Currently it seems like PureZC is arranging ZC EXpos twice in a year (A Spring Expo and a Fall Expo).
You can see info of many new interesting ZC related projects there. Just click the earlier link or use this link which takes you to the Expo forum to see yourself: http://www.purezc.com/forums/index.php?showforum=113
😊
Petoe wrote:Currently it seems like PureZC is arranging ZC EXpos twice in a year (A Spring Expo and a Fall Expo).You can see info of many new interesting ZC related projects there. Just click the earlier link or use this link which takes you to the Expo forum to see yourself: http://www.purezc.com/forums/index.php?showforum=113
😊
Any PureZC member can submit to the expo, however all projects must be sent before a certain date, so there's no way of getting of your work into this expo. Watch the announcements at PureZC for information for submissions into the fall expo.
For those who don't keep up on current events at Purezc, here is what is going on right now with Lost Isle, most of it is good, but some of it is not:
DarkFlameWolf
Well I got some good news and some bad news. And they are both linked. As some may have known or will know now, I have been selected to be an officer in the United States Air Force. I was selected this past February and was given a class date of July 15th (next month) two days ago! So that can only mean one thing, this is a GREAT opportunity for me but at the cost of not being able to see Lost Isle through to completion. Come July 1st, Petoe will assume responsibility over the quest and its testing and release without me. I will try and get my stuff done before then. What 'I' have left to complete is the rest of the caves, the interior of the houses, most of level 5 (Petoe will complete the final boss and ending sequence), the ice temple and the graveyard catacombs. (Now these last two I may not be able to finish, so we'll see)
What Petoe has left to do is to finish level 3, all of level 4, the rest of level 5 and final boss/ending sequence, dream dungeon, master dome, and the 6 triforce dungeons and basic overall tweaking/detailing of the quest. So we both got a full plate, but Petoe will have to finish the rest without me. We will be having many conferences in the coming weeks about the rest of the quest and how it will be so he can carry on the vision I had planned for the rest of the quest.
So the quest will be delayed a few more months because he will be losing a working partner, but the quest isn't over yet! So expect a release sometime later this fall hopefully. I'd like to get back and test it all myself before release, but we'll just have to wait and see how things go.
Petoe
Things got pretty complicated for us now.
As Wolfie said, she's been accepted to USAF (congrats for that!) and it means that after a month she'll be a goner for a very looong time. She said to me that she would be able to check out the situation of Lost Isle after 3-4 months of service and that the quest myst not be released before she sees the final product. But we had a discussion and it appears that our quest designer beauty has enough faith in me to let me handle finalization and the release of the quest. I understand her pain well... It must not be easy knowing that your baby gets released when you're not around and you have no idea how the release will go and will the final product be exactly like you wanted it to be. But despite that I decided to be tough with her and expressed my frustration about how horrible would I have felt if I couldn't release the quest right away when it is finished. Thank goodness she is giving me the green light to release the quest without her. Thank you Wolfie, you have no idea how much it means to me and how great it feels that someone really trusts me as much as you do. But we both have worked our asses off for this quest so I'm gonna make sure that the quest will end up being what you hoped it'd be and that I will not release the quest until it is thoroughly tested and polished.I feel like an asshole for "forcing" Wolfie to let me handle the release of the quest, but after so many disappointing delays I had with my previous quest MMDWR, I don't wanna disappoint the people who are expecting Lost Isle late this summer/early this fall. But right now it feels like Wolfie is okay with all of this and we well go thru details about Lost Isle's finalization in many upcoming IM conferences. I promise to make sure that DFW's dream comes true and her final quest will be like she dreamed it would be.
But enough of that. Not much changes even though Wolfie's departure changes our schedule drastically. The qyest will be as big as planned and it will be released sometime in august (that's my goal at least, but there's always a possibility of real life getting in the way and thus delaying the quest). Right now my job is to make tons of tiles for Wolfie so that she can finish her areas before she leaves. After she leaves, it's my time to finish all the levels and the side levels she didn't have time to finish.
Now I must get back to work. DFW is expecting some tiles before I have to go to sleep.
~ Pete
DarkFlameWolf
yes, we don't want another repeat of MMDWR where it was countless updates and then finally a director's cut version to come out before everything was polished and bug-free. lol I told Petoe, even if it means delaying the quest a full month to make sure all bugs are gone after testers have gone through it, then do so. It'll be worth it. Furthermore (this is directed at Petoe), it would be nice, if, after the first round of testing and bug-fixing, let the testers go through it once more from start to finish JUST to be ABSOLUTELY sure we got them all, and yes, that means all breakable pot errors. Ha ha, let's not be lazy now!
And yes to all those who thought it unrealistic to have lava next to snow! I made sure lava melts whatever is around it. Happy now!? :lol:
And that about covers it for now.
Wow. That's rather dramatic and soap opera-y, the way you put it. 😉 But really, I'll be a little sad to see the release of Lost Isle to be pushed back, but after waiting for Twilight Princess for 2 years, I'm used to it. 🙄 Glad to hear the quest is still coming along.
Congrats about the Air Force, DFW! 😃 Now, concerning the quest, in my opinion, it's better to delay to make the final product better than to rush to release by a certain date. 😛 By the way, do you have beta-testers picked out for Lost Isle already? I'm sure you can see where I'm going with this, lol, but if you needed any, I'm willing to help out. 😛 Mr.Z from PZC, and probably Shoelace as well, should be able to vouch for my testing abilities (since I know it can be tough to find testers who ACTUALLY test for problems >_>; ) if you need it.
yes its one thing to 'play test' it, but its quite another to 'play to break it.' I want testers of the latter kind.
Yeah, about testers, we want dedicated and experienced testers to test Lost Isle. But we've decided to not to make a "Searching for LI testers" thread since me and Wolfie have pretty good idea of the people we want to test the quest. But it is not forbidden to express interest in testing of Lost Isle, and if I feel like anyone who contacts me about a testing position and he/she seems good enough (and especialle dedicated enough!!) for the job, we have a new tester. 😉
...right DFW?
with that post, didn't you just start a 'searching for testers' thread within this thread? *whaps Petoe* :P No, we already have a list of people we'd like to propose testing to, there may be some additions, but not many. Depends on how many accept.
Heh... so much for preping to beat the quest in 20 hours in the month of July.
Uhh, actually... how long do you think the quest might take (say... getting about 90% of everything in the game)?
Well, here's hoping the quest will be ready for testing before the end of summer, so you don't end up getting a lot of people declining because of school. ^_^;
WindStrike: Oh, you mean how long does it take for the player to beat the quest? Hmm... that's a tough question. The quest should be as big as any of DFW's previous quests, if not even bigger, but there are so many optional dungeons/caves/minigames etc. in the quest that if players want to run through the game, I'm sure it will be possible in under 10 hours. But trying to to beat the game as thoroughly as possible, it will surely take over 10 hours... could even take 20 since the last levels and the optional levels in the quest will be challenging.
Rakki: Yeah, that's a good point you made there about school. BTW, when does school start for you guys there in America? For us here in Finland it starts in the mid of August. I'm sure the testing can be started in a month and a half. Hopefully earlier.
It's usually around there for Middle/High School, Petoe. And yet we still usually get out a week or two into June. :sweat: They jip us by cutting our summer two weeks shorter than Elementary kids. Jerks! XD
I would be honored to beta test the game. I know Zquest like the back of my hand and I could spot errors really good. So if you need a betatester, I am here. :P The only thing I don't spot is spelling errors. I have to be honest and but my weakness.
Anyways, my classes start in mid-August too. But usually I find time for ZC. :P
Its finally time, tomorrow is my last day of freedom and then its off on a long winded road trip to Alabama, USA for my Basic Officer Training in the United States Air Force. Due to the fact that I'm planning to go career (20+ years) in the force, that leaves game creation time to a bare minimum. Not enough to be worth trying to make new quests for. So everything is now in Petoe's hands and he will be finishing up the rest of the quest and handling beta testing and release of the quest to the community. I was hoping I'd be around for the release of my final quest, but alas, I probably won't be. So this will have to be presented to the ZC community after the fact.
But regardless, when it does come out, I hope everyone enjoys it as much as I have had making it. The stuff I did in Lost Isle has probably been my best work yet, and I am proud to have created this with the help of Petoe. And I am honored to have worked with him on this project and even more grateful that he's taking on the responsibility of finishing it up for me. He now has the final 'list' of things to do by me, so he still has me (sorta) there to guide him on how the rest of the quest should be, I believe I've left it in capable hands. My baby of over three years and I won't be around to see it debut! *sobs*
Finally, I want to thank everyone in the community for supporting me for the time I've been here and being constructive and appreciative of the quests I've released. Thanks for the inspiration and drive for me to create more classics. Now after BOT is over, I will probably have more freedom to get online once and a while and start posting here once more, but I will probably be forever out of the quest making business, its simply too time consuming and my life no longer has a place for it sadly. So I hope that by the release of Lost Isle, I will have contributed something great to the community. Thanks again and I will miss this place for the time I'm gone.
I was just curious on the progress of Lost Isle.
This is some major gravedigging, but, you know. It happens.
Progress:
-We've updated Lost Isle to the latest beta (beta 14) but that will change once new betas come out. Our goal is to have it on the most current 'stable' beta out there. So be sure to update your players. In addition once Lost Isle is released, I shall be updating all my quests to 2.11 to accomodate everyone's qualms.
-Levels 1-3 are completely finished now. Level 4 is being worked on with level 5 1/6 done.
-All overworld sections and cave sections are finished and updated.
-Major tweaks and addition of cutscenes, intro and influence by the latest beta features.
Anything else you want to know?
(I can tell the overworld is completely done. Your sig. 😉 )
Glad to hear it's still coming along. :thumbsup: While I'm at it... Did you two decide to use keys in all the levels, or are you going with the original plan of having keys in only Level 3?
Pineconn wrote:(I can tell the overworld is completely done. Your sig. 😉 )Glad to hear it's still coming along. :thumbsup: While I'm at it... Did you two decide to use keys in all the levels, or are you going with the original plan of having keys in only Level 3?
Yeah, I am working fewerishly on Lost Isle even at the moment! 😉 And when I've got enough work done, I will have Wolfie to build more caves and a whole new level.
About keys, all the major levels (Lv1, 2, 3 and 4) have 2 keys. 1 key for the "Level item Chest" and the other key for the Boss Key Chest. Level 3 is an exception because there are 11 keys at Lv3. So Lv3 is a more basic and um, "old-school" level I guess.
And some of the mini levels will have 1 key for Boss Key Chests. So the quest will have keys, but Lv3 being the only level with many keys.
But I honestly think this is a good and new refreshing way to build a quest and hopefully you as players will like it as well. 😊
Only 11 keys? My Level 7 for my current quest has 13 keys, plus a boss key. :tongue: No joke.
Anyway, the plans sound good for the dungeons. That makes sense, a key for the item and a key for the boss. I look forward to this quest! It sounds good!
and my level 9 of Hidden Duality has 25 keys. Whose counting? Seriously it really doesn't matter. LOL
Will you make any Demo's Dark Flame Wolf?
Unfortunately no. Besides, we're so far deep into Lost Isle that making a demo now would basically be giving away 3/4 of the quest to people. So we might as well finish it at this point. lol
Is it safe to say this quest isnt going to be complete since we havent had any updates in a while?
Bskiffington wrote:Is it safe to say this quest isnt going to be complete since we havent had any updates in a while?
Patience. 😉
Both me and Wolfie are having busy lifes so the progress has been slow. But Lost Isle will be released early next year, that's for sure. I am currently building the last level of the game and after that's done, there's not much left to do anymore. I will ask Wolfie if we should show you guys some new screenshots from the quest soon.
Yes, just because you haven't heard anything about the quest in a long while, does not mean its dead. Its slow going, but it is still going. We still have quite a few optional mini-dungeons still left to do not the mention the ending, so it will take us a little while longer to finish. But it will be good, I promise you that.
Ok, just making sure. I was getting a little worried that there wasn't an update on it in such a long time.
Great to see it's still coming along, can't wait to play it!
From now on I promise to post updates more often. 😉
And you will see new screenshots of the quest in a month if that's just okay with DFW.
Fine by me, go for it.
DarkFlameWolf wrote: We still have quite a few optional mini-dungeons still left to do not the mention the ending, so it will take us a little while longer to finish.
Let me guess, the prize for these mini-dungeons is something so small though important, like a potion. 🙄