What is the average quest development time?

[larienna]

I just want to make some sort of survey.

For a regular quest with BS graphics, all the items with the new ones, regular square room dungeons, nothing much fancy and let say the same amount of over world and dungeon rooms than the original 1st quest.

How much time (in hours/days/weeks or month) do you think it would take to make a quest like this?

In general, if you do not completely remake all the graphics and concentrate on quest design, how much time does it takes you to plan and make a quest?

[thebetter1]

I am in the process of working on a quest with the LoZ tileset. This is my first quest. I am about to finish a demo version with the first 4 levels, and I have been occasionaly working on it for a little more than a month.

Edit: The demo version is finished; ask me if you want it.

[Revfan9]

I can make a classic-styled quest within a week. Now how good it would be, that's a different story.

[erm2003]

There are too many variables here to give a good answer. I took a year and a half to make my quest because I didn't work on it every day for long periods of time.

I have played quests that take me an hour or so to quests that take weeks to play. It has to say something about how long it takes to produce them as well. The more advanced the tricks and game play, the more work has to be done to get it to play that way. It also has a lot to do with how well someone knows ZC and if they can avoid creating bugs as they make the quest.

I guess you aren't going to get a very good answer unless you want to be VERY specific about exactly what you will see in terms of layout etc.

[Love For Fire]

Depends on your familiarity with ZQuest. It could take a couple weeks, but more likely a few months.

[LinkMaster500]

I started my quest over a year-and-a-half ago, and I still have a ways to go. Of course, part of that is because I have gone through extended periods without doing much.

Overall, it can take a while depending on how many of the ZQuest features you choose to incorporate. If your quest is just old-school Zelda 1 (1 overworld, 9 dungeons and no other features), it will obviously take less time.
But ZC has been used to make quests that function like epic games that can take weeks or months to complete.

[larienna]

Here are the information I have so far.

--- Overworld ----
Maps : 2 Overworld map equivalent. In fact it's 4 world made of 8x8 size. And 2 world maps look almost the same. (ex: Light world and dark world) so I could copy paste one world to the other and modify it.

Shops/People : Are done with regular outside map room. There might only be hyrule castle that will be a separate dungeon.

Design : There won't be multi-layered trees, I'll use simple bushes. The only exception of multi layer might be some dungeon columns and like rain or mist that I will apply to a complete world map. Hidden stuff would be like regular the regular game with rocks to bomb and trees to burn.

--- Dungeons ---

Maps : There will be 12 levels. 4 Big levels which are almost like level 9, and 8 small levels. I might add a few other small things like underground passage (3 to 5 rooms) and maybe towers ( not sure yet).

Design: Most of all the rooms will be square with really few exceptions. There won't be multi-floor dungeons.

--- General ---
I intend to use most of all the features like conveyer belt, spikes. I intend to implement all the items. I don't aim for a too long quest. If the quest take like 10 hours for the first time and 3 hours when you know the game, it would be perfect. it will also be possible to optionally finish the quest without having the sword.

--- My experience with ZC ---
I made some test with ZC during the 1.9 version. I adjusted and imported some graphics in the game. I have drawn a 8x8 world map and I think there was some functionalities available, but I can't remember if I did the tests. I never made a dungeon map yet. I explored pretty much the software so I know where most usual things can be done. I might need to read a tutorial to get back in.

Anyways, I think I should aim for something smaller at the beginning. Maybe just one 8x8 world map, with 2-3 levels just to see how I work. One thing I tought is using the quest described above like a modular quest. I make world 1 and the game end after you have done all the stuff. Then if I feel like I can go further, I add world 2, and now you have to complete both worlds to end the game, etc.

[Zelda_Warrior]

My hyrule's final stand quest is almost done with 2 half sized overworld (or 1 full) 8 dungeons and a final dungeon. It's pretty standard and took me about 7 days to build. I completed roughly 4 dungeons per day, with dungeons averaging 25 rooms big.

[larienna]

Cool, I'll try it. It will give me an idea of what can be done at this development speed.

[DarkFlameWolf]

what you are describing sounds a bit like Hidden Duality, and that quest took me about 6 months or more to complete and that WAS working on it almost every day if not every week. :P

[redmage777]

I for one, never really get past the Graphics Pack complation phase. I usually have the groundworks laid for a truely awesome semi-custom graphics pack, but the work involved starts to overcome me and I give up and start to play with RPG Maker XP or Daz|Studio/Poser instead. I have picked it back up and started again several times over the past 4 years I've been
using Zelda Classic.

One of these days I'm going to have to stick to some thing and finish it.

[tharsis26]

I just finished my quest (Fragmented Land) and it took me about 6 months where I would work on it on average an hour or two every night. Its in the BS classic zelda style, has one large overworld, and 10 fairly large dungeons (largest has about 100 screens). It takes me about 15 hours to play through it and I know all the secrets. Honestly though, most of my time was spent playing through the game a zillion times to take care of bugs and to make sure the difficulty was balanced. That is the hardest part.