The Legend of Zelda: Timeless Haven. New Mini Game!

Originally Posted by bitterlime

I personally don't think 6 people are many when it comes to game develloping. Especially if among those there's only 1 fully capable programmer. Sadly, not all the time of that 1 year has been effective development time, because we are running this project in our (limited) free time.
It seems like you were expecting more of a "finished" demo, which is not what we are giving you atm. The community members are essentially our alpha testers. Pretty much nothing in the demo is in it's final stage, because we want to involve the community into creating this game by giving them the chance to give suggestions and tell us what they like and dislike. This would not be possible if we didn't involve you in an early stage like this.

Also, I think it's a bit silly to say that looking at screenshots and watching a let's play is the same thing as playing a game...

Anyway, thanks for the feedback. I, initially, just wanted to check wether or not you played the demo.

Another late response...

Yes yes, I know that the demo is more or less meant to be a test run of gameplay and the like. So I guess I should have expected that being the main focus of the demo.

But do not think that I do not know the process of game design. I've designed several titles in my own free time, all by myself, I clearly know how difficult it is to design a game, especially with so few people. I'd appreciate if you would understand that I understand that.

As for playing the game, frankly, I don't really like to download a lot of things, and I'm a bit too busy anyway. As I've said once, I'm not much for fan-games.

Whenever I go through doors leading up and downstairs Link sort of passes through the wall in the between scene. Also, when he goes down staircases, he has the same exact movement as if he's going upstairs so it looks weird.

Also, once the staircase animation is over, shouldn't there be animation of Link walking up/down the stairs to arrive into the room above/below? Here, the light just fades to show him already standing there as if he's always been there.

The same problem occurs when walking from one area to another. Link's just there. It doesn't display him arriving. This is integral to keep up with movements. If Link starts a Spin Attack in one part of the fields, it should carry over if Link goes to a sub-area in the fields.

Whenever Link enters the room where Zelda is, he isn't automatically visible, so I thought it was a cutscene similar to the first time I arrived there when I arrived during the fog. I didn't realize I had to control him and push him in.

In addition, one should be able to keep holding down movement buttons when moving from one area to the next. So far, if I go from one area to another while holding down movement buttons, Link doesn't move. I have to let go and press movement buttons again.

Whenever I try to go between rooms using those doorways, Link's either too big, the door is too small, or something is wonky. The top of his head passes through the side of the door.

Also, I feel like going between rooms should be easier. Maybe more automatic once you get close enough to/in the door, like in Minish cap. Whenever you get close enough to or in a door, usually you automatically go through doorways. Here you have to do it fully manually, and it's difficult sometimes because you expect access through the door to be lower or automatic sort of like when you pass through doorways leading to different floors.

In addition, usually when you're close enough to a doorway of some sort and you push against a wall, doesn't Link sort of automatically slide in the direction of a doorway as you continue to walk into the wall? It'd be pretty close to the doorway- not far -but it felt weird not to auto-drift towards the door when I was right below where I could enter (which felt like the place I should have been able to enter).

If an enemy hits you, then you can be forced into a doorway. You shouldn't be forced through.

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Link's shadow appears on top of the shelf with the Yoshi Egg- or other objects -, even though I'm going to guess his shadow should be hidden by it, unless he's floating... However, this doesn't happen if Link is above another character or above the Darknut statues in dungeon 1.

When Link is walking, his feet don't touch his shadow at all. I feel like the shadow should touch the foot that's on the ground and it should be closer to him, unless we're referencing Peter Pan.

His shadow overlaps onto objects onto the side whenever he walks in their direction.

Whenever Link faces either vertical direction, his shadow is centrally aligned, however, if he faces the left, his shadow very slightly floats to the left as if the light source is coming from the right very slightly. If he looks to the right, he shadow very slightly goes right the same way.

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In the Basement 1 of the first building you start in, you can't get right up next to the books. You can get close to their front, but getting behind or next to them is limited. It seems like you could get closer. Also they take up space. Seems like if they're there they should be interactive, although this is only a demo.

Whenever Link walks above a peg and gets as close as he can above them, it looks almost like he's on top of the peg. The invisible pixel preventing him from passing should be taller. Whenever he walks at them from either side, he also appears over them. The pegs objects should be wider too.

I think that some objects could be a little higher. For example, the china shelf on F1 of the first building seems like it could be higher up, closer to the wall. Otherwise, it seems like there could be a gap Link could walk behind.

Link cannot walk up stairs if he is facing sideways while charging his sword for a spin attack.

Link appears to stand on top of the table in the gear building.


Captured the below in the middle of lifting a pot. The beginning of the lifting animation is present, but the second half doesn't exist. His arms remain down. However, this is only if he is stationary. His arms go up when he walks. Is he balancing stuff on his head? If Link carries a boulder though, his arms are raised when stationary.


The entryway to the Gear Building is a little weird....


I'm going to guess the same about all doors with posts.


Characters that walk around in rooms of buildings seem like they should be restricted to that room and they couldn't leave or get in front of doorways (unless that doorway is supposed to be blocked for story purposes). This could be partially solved by the auto-movement between rooms at the doorways, as I mentioned before.

It seems like Link would walk more slowly whenever he is going up and down a staircase in the field (not between rooms).

After Link cuts the grass, the grass falling animation seems too fast.

Why is there a shadow of Link's sword in front of him when the sword is behind him? It seems like the only time the shadow would appear during that attack is if he was facing the other direction or either side. Also the direction the shield is facing is kind of weird. If you're trying to replicate how it is in 3D games, I suppose it makes sense, but in 2D games I feel more like it would be rotated 45 degrees rather than 90.


Link shouldn't be able to stand on the Darknut Statue. He should be further down.


Link holds the small key off to the side. Wouldn't it make more sense above him?

It seems like one could walk on this small platform in the entry chamber of the dungeon, but there seems to be an invisible push object or a wall. And if that invisible wall has that push effect, shouldn't all walls have a push effect so Link isn't just walking into them?


Link shouldn't be able to have his head under the fire, should he?


The water looks real bad here. It should look loads more fluid and connected. You shouldn't even notice separate tiles.


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Text seems messy and/or a little difficult to read. Not even talking about selected text. The font chosen seems to fade at its edges and such. Selected text should be clear, and crisp!

The action button should be smaller and/or in a different location. It covers up things. So far it's covered up a character at the top of the screen and symbol on the wall that, for all I know, could be important.

When I got the heart piece and I got the jingle, it certainly was familiar... but it honestly sounds bad. The key... or the pitch... Something about it sounds bad. Maybe it's in a minor key? I dunno. It should be upbeat! You just got a piece of heart!

Also, everything except the music and text- enemies, characters, etc. -should freeze when you get an item. Otherwise weird things happen, such as enemies walking through you. How weird would it be to have an enemy walk through you right when you finish reading the text?

If you buy a shield, another shield remains in stock in the store. After you buy the heart piece, both the shield and heart piece are out of stock. Why does the shield hinge on the heart piece?

The yellow rupees look more gold than yellow.

After it starts raining, the rupee count goes away.

I wish the enemies still stayed out during the rain. It's kinda odd that they vanish, and it doesn't make sense for a number of them.

While it's raining, when you go in a building, there is a small brief moment where everything gets bright as if there is no fog.

I don't think the fog should be as thick. It's a little annoying because I have to force myself to see through it. It shouldn't be that thick.

Why does getting hit by an Octorok's rock hurt less than touching it? That's weird. They should be equal or the opposite.

The gravitational pull towards edges of holes makes sense, but I think it is active from too far away. It also makes no sense around deep water.

In the woods on the way to Dungeon 1, you can use bombs to destroy a group of the three blocks. From the bottom, a single bomb will destroy the rocks but from the top it will take two. This is a little odd.

Is the key from the Sun-Wizzrobe rooms pointless? I could get to the Darknut boss without the key.

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No drowning audio.

No sound for Octorok rocks hitting the shield.

No Spin Attack charging sound is weird.

Music gets really loud in the key room right after getting the key.

When low on hearts, I think there should be a beeping noise to alert you.

After the defeat of the boss to get the bow upgrade, shouldn't the mid-boss music stop playing to show that the fight is essentially over?

There should be a sound whenever I hit the Darknut's shield with sword and items.

Died in the dungeon and when I rose, the music died. I was in the room of the Wizzrobe that summons Chus and suns. It returned after I left the Sun-Wizzrobe room.

Jumping off cliffs should have some sort of sound effect...

Even when it starts raining, it seems like there should still be background music. Inside houses there is none. Outside, there is none.

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Boss was much easier than in the first demo. But not in a bad way. Before, I found it undefeatable. I was able to beat it with hearts remaining this time.


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Afterthoughts: Getting the sword should be more apparent such as when he holds it up.

It appears Link does push against walls after a moment or two, which is fine. I just didn't test long enough. However, on things he actually should push, such as the lit torch, there was no change from the walking animation to the pushing animation when it should have changed.

Im going to download it and scan it with kaspersky PURE 2012 and see if it contains any unwanted stuff...

---------- Post added at 11:01 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:56 PM ----------

I have downloaded it and according to Kaspersky PURE i can say that it is a clean download.

I'm a fairly experienced sprite artist, I'd be willing to help if I could in any way. It looks as though you need some help in that department. If you've got enough people working on it that's fine, but if you're interested in me hopping on the project please let me know.

(Also, an easy fix for Link passing in front of the doorways would be to have the depth change depending on his y value. You've probably already done this with other sprites, but it would definitely be valuable to do so with doorways and stairs as it completely takes away for the solidity of them.)

EDIT: You can reach me here or at tdillman@student.fitchburgstate.edu

The OP of the thread has information on how you can apply to join the team.

Originally Posted by Bingo

I'm a fairly experienced sprite artist, I'd be willing to help if I could in any way. It looks as though you need some help in that department. If you've got enough people working on it that's fine, but if you're interested in me hopping on the project please let me know.

Indeed, spriting would be most helpful. There are application details in OP, if you missed them.

EDIT: Oh damn you ninjocks

I also want to thank NasiDe for the very thorough feedback.

Originally Posted by Mattocks

The OP of the thread has information on how you can apply to join the team.

Originally Posted by Hombre de Mundo

Indeed, spriting would be most helpful. There are application details in OP, if you missed them.

Alright, my mistake. Expect a PM from me, then.

i still cant figure out where to go after the wizrobe.... help?

Originally Posted by Shadow Zant

i still cant figure out where to go after the wizrobe.... help?

Problem with this is that there are several Wizzrobes...
Did you fight a moon one (blue), or a sun one (orange)? Maybe the easier question is: Is it raining in your game?

^ that's not an easier question

Go to the forest and find the hidden cave

Question: When did GoldStud decide to drop out of spriting? Obviously, he can't help now because he's a missionary in Brazil, but I'm curious.

Originally Posted by bitterlime

His name and his line are a reference to "Metroid: other M".

My bad. I never played Other M so I didn't catch that.

It's quite likely that he will be replaced by a less generic character anyway. Buuuut...chances are there will be guards, and chances are that we wont mind a FF reference. I just have to make sure to convince Doran that it's a Star Wars reference.:p (which is true... kinda)

Originally Posted by Doran_Bladefist

Yea, I'd make it a SW reference before I made it a FF reference...though I suppose people could take it either way and pretend. Don't get me wrong, all you purists -- I love FF as an art center, but would choose SW lore over that series any day.

It's both. FF is obviously referencing Star Wars with their Biggs and Wedge. I just thought it would be kinda funny to have them in there.

But hey, I'm not part of the writing staff anymore, so I don't have a say in anything.

I wasn't around in the early phase, so I am not fully in the know.
But he was still showing up occasionally to contribute and give feedback a while ago. So my guess is that he's just too busy. Especially now.

Been playing the latest demo and wanted to post my impressions which I think are more on the positive side. Agree with a lot of the earlier posts nitpicking stuff like the way door posts overlap Link and stuff like that, but I mainly feel demo 2 is pretty damn impressive.
There's obviously a lot of changes from the things that were on the first demo, but this is what really gets my attention and makes it feel like all these changes made work nicely and make the game run a lot smoother. Gotta say also that I enjoy the music-- I think it's subtle and appropriate for its area, though the only nitpick there is how it doesn't loop seamlessly.
The abundance of hearts and all that is especially great for the demo because I think it would've sucked with dealing with a lot of damage and hardly getting any hearts on the way. I honestly wouldn't have a problem if hearts popped out everywhere on the final game. :p But the way you move around screens, collect rupees, and kill things feel spot-on with top-down LoZ games.

Sadly, though, I got stuck right after beating the bird thing. I couldn't figure out a way to cross that invisible bridge, and I know there was a switch around just taunting me, but I found no way of hitting it. I also found it weird that I got like this arrow extension, but I hadn't even gotten the bow yet. Let me read around and see how you guys got over that.

Also, when you get major items like a heart container-- make it so that Link stays holding the item while the description reads because his animation now just turns away as soon as he gets it.

Absolutely nice and awesome job, guys. Latest demo really shows you guys's dedication.

I'm curious, does Link move slower than in the other top-down games or is it just my netbook?

@Ignis: Thanks for the feedback. Glad you enjoyed the demo so far. Sorry to hear you got stuck. Seems like you went somewhere we didn't expect you to go by activating a switch with a thrown bomb or a sword beam. You were only supposed to reach the arrow upgrade after you got the bow. You should be able to spot a chest containing the bow in the field.

@Double A: I am not 100% sure how our movement speed compares to other 2d Zelda's, but if Link moves significantly slower then it might be some sort of lag.

Link should be moving at exactly 5.625 tiles per second.

No, I don't know how to measure it either

If you remember my video I pointed out lag in some areas.

Other than that, Link's movement was impressive.

And I loved rolling into walls and people. That is awesome!

Originally Posted by Zecora

If you remember my video I pointed out lag in some areas.

Lag might be due to sucky PC. My old laptop lagged every now and then but my new desktop PC never lags even a little bit.

The game has no sound and runs reaaallly slow when I play it. Probably 'cause I'm running it on an emulator in linux. Will you make it compatible with linux? (Or is it already and I'm just being dumb?)

^ The thing is that we can only produce an exe at this point. So that's the file format you have to work with, I don't know the first thing about Linux.