New game I'm working on, a 2D Zeldalike

[konaa]

So I dunno if I'd call my 2d platformer "finished" but content-wise, it's complete. I've done a good amount of polish on it. There's still problems, but I'm mostly satisfied... The only reasonable thing to do is dive headlong into another project _{before I start to think about my life and be consumed by crushing depression.}

It's a 2d zelda ripoff. I've mostly been using Zelda 1 as a model, but have tried to implement the quality of life stuff from a Link to the Past. I want it mostly to be about the exploration and action, which I feel Zelda has gotten away from. I'm lazy so I don't want to program too many items - but I'm also not sure I want to do the "dungeon > puzzle > item > item puzzle > boss > repeat" gameplay loop. Many many games don't do it great, and I don't feel confident in my ability to pull it off in a satisfying way. Instead I'd like to take inspiration from many 90s Zelda clones. There's a PC engine game called Neutopia that's a big inspiration. Maybe a little bit of Landstalker too, which is pretty cool.

As usual I've done all the music and graphics. I'm getting a little bit better at spritework, though am definitely NOT an artist. It's made in Unity and I've learned a lot about Unity since my first game. It's nice to have a fresh start and be able to do things in a more "right" way.

screenshots

just showing off some basic enemies.


I want to put little caves around like in Zelda 1. There's NPC's that you can talk to.


Here's the town. It's got a bunch of NPC's that you can talk to. Maybe I'll put in shops or something.


Here's a forest.

There's not a whole lot of actual content to play at the moment. It's still very early in development. I've implemented two magic spells that you'll be able to learn. I'd like at least 4. Like I said, I'm not entirely sure what the direction of this game will be yet. I'll update this thread as it goes in the future.

As per the norm, suggestions or input is warmly welcomed!!!!

[Kleetus]

Just posting to say that this sound like a cool idea and I want to see where it goes.
Unfortunately, I don't have enough knowledge of 90s Zelda clones to really offer any input at this moment.

[konaa]

update!

This project isn't actually dead. I work on it on the daily, but I also work a fulltime job so progress is slow. I didn't bother with screenshots because it looks about the same. I did, however, add features:

notable stuff

• lots of optimizations! I get a pretty consistent fps. I wont say it's a solid 60, but it's extremely playable and doesn't feel choppy. I know that seems not big in a 2D game, but it's worth remembering that there's probably thousands of objects (tens of thousands???) in a single world map scene.
• created a "blink" ability where if you double tap a direction, you'll teleport a short distance forward. You'll unlock it in one of the dungeons
• created a projectile attack
• lightable torches: a room will be dark, and you can light torches to light up the room. The more torches lit, the less dark the room. They run out (it's like a link to the past)
• created a system for saving and loading
• completed work on two overworlds and two dungeons inside of the overworlds (there will be 5 overworlds, each with a dungeon inside of them. Each dungeon contains a boss)
• added a few more enemy types
• shops where you can upgrade your health, attack, and buy keys

next steps:

• I wanna make a menu screen that you can enter into
• more dungeons/overworlds!
• I have a defense stat that does literally nothing atm
• hidden abilities?

The game's taken on sort of a metroidvania structure. The abilities serve to gate off new overworlds, which are interconnected. Once you enter an overworld, you'll quickly be able to create a convenient shortcut back to the town (which is a central hub). The first zelda prominently featured you being able to purchase keys in stores and just like... USE them in dungeons. I think that's really cool! Zelda never did it again. I am a little aware that you could probably miss out on some important item and hit a wall and get confused, but it's a game about exploring, so that's part of the risk with buying keys. I'm acutely aware that paying money to upgrade your health and magic (indefinitely) is going to very easily break the game. I've basically been balancing it around if the player finds the upgrades that are found around the world, completely discounting that the player might buy an upgrade. I hope it'll even out because the player might not find every single upgrade. Anyway, if the player wants to grind it out and become overpowered, I'm not going to stop them. That's their call!

See you next time!