Glimpse a world new, yet of years gone by..
An entire land in richly detailed 3D.Characters and views familiar, yet stunningly new.
Wholly original 3D models, textures, etc. Nothing is stolen, borrowed, ripped, etc.- it's all scratch designed with a *very* similar art style to what we know and love.
Main Character name? Probably just "Hero"... Will he be wielding a some-what familiar sword?
... Maybe .. Just as he *might* have a some-what familiar look to him...
New names, new areas, and designs
A 2D style experience in 3D. NOT a platformer... Think TitansQuest, or ShadowGrounds... Because in my mind- Zelda was *never* meant to
be a platformer. It's an adventure game... Most others have lost sight of that.
Will it be a derivitive of *any* pre-existing story? No. Though- it will be familiar.
As I said, all of my textures, and obviously models- are and will continue to be scratch built.
Since everything has been modularly built, from the inception, I don't estimate hitting alot of the road blocks many people have in the past ;-).
After all- in many ways, I think I'm already further along then many past attempts..
It will be platform agnostic. Meaning, you special Mac/Apple users, and rebellious Linux users could play. There will be several levels of detail-
from low system requirements to high.
Currently (without normal mapping) the entire area shown is about 70k triangles. Sounds like alot until you realize that video cards have been\
doing more than that for some time.
The following "red render" is an example of what you can expect when normal mapping is applied eventually.
It's just me working on this, but I think that may be for the best when it comes to the art. That
way I can say 100% that all of it is my original work. Nothing more than original and inspired artwork
that "just happens" to be in a very familiar presentation... ;-)
I'm having issues with the textures staying locked in their orientation, and I'm not sure that I personally can fix it. Which sucks.
The way it looks in the screen shots is not representative of what I want the finished product to look like, I'm hoping that they are more of what one can expect on a "lower-end" computer appearance.
I'm about 1/2 to 2/3 done with the items found in the series. Then it'll just be weapons, armor, characters... A little help from a couple of coders at that point, and I think it'll
end up much more professional game-play and experience wise then you'd think....
Dungeon "map" pieces are done now, aside from a couple of blocks, statues, and the large urns/ flame areas.
For the land areas, almost all of the scenery bits are done now- as you can see, plus a few others I've done.
I have left (really) a couple of blocks, boulders, cacti, a few skulls, a barren tree, castle and the witches house. Then the terrain. - that's it for the world map... Now I will be
adding "new" items and places that I'll have to custom make some buildings and such for but- overall, not doing bad on the modeling for more or less 2 weeks of working
on it off and on.
Most of the textures are placeholders to give a 'feel' of what it will look like.
Some of my thought-of changes or additions to the village and game map thus far by the end are:
**Adding a fishing ledge over the water /river area
** Adding more areas (town, forest types) to the West of the village
** Adding a moblin village hidden inside the forest areas, sticking with the same art style- thus far I'm thinking a mix of the witches house, the normal houses - but more primitive (thinking more native american longhouses, with
some 'primitive' jungle / forest housing influences, cobbled together and
embellished 'fiercely'- in a tribal manner befitting them)
** Adding a Port-City to the South (As the Hero sails a few times in the series, but there is no real area shown thus far)The houses and shops would be similar to the village homes, but with some stone and drift-wood style touches.
** Adding more to the mountains.....
--------------------=-=-=-=-=-=-=-----------------------
So, I guess I should ask the following:
**Is there any parts of it you want to see a 'closer' view of?
**Is there any added details you think should be added (be they part of the 'canon' visuals, or no) and aside from the obvious posts and staircase?
**Should the modeling, or texturing be taking precedence right now?
**What area should be next on my priority list? Should I continue North or South from the village?
** What should be - should anything be changed from how I have it (beside the aformentioned adding of posts and the staircase)?
Red Render (Normal Mapping, medium to high end system)
http://img260.imageshack.us/img260/3268/loz3dtest1copybk0.pngTest shots (Lower poly count, low to medium system)
.
.
I don't think Zelda has evolved into a platformer at all. Yes, there may be some subtle platforming elements in OoT through PH, but that's by no means the primary aspect of gameplay. It still mostly retains an adventuring, combat, and puzzle solving focus. Having the ability to jump between platforms does not automatically garner a game the title of a "platformer game". But I do think they serve a purpose. For me, personally, I don't think Zelda would be the same without that little bit of platforming it now has.
