NEW DEADLINE IS AUGUST 12TH---------------------------------
Well, it's time for the very first ever
Zelda Design Competition Edition 1 - "Can Haz Dungeons Plz?"So what is this?I love a good competition. People, particularly on the interwebz, have a tendency to be lazy. What better way to get people to get off their butt and do something productive than to pit them against their peers in a design-battle-to-the-death, right?
So I wanted to have some sort of competition. While looking through the competition boards, I noticed we've never really had a Zelda themed competition (well, there was one), and on top of
that we have never had any kind of Zelda design competition. Design is one of the biggest aspects to making a good game; you can have a great engine, great graphics, great music, or whatever, but if the game isn't fun well, then everything else went to waste.
So in an attempt to get people to actually make stuff, we're having this competition. For this particularly Zelda Design Competition, we're going to start with the bread and butter of any good Zelda game:
DUNGEONS.
So what do I have to do?You need to design a dungeon for a 2D Zelda game. Easy right? Well, this is a competition, and there are
requirements. Criteria, you could say.
Your dungeon must have:
- At least 10 rooms/areas.
- A mini-boss.
- A boss located at the end of the dungeon (yes, you have to design this fight and the mini-boss fight, they are part of the dungeon).
- An item which you find in the dungeon which helps you complete the dungeon.
- A map and a compass.
- A boss key which opens the boss room.
- Two heart pieces.
Oh sweet, I can do that, I'm going to go. . . Wait, hold up, not so fast. There's more! To make the competition more interesting, we're going to try to make all the dungeons work as if they were all from the same game. So before you design your dungeons, you need to choose one of these item sets:
Set 1 - 3 hearts minimum | TAKEN BY
NIEKItem Acquired in Dungeon: Bow
Items Already Acquired: Sword, Shield, Deku Sticks, Boomerang
Set 2 - 4 hearts minimum | TAKEN BY
KRENItem Acquired in Dungeon: Roc's Feather
Items Already Acquired: Sword, Shield, Deku Sticks, Boomerang, Ocarina, Bow, Bottle
Set 3 - 5 hearts minimum - TAKEN BY
KINGROCKERItem Acquired in Dungeon: Bomb Bag w/ Bombs
Items Already Acquired: Sword, Shield, Deku Sticks, Boomerang, Ocarina, Bow, Bottle, Roc's Feather
Set 4 - 6 hearts minimum
Item Acquired in Dungeon: Iron Boots
Items Already Acquired: Sword, Shield, Deku Sticks, Boomerang, Ocarina, Bow, Bottle, Roc's Feather , Bombs, Flippers (meaning you can swim in water)
Set 5 - 7 hearts minimum - TAKEN BY
Jeod and DaruniaItem Acquired in Dungeon: Ice/Fire Arrows
Items Already Acquired: Sword, Shield, Deku Sticks, Boomerang, Ocarina, Bow, Bottle, Roc's Feather, Bombs, Flippers, Iron Boots, Silver Gauntlets (allows lifting of large blocks/other items)
Set 6 - 8 hearts minimum - TAKEN BY
Jetstorm4Item Acquired in Dungeon: Hookshot
Items Already Acquired: Sword, Shield, Deku Sticks, Boomerang, Ocarina, Bow, Bottle, Roc's Feather, Bombs, Flippers, Iron Boots, Ice/Fire Arrows
Set 7 - 9 hearts minimum - TAKEN BY
KNIGHTYItem Acquired in Dungeon: Lens of Truth
Items Already Acquired: Sword, Shield, Deku Sticks, Boomerang, Ocarina, Bow, Bottle, Roc's Feather, Bombs, Flippers, Iron Boots, Ice/Fire Arrows
Set 8 - 10 hearts minimum - TAKEN BY
DARKLIGHTItem Acquired in Dungeon: Mirror Shield
Items Already Acquired: Sword, Shield, Deku Sticks, Boomerang, Ocarina, Bow, Bottle, Roc's Feather, Bombs, Flippers, Iron Boots, Ice/Fire Arrows, Lens of Truth, Din's Fire (spell from Ocarina of Time)
Set 9 - End Boss - 11 hearts minimum
Item Acquired in Dungeon: Light Arrows
Items Already Acquired: Sword, Shield, Deku Sticks, Boomerang, Ocarina, Bow, Bottle, Roc's Feather, Bombs, Flippers, Iron Boots, Ice/Fire Arrows, Lens of Truth, Din's Fire, Mirror Shield, Golden Gauntlets (allows lifting of ridiculously huge blocks)
Along with each item set, each person needs to choose a theme for their dungeon. For example, in Ocarina of Time each dungeon was related to an element (fire, forest, water, ect) or a location (Inside the Great Deku Tree, Dodongo's Cavern, ect).
If, for any reason, there is an item you do not have access to in your item set that isn't added later on in later item sets, and you really want it, let me know (for example, maybe you want a water tunic or something).
It should also be noted that only one person may be assigned to each item set. If there are more than 9 contestants, I will add more item sets.
Ok, sounds good, but how am I supposed to show you my design?You must create some kind of graphical representation of the dungeon. Just to make this easy for everyone and allow as many people to enter as possible, I'm not going to require that everyone use a specific graphics style or tileset to create their graphical representation. In fact, you could even draw your dungeon on a piece of paper if you really want. I would, however, like to highly encourage people to actually map out their dungeon in some kind of graphical style (whether it be MC, LttP, or a custom graphics style). You don't have to, though.
Along with your graphical representation, please also include detailed notes as to how each puzzle in each room works. This is to allow those judging to actually fully understand how your puzzles and such work. You can include these in a text file, write them right on the image, or whatever. If you are writing the notes in a separate file from the graphic, please number each room on the graphic file so the judges understand what is going on.
Ok, anything else?To help with design, the screen resolution that would be used for this design game is 320x240. Assume that the boomerang and hookshot can go the length of 3/4 of the screen's horizontal length.
How is this being judged?I'm still working on the details, but this competition will NOT be judged by having the general public vote; there will be judges, I just don't know who yet or by what criteria they will be judging.
When do I have to be finished by?Before the competition starts proper, we're going to have a registration period; that is, a time for people to register for the competition. In order to keep the competition fair, competitors are
NOT allowed to start on their entry until the official start date. I am actually going on vacation in about an hour and won't be back until the 27th. Due to this, registration will continue until
June 28th. After the registration period is up, the competition will begin. The official start date is
June 29th, and you have one month to complete your dungeon (an extension on this deadline is possible and probably likely, but I want to see what you guys can do quickly) The tentative deadline is
August 12th.
Are there any prizes?Not right now. If someone, however, wants to "sponsor" this competition, that would be cool. However, I would like to avoid any kind of monetary reward or real-world rewards. Maybe a special rank on the forums, and signature banner, or something like that.
List of Participants1. Kren - Item Set 2 - Snow Theme
2. Jeod and Darunia - Item Set 5 - Ice/Fire Theme
3. Darklight - Item Set 8 - Earth Temple
4. Knighty - Item Set 7
5. Niek - Item Set 1 - Castle/sewer/tomb thingy
6. Jetstorm4 - Item Set 6 - Desert/Sand
7. Kingrocker - Item Set 3