I've been too busy to finish up a proper submission for this contest, but you might be interested in the standards we came up with at Talking Time for testing and peer review. Many of these are based on experiences of playing the 3rd and 4th Quests, especially from an outsider's perspective. Die-hard ZC authors might scoff at some of this, but we were interested in giving the average player a balanced and polished experience.
Some of these items also address pitfalls the 3rd and 4th Quests fell into that make them feel unpolished or like bad romhacks in some places.
- All four cheat codes should be enabled during initial testing, if only to save time. That way it will be easier to do targeted testing of different situations and play styles for each Dungeon.
- Be ready to swallow your pride and seriously consider any problems players might be having with your quest design. It's possible to be too clever or too skilled for most players to match.
- Except for Boss/Miniboss rooms, the player should not be able to get stuck in a situation where the only escape is death. They could have a Clock at the time, forcing them to use the Continue screen as a last resort.
- It should not be possible for the player to be unable to return to the Dungeon entrance if they've run out of keys or bombs.
- "your life or your money" Guys should always give the player a chance to pay rupees, even if it means leaving the room and coming back later.
- Dungeon difficulty should rely on being challenging but not impossible for a player who has minimal items and equipment at that point in the game. (Meaning they only collected required items and Heart Containers from previous dungeons or shops and haven't gotten any of the optional stuff from the Overworld.) Note that Potions and the Blue Ring can mitigate this somewhat, but they probably shouldn't be considered necessary for a seasoned NES Legend of Zelda player until Level-6.
- Never, ever put Darknuts and Wizzrobes of any kind together in the same room. Even a seasoned NES Legend of Zelda player could (and often will) die over and over again upon meeting this challenge.
- If it's a boss or a miniboss, it should stay dead when you kill it.
- Hidden Dungeon entrances should always have a clue somewhere in the game. The player should not be expected to burn trees or blast rock faces with no indication of where to look.
These guidelines should produce a more fun and playable quest, even for the toughest challenge yet. Please consider them, at least.