Thanks for the thoughts on controls and especially for those rupees Ryuza! I will have many sizes and colors of rupees in this game, so I'm sure I'll find use for all 3 of them.
As for controls: I've planned to have the sword and shield act as one item, meaning that they are not going to be separate items. I did this for a few reasons: One of the best reasons was to keep Link's sprites and image index at a smaller number. Meaning, less complexity and overall less hassle. Another reason is because of how I plan to have the game's mechanics work with the battles; I think the gameplay value should benefit from keeping the sword and shield together. I also have another reason that I don't want to reveal and so spoil. Another thing: I want the sword and shield to be equipped at all times because of how action-focused the game is planned to be. This also means that there will be a button that is reserved only for the sword and shield.
Furthermore, I've decided that running was unnecessary because Link's walking speed will be good enough and areas will be designed accordingly to keep the player from feeling like "GAHH!! Can't this idiot go any faster?!", but I took your suggestion of double-tapping and used that as the "quick" modifier. Much better that way IMO.
So this is what I came up with (I didn't list any in-air actions and I left out a few spoilers, but the core controls and some others are here):
THE 5 BUTTONS (excluding arrow keys):
[1] = Sword and shield button.
[2] = Link's item button (also for grab/throw/push/pull).
[3] = Sprite's item button.
[4] = Jump button.
[5] = Inventory/Menu screen.
MOVEMENT AND LOOKING ACTIONS:
[L/R] = Look/Move in direction.
[Up] = Look up. Climb up.
[Down] = Look down. Climb down.
GROUND ACTIONS:
Sword actions:
[L/R] + [1] = Slash.
[L-L/R-R] + [1] = Stab.
[L-L/R-R] + [1] + {BEING CLOSE BEHIND CERTAIN ENEMIES} = Assassinate.
[Up] + [1] = Lunge.
[Down-Down] + [1] = Spin.
Defensive actions:
[L-L/R-R] + [4] = Dodge (used to get behind enemies or to dodge away from their attacks).
[Down] + [1] = Defend w/shield.
When next to a pushable/pullable object:
[2] = Grab object.
[2] + [L/R] = Push/Pull object.
When next to a pickup-able object (e.g. a pot):
[2] = Pick up object.
While holding an object in hand:
[2] = Set object down.
[2] + [L/R] = Throw object.
[2] + [L-L/R-R] = Throw object REALLY hard.
Other:
[Down] = Examine (i.e. enter doorways, open chests, pick up objects, etc).
The only problem that I see with this is that Link will not be able to use items when he's by an object that he can pick up or grab onto. Instead of using his item (bow, bombs, boomerang, etc), he'd interact with the object. Still, I think it would work okay. Any thoughts or suggestions are appreciated.
I SAID GOOD GRAPHICS!!!
Here is a concept sprite of Timmy the Wizzrobe, the main bad guy of the game:
Btw, I REALLY want to avoid using the name "Timmy", so I would like a name suggestion. I was going for something funny-stupid, because the idea is for the player not to take him so seriously. He's a comic relief bad guy, not a Ganon/Ganondorf bad guy. Also, he is demented (but in a funny way, not a horror flick way), which will be obvious in the way that he speaks.
That should be enough info if anyone wants to blurt out a name or two that sounds fitting for the look and personality.
*thinks of a "funny" Zelda character and what his name would be like if he were demented..*.. I could call him Tangle! Did I just have a stroke of genius??... hmm?
And something to show the new direction with trees:
I know that the background sucks, but that's because it's temporary. Also, I've got the branches figured out, but my first attempt at making leaves ended up looking more like ivy than bushy tree leaves. I'll have to try again later. Tree's are irritatingly difficult to make look right! I'll have to find some side-scrollers that have forests and study their design. Can anyone point me in the right direction by giving me some screens or videos?
I really want to move this to WIP, but I don't want to move it without having the basic platforming physics in the programming process (I'm still busy working on the pre-programming process because this is where a lot of the game has to come together).
Btw, I was planning on releasing various engine tests, like a View Engine Test, Item Test, Physics Test, etc, but I realized that it's pointless to do things is this manner, so I'll just be releasing the SQ Engine as a whole and I'll update it's version as I add new scripts and stuff. When I have enough of the engine coded, I will make the first demo. Btw, the reason why I'm working on tree's and stuff is because they will be used in the first demo, so I'm not really getting TOO ahead of myself.
Right now, I'm still trying to figure out the controls and and the HUD. I've been playing OoT and MM and various Zelda games to study how their HUDs work. Unfortunately, I've been taken in by MM and I can't stop playing, lol!
Anyway, even though I said I was going to move this to WIP a long time ago, I just don't feel like this is an official WIP until I actually have some platforming physics and a partially working character. I mean heck, that's the core of the game there.
I confess that I've been a bit lazy lately, but the past few weeks have been pretty energy draining. For one thing, work has sucked pretty hard. The president of the business came by a few days ago, so the boss made everyone work extra hard to impress. On top of that, just yesterday we had our quarterly evaluation, which meant extra hard work from everyone to impress the management supervisors. So, yeah, instead of working on this in my free time I slept and did some gaming to relax. I've also got to do a whole ton of house cleaning because my apartment is looking like a real bachelor pad, and that scares me because I'm a bit of a neat freak.
So, with AAALLLLLLL of that said, just know that I will keep working on this project, but I'm at a slow point in development right now where certain life things need to take priority over this.
.. sorry about the long post.
