This guide is for those of you who have this grand scheme of a Zelda game all planned out, right down to the last detail, but then have trouble putting it into code when you have the ability to code. Why do you have trouble? You don't know how or where to start!
(This tutorial is for all game making programs, by the way)
I started off with the basic crap. A title screen, file select, name input. I made sure the name would save when the player was finished inputting it. Second, I made a debug room so I could work out every player control, including all the items. Third, I made sure the file select worked by enabling it to save in the debug room. Once I got all that down, I finalized the debug room by adding NPCs and text, among other things used a lot in the game. (Enemies, a boss chamber, small keys, dungeon puzzles, etc)
There's your basic engine. Now you need to implement your story. Start with putting the overworld in your game, then placing Link where he's supposed to start. Work from there, adding in collisions, NPCs, text, and cutscenes. Now that you have the beginning of your game done, it's time to plan how to carry out the rest of the game. If you're going to be testing a lot of things, it would be a good idea to make "warp points" or a "debug mode" so you can easily access certain areas.
Good way to start off if you have no idea where to begin.
