Discussion: Testing standards & practices

[Chris Miller]

I like to think I mostly met those. There are clues for just about everything, even some heart containers. Of course, some things are in the cryptic Engrish original Zelda 1 style in keeping with authenticity. And, there is an L4 cheat code. If anybody wants it, they can ask me and I'll be glad to give it to them. If they really get stuck, I'll be glad to help.

[Imzogelmo]

I think I met all of them but the last one. The original (2nd quest specifically) didn't really tell you where to look for dungeons. I tried to keep with that theme, as searching for stuff aimlessly is part of the authenticity. :) I also agree with Miller, making it sound like a simplified English translation is also part of authenticity.

However, for really obscure secrets or new enemies, I put some hints. That is the sort of thing that really would be found in the game booklet (or other extraneous material) but since we don't really have that, I made the old guys talk about it. If I get a lot of the same question, or something hard to figure out that I just overlooked, I will add some hints to smooth it out.

My quest is currently passworded, but I'll put out one with no password if (and who am I kidding... "when") a new bug or difficulty fix is released. Also I'll give the cheat code if someone cares to need it.

[Dart Zaidyer]

If you don't mind my saying so, your first statement:

I think I met all of them but the last one. The original (2nd quest specifically) didn't really tell you where to look for dungeons. I tried to keep with that theme, as searching for stuff aimlessly is part of the authenticity. :)

Is at odds with your second:

However, for really obscure secrets or new enemies, I put some hints. That is the sort of thing that really would be found in the game booklet (or other extraneous material) but since we don't really have that, I made the old guys talk about it. If I get a lot of the same question, or something hard to figure out that I just overlooked, I will add some hints to smooth it out.

We preferred to lean towards the second statement. The idea is that if the player has to duck OUT of the game at any point to solve a problem IN the game (usually by saying "screw this, I'm loading a walkthrough"), the game is at fault. Although we wanted to write our clues in mangled English and provide suspicious visual cues to make the player think of the solution on their own, we wanted to at least give them that nudge, something they think they can shoot for. Unclued dungeon entrances were a mistake in the 80s, and they're a mistake now. They're one of the few yet certainly the biggest barrier to finishing the game in a reasonable time frame. And if a player feels they can't do that without a walkthrough, they'll give up on your quest, no matter how faithful and loving an homage it is to the original.

We'll see how this stuff shakes out during testing. Since our guidelines seem agreeable to you at least, I don't expect there to be many problems. But this is certainly one of the bigger pitfalls.