Excellent game!

[mbombe]

Dear Christopho,

I would like to thank you for this great game! I'm currently starting Dungeon 6 and it truly feels like the good old SNES times I am really grateful and consider donating a bit once I've completed it. I am very much amazed by the overall quality - not only by the game but also e.g. by the walkthrough PDF which you created with so much love. This is absolutely fantastic! I would go into more detail what I like and the very few points I don't, but I understand the game is anyhow finished, right?

Would you be willing to answer a few questions about the game and the Solarus engine? Here are my questions, if I may:

• How much time would you say it would take to create a game of similar scope MoS DX in Solarus? And where is the most time spent? Planning? Creating the world or the puzzles? Or the last polishing?
• You have a lot of logical dependencies in such a game (e.g. Chest containing X can only be reached with items Y and Z and you need X to do ...). How did you plan/map/verify those dependencies?
• What did you do to plan it all? How much did you plan ahead and how much of the world did you just create "ad hoc"?
• What would you think, how much effort (money, time) would it be to replace all Nintendo graphics, sounds, music? It would be so great to not depend on Nintendo being nice and ignore the game forever.

Thanks a lot! Hope this list is not to long

Thanks,
Marcus

[oclero]

Hello, I'm Neovyse who made the PDF walkthrough with Renkineko. Thank you for your compliment !
Do you spreak/read French ? I am wondering because the PDF is only in French, because when we wrote it, I learnt Adobe InDesign while making the walkthrough, so translating was beyond idea ! For the next game (Mercuris' Chest), I will try to make everything translatable, including the old-school game manual and the game packaging. Also there will be a big hand-drawn overworld map (like the one for Zelda 3) and all that little stuff that made old game packagings so awesome!

For the questions, I let Christopho answer, he knows better!

[mbombe]

Hello Neovyse!

The Manual, the packaging and the PDF guide are really fantastic work and it makes me happy to see the love in them. Unfortunately for me, I do not speak a word of french, so it is all guessing.

Still, I looked up a thing or two and noticed a bug you might want to fix: Walkthrough PDF page 35 contains the wrong table. Further suggestions: You should also link the packaging and the manual here, because this is the page google finds first: http://wiki.solarus-games.org/doku.php?id=zelda_mystery_of_solarus_dx

So now that I also found the manual, I see there are quite a few people involved. I would love to see a "the team" section on the ZMoS DX page

How much progress is there for Mercuris' Chest? Is there any website for it? How big is the team?

Thanks!
Marcus

[oclero]

Thank you for noticing my mistakes, I have to correct that ! I added everything in a new section called "Miscellaneous" on the Mystery Of Solarus DX page on solarus-games.org.
Have you seen the game manual and box art ? They were only on our second website zelda-solarus.com (French speaking only) before that.
Link : http://www.solarus-games.org/games/zelda-mystery-of-solarus-dx/

[Christopho]

Hi,
Thanks for your messages!

How much time would you say it would take to create a game of similar scope MoS DX in Solarus? And where is the most time spent? Planning? Creating the world or the puzzles? Or the last polishing?

It takes a lot of time, like one year if you are fast. Everything takes a lot of time if you want a good quality: preparing tilesets, creating maps, programming enemies and especially bosses, testing, fixing bugs...

You have a lot of logical dependencies in such a game (e.g. Chest containing X can only be reached with items Y and Z and you need X to do ...). How did you plan/map/verify those dependencies?

I don't have a particular technique for that

What did you do to plan it all? How much did you plan ahead and how much of the world did you just create "ad hoc"?

Actually, I started a Zelda game on paper when I was 10 years old. Zelda Mystery of Solarus DX is a remake of that game, so at least I did not have to make a lot of planning ahead, I already knew how the world would be organized.
For our next game Zelda Mercuris' Chest, we did more planning. We have a basic sketch of how will the world map be organized, the order of dungeons and when each equipement item is obtained.

What would you think, how much effort (money, time) would it be to replace all Nintendo graphics, sounds, music? It would be so great to not depend on Nintendo being nice and ignore the game forever.

This is a lot of work... We have a project of such a game: https://github.com/Bertram25/ChildrenOfSolarus
Contributions are welcome

[mbombe]

Hi Neovyse, Hi Christopho,

thanks both of you for taking the time to answer. As you both mentioned Mercuris' Chest, is there a timeline? How big is the team?

Neovyse, I saw the manual and the packaging on the link and I am really fascinated. Best thing (besides the game itself) I saw in weeks

Thanks!
Marcus

[Renkineko]

Hi mbombe, thank you for your compliments. I don't know why I didn't translate the walkthrough, I suppose it was open to other to do so. The hardest part of the guide is done (screenshots, maps, placing the dots for events, chests and doors...), and it's open to anyone to just translate the text. You can find the source of the french guide here : https://github.com/Renkineko/zmosdx-soluce just in case you would help to translate :p

[mbombe]

I might pitch in with English --> German, but no way I can help with French. I can't speak any.

[oclero]

Hi mbombe, thank you for your compliments. I don't know why I didn't translate the walkthrough, I suppose it was open to other to do so. The hardest part of the guide is done (screenshots, maps, placing the dots for events, chests and doors...), and it's open to anyone to just translate the text. You can find the source of the french guide here : https://github.com/Renkineko/zmosdx-soluce just in case you would help to translate :p

If someone translates the text into English, I might find time someday to adapt the InDesign document to allow translations