[5th Quest Entry] Imzogelmo

[Imzogelmo]

I'm not a fan of hand-holding. I'm more of an old-school "make them search for it" kind of guy. Excessive or overly-explicit hints are not my style. In fact, that would not fit in with the original quests anyway. The original game really wanted you to bomb every wall, burn every bush, and push every rock, and I like it that way.

My goals in dungeons: Make people think. Challenge their assumptions. Provide a unique experience. Progressively get harder, but allow some non-linear play also. With those goals in mind, I set about to make this quest. I made a quest that I'd like to see (and I'm a bit esoteric in that way: old-school exploration+challenge meets modern flexibility in secrets, but with minimal new tiles, etc.). If I had a tile-artist, it would be a little better (you'll see what I mean) but overall I'm very pleased with what I've made.

Specific info: There is one new sound effect. None have been changed, but this is a new event that needed a sound. Not a major change, but something worth pointing out. There is also one small script in the game, used merely to prevent a potentially nasty sequence break.

I hope I followed the rules as closely as I thought I did, and, almost as importantly, I hope it is enjoyable. (Also, Puzzle-award, I'm gunning for you!)

Here's my quest entry for the 5th quest contest (updated 2/7/14):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_i...it?usp=sharing(Click File, Download)


Please post any bugs when they are found so I can correct them. Also, feedback, good or bad, is welcomed. Thanks.

Having said all the above, here are some hints so you can get to the new stuff:

Spoiler: show

Level 1 is in the southwest corner of the map. You don't need anything but your sword to go there, but a boomerang can be bought and may help.

Spoiler: show

Level 2 is under an Armos. I'll leave it at that for now.

NOTE: Links updated Nov. 12 2013 2:14 PM Central. Tweaked a couple of rooms in level 9, also found a few stray enemy->secret flags that were not supposed to be there. Any statues that don't shoot now are merely decorative. Don't feed Pols Voice after midnight.

Updated 11/15/13. Added some extra hints, also removed some stray warps (were unused, so not game-effecting). Current version also is unpassworded.

Updated 2/7/14. Level 4 wall and floor tile oops. Thanks justin1.

[Love For Fire]

Just finished level 1 and found an extra heart container. Definitely like the style, feels very authentic and the difficulty was good. A couple of things I found: there's a room with some enemies and a blue bubble, but the blue bubble isn't the first enemy on the list so it gets replaced by a Goriya upon return which would suck had you lost your sword in the next rooms. Also are the boss room statues in level 1 for decoration or should they be firing?

Level 2's red dot is not where the triforce is (it's one room above it), don't know if this was intentional or not.

[Imzogelmo]

Thanks for the feedback. The Blue bubble in that case probably wouldn't be an issue (as there are other blue bubbles in the dungeon), but I will adjust them anyway. The statues in the boss room, I did intend to turn on (I'll have to see if that makes it too tough though...)

I checked my other dungeons for out-of-order bubbles. In some of those I had mis-ordered them too. Some of them I left in, so that backtracking would be more interesting. I am a believer in blue bubbles appearing at least SOMEWHERE in the dungeon if there is a red one. I'm not opposed to making you walk back a few screens, though.

I also found a couple of minor issues to tweak, so I'll bundle these into it. One room in the "Raindrop" level had you locked (shuttered) in a room with Wizzrobes and a large portion of the room is water. If you picked up a clock, you (potentially) could not reach the Wizzrobes to kill them, thus you were trapped. I have fixed that issue along with some tiles incorrectly placed and minor graphics issues.

I will upload a new version tonight or in the morning tomorrow.
New version uploaded, links updated.

Spoiler: show

Don't let the first level fool you, it gets harder. I wanted everyone to feel some sense of accomplishment, while also trying out some new ideas. Level 2 is more tricky (and bigger). Level 3 is actually small, but still quite tricky. Level 4 is where I tried to step it up quite a bit on tricky; probably the most tricky until level 9 actually. Level 5 it gets more difficult. That's my "separate the men from the boys" level. It's also tricky, but not quite so bad. Levels 6 and 7 continue at around that degree. Level 8 is really hard, but not as tricky as others. Level 9 is brutal, in both ways, as it should be.

[Love For Fire]

I'm enjoying trying to figure out the overworld secrets since they are on different parts of screen so you literally have to bomb every wall to find if there is something there or not. I couldn't find a dungeon item in Level 2 yet though I've been to every room so I need to comb that over more carefully. Searching for a white sword or Level 3, and found Level 9.

Spoiler: show

In the feed the Goriya room in Level 2, maybe you need to have the room with a shutter for the side door, as I didn't have to feed him to proceed, and coming back to feed him doesn't seem to do anything unless I'm missing something again.

[Imzogelmo]

Spoiler: show

yep, that was supposed to be a shutter. Nice catch, thanks. :) also, you are right again, looks like i forgot a flag in the room where the item should be. D'oh~! I could've sworn that was working before, argh.

Spoiler: show

Double Spoiler! You can use the cheat --redacted-- to turn on level 4 cheats, and give yourself a raft. I'll upload a fix but no reason you should have to trek into the dungeon again for the raft

I hope it's still enjoyable despite the, ahem, bugs. :S

EDIT: Fixed those two issues, reuploaded.

EDIT2: I made it possible to play some levels out of order, so if you find one just a little ahead, you can still try your hand at it. Note that this usually ends up making it harder than it should have been (and you may miss out on a treasure), but having that flexibility is fun to me, so I thought it may be fun to others also. However, note that the same rule does not apply to beating the bosses; some bosses need an item from the same dungeon to defeat them.

[Love For Fire]

I must have forgotten push flags in item rooms like at least 4 times when I made mine. Every time I would test a new level, ahhhhhh guess we're not getting the Whistle today! lol

Spoiler: show

I'm guessing the raft was supposed to be in the dead end with the Gleeok?

[Imzogelmo]

i must have forgotten push flags in item rooms like at least 4 times when i made mine. Every time i would test a new level, ahhhhhh guess we're not getting the whistle today! Lol

Spoiler: show

i'm guessing the raft was supposed to be in the dead end with the gleeok?

Spoiler: show

it was to be in the dead end with the lone goriya and a sort of c-shaped group of blocks. I wanted to make it be in an easy room after you've been in all those hard ones as a sort of change-up.

Updated links as of 11/10/13. Found a rather large bug in level 6, making it hard to escape under certain conditions. Also added a "No-clock" script to the game, to be used in 2 rooms where you can be shuttered in with the enemies who may be out of reach of any weapons. Turning on a special screen flag makes the enemies not drop clocks, so you can't be permanently trapped by the clock pickup. Hopefully it hasn't stopped anyone yet. Another issue existed in level 4, where a passage wasn't triggering correctly, due to undercombo mistakes. Fixed those, should be good to go now. And finally, I screwed up a flag in level 7 that controlled a passageway, so it should be possible to pass it now. :)


Edit: Final polish: 11/12/13 12:45PM. Fixed a lot of small bugs, plus a dull room and some too easy rooms also.
Ugh: One more edit 2:14 PM. Enemies that can't be killed when stopped by a clock leads to ugly bugs. Hopefully worked it out.
Edit: 11/15/13. Minor edit, added some extra message hints and removed a few stray unused warps.

******
In this quest, I tried to recapture the feeling of when first playing Zelda all those years ago. You don't know exactly where stuff is, or how it is supposed to work. It's puzzling, it's difficult, but over time it builds up until you know the rules. I tried to be hard but fair, but that does not mean it is ever obvious. A key word here is 'misdirection.' I did try to pull themes from the previous quests also, to add to the continuity. I think the difficulty is about right, but I'm not the greatest player by any means. I don't make too many rooms that lock you in, or prevent your escape, but I do have long dungeons so you have to be ready for the long fight sometimes. Knowing when to fight and when to run is crucial. Using your items effectively is also rewarded. I may be biased, but for me, it was fun from beginning to end. I hope others find it fun as well.

******

I'd really like to have feedback on the difficulty of the quest. If anyone finds it too easy or too hard, just say so.

[justin1]

Level 2 is crazy hard! Especially compared to Level 1. I'm just getting murdered and its not fun.

[Imzogelmo]

Believe it or not, level 2 was originally even harder, but I tuned it down a bit. Is there a certain room or section of the level that is too tough?

[justin1]

Having trouble going in any direction. The one room with numerous darknuts, a bubble and 3/4 of the screen unwalkable is just mean. There is another screen full of goriyas and darknuts with limited walkability. I've got nowhere in the level and so far died more than I did in nightmare's level 5. I had no deaths on your level 1, so the difficulty just seems way out of character.