All I'm saying is that the atmosphere is intimidating.
Well there isn't much that can be done about that. There will always be a project that comes every once in a while that blows peoples minds.
It is not us that sets those expectations, it is yourself. You see those projects and the reactions to them, then you get the idea that in order to get the same reaction you need to do the same thing.
You cannot compare a zelda game to a mario game, the barrier to entry will always be higher because zelda games by definition are a lot more complex. What you need to do is become smarter about the ideas you choose to develop and how you go about gathering perceived interest.
People get demotivated not by those hyped up projects, but by the fact they spent the last few weeks coding something and nobody is interested. Imagine if that at the beginning instead of coding something, they put aside some time to mockup some screenshots, maybe even produce a trailer to give it that "I've been working on this for several months" sort of feel only to get the same response. Now instead of spending a few weeks on a shitty idea, you've just dodged a bullet.
In the end you realize that zfgc's expectations are actually rather low, after all, this whole website was based on a game that never even reached beyond the stage of a basic engine test.