlling the phantom either. You will have other things to control, so you won't need a phantom. I guess, it hasn't given me any new ideas yet, but we'll see, maybe when the game's released there will be something inspiring me.
Q. How can the community help you with your project?A. I'm not very good with making custom sprites or tiles, so if someone made some for me, it would really help. Of course you can't sprite something that you don't know what it is, so if you people would let me use the sprites you have already made that would be very helpful, too.
I'm a bit recultant about actually recruiting a spriter, because it will take very many years to complete this game. I actually believe it will be 10 years at least! And I don't think anyone wants to make graphics for a game, that probably takes so long to finish, that they will have forgotten that they once worked on this project!
!
Post a picture of yourself, link to an avatar that resembles you, post an art/giftart/fanart of your online persona, draw some caveman-ish sketch of yourself in paint and save it as a jpg and upload it to imageshack to be horribly resized... I DON'T CARE. 
.
, but I'm done editing it now. So... thoughts?
