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

This is one of those "well, why would you be dumb enough to go and do that" things, but... it lets you set the same key for different things, so if you start to change them and mess up, you can make it impossible to fix by virtue of not being able to get to the key changing menu. Reinstalling it does not seem to fix it, either, probably because the key settings are saved as a temp file.You'll probably want to fix that at some point.

Shame about the lag. I'd love to play this on my netbook

Also, does someone remember whether or not the pause button could be configured?

^ no, not yet.

The game doesn't run well using WINE (in Linux), tbh. idk which emulator Kelster used, though.

^ Yeah, I was using wine. Didn't work very well. I'll have to play it in windows.

I'm going to go extremely in depth here, and I'll try to make comments specifically for each area.

Graphic art

-While Link looks very cool, I think his sprite is much too detailed for the rest of the game, unless you plan to overhaul all the graphics and make them as detailed.
-Link needs to be more top-down. Either that or change the entire way buildings are presented. One of the problems with the doorposts is that they are made as if you're looking down while character sprites are made as though you're looking at them from the front.
-The steam effect, while cool, doesn't fit with the graphics of the game. Honestly, I think it's too childish. I like the WW approach, but it's not done as well as the enemy smoke. Actually, I think it's just the attempt to make different kinds. The steam coming out of the bakery looks bad while the steam from the machine shop looks great.
-Why are there random blue patches in the grass? Are these supposed to be mushrooms?
-The fountain looks akward. The water doesn't flow where it should.
-Paths need to be placed at uniform distance away from houses. In the area with two rows of three, the paths are completely haphazardly.
-You need coherency between lighting. It's impossible for there to be the same amount of light from all sides, yet in Sanctuary there is. Also, make sure sprites positions actually make sense.
- I'm not sure what's going on with chocolate cake guy, but his size is very akward.
-On Link's shadow when he's facing forward, there's a random lump on the left side of his head. Also, his front shadow has no ears.
-As mentioned, Zelda's hair is a mess.
-I'm not sure what's going on with the pedestal in the second floor of the great Library, but it's way to tall for any one to humanly reach it.
-The guy who wants +5 to piercing has no shadow.
-The brick patterning on the second floor of the library looks wierd. Some of the bricks look sunken in.
-The desk on the second floor library should face more top down. It looks too tall as it is.
-Link CAN'T carry pots as he/they is/are. The two horizons are different and don't line up. Also, his arms do not reach the outside of the pot when he's walking to the side, but they do forwards and backwards.
-On Zelda's shadow, her dress curves upwards... I think that's a problem in both shadow and character sprites.
-Zelda's tiara thing is not there on the side view. Only front view.
_I have a feeling the courtier's brother is a joke, so I'll only mention him in passing.
-The pendulum of the clock in the machine house hangs down too far.
-Nothing but people has a shadow, and consider the fact that a light, in a room, would be in the center. Therefor shadows should not be the same everywhere, unless they're all just a dot.
-The guy who tells the intro would be 7 feet tall in RL.

Programming

-When Link walks up/down spiral stairs, he walks through the wall. And I agree there should be an animation for him coming up/ down instead of just being there.
-Shadows should be behind everything except the floor. Now, people are floating everywhere.
-The lady who wants a profession in the sanctuary occasionally walks in front of the pot on the bottom table. This is a problem.
-The light streaming in the sanctuary is on top of everything. Put it below everything but shadows, and make sure that, where a shadow is, there is no light.
- Why don't cuccos like to move?
-Collision blocks on the top of buildings should be closer to the top. You can completely hide yourseld behind all the two story buildings and the one that I believe was the schoolhouse in MC? Near the houses.
-Link can walk along the roof of the first building he's in.
-In the room with the guy who says "don't touch anything" there's not enough room for Link to fit between the water and the bed. Therefore, he can walk, but he can't roll, which doesn't make any sense.
-NPC's can wander waaaay too far. Confine them to a room, or outside, a general area.
-Link can walk into some side-facing buildings, but not the ones at the bottom-right.
-The far right tree right outside the first building has bad collision marking (I really don't know what to call that). All other trees, Link can walk slightly behind, but that one confines him completely outside of it.

Music

-Why is there no music in the sanctuary? Nor an "inside the house theme."
-Completely take the piano out of North Haven theme. That riff doesn't even need to be there, it should cut straight from the end of right before the piano to the next part that comes in.
-The middle section of the North Haven theme is almost exactly the same as a section in Peach's castle theme in Mario 64.

Writing

-I'm not clear on why Zelda is at an academy, nor who she is, nor why Link even knows her. Why is there no Hyrule Castle also?
-German dude speaks wierdly. There's should be no ' before vater. "A 'waitin' fur m'Pa..." what is that supposed to be? I waiting?

That's pretty much all I've found so far in North Haven. I think I'm going to just make a video of everything, and then afterwards separate my comments out for each specific group.

First I want to say great job, and so you can do a better job and make me really excited for your next released update I'm going to point out a few bugs (bear with me since some have been mentioned before)

1. The shield disappears from the shop if you leave after buying the heart container
2. If you jump off a ledge and land on an opened chest, congratulations your stuck!
3. All switches can be activated by sword beam (I thought that the Wizrobe was actually easier to beat without the bow anyway)
4. Music stops if you die by the Wizrobes hand
5. The level of the ChuChu's is emblazoned above their heads
6. Tingle does not have a map. I want my ten rupees back.

I hope there is enough information here for you to isolate these bugs
To better help game development here are some things that detracted from the game a bit.

• First off, framerate issues. The biggest offender being the town. I zip through the first few rooms and then all the things in the town slog me down. I wouldn't mind it if you could actually go into all the houses and such. At the moment all these items are just slowing down your game without just cause.
• A bit about level design. Hyrule field seems a bit big... with random bottomless pits everywhere for no apparent reason. The pits just didn't seem appropriate for the level, if the holes were connected like in the cave's chasms that would be a different story.
• If I complete a puzzle, I would like it to stay complete. It wasn't a huge deal but I did get locked out of the dungeon while looking for the locked door. I ran out of bombs and the puzzle reset itself.
• The reason I ran out of bombs is because I was desperately trying to find some sort of hidden entrance in the forest. I blasted every surface that had any patches of grass or flowers near it looking for the "concealed entrance." Imagine my surprise when I accidently discovered how to get inside while venting frusteration. Preferably for this situation the hint should describe how the entrance is hidden because then you get someone who thinks differently trying to find the secret in the wrong way.
• Keese. These wouldn't be a problem except for the whole framerate issue. I loved how difficult to hit they were but couldn't appreciate it because all poorly timed swings resulted from the framerate changing when a billion bat's approached me at once.
• This is just me but it is important to leave something to let the player know which attack is coming from an enemy. The Darknut battle was difficult mostly because it was rock paper scissors without the paper. Pick a direction and hope he doesn't use the attack that can hit you from that spot.
• If it's possible, could you let people know what something is before they buy it. I still have no idea what the brown stuff in the bottle is because I conserved my rupees.

And now that you've heard me rant and rave here is a list of things I really liked about this demo

• I love the freedom you have in this game. You don't have to listen to anyone. Want to go out and explore, go right ahead. Want to cut corners and go somewhere early, more power to you.
• All the enemies pose a potential threat because most of them are hard to get out of the way of, it makes the adventure less of a routine and more of a... well you know... adventure.
• I loved the hidden rooms, it made me feel good picking up on the clues that you left in the overworld that pointed towards the secret. (with the exception of the dungeon, I saw how you tried to mark it after I found it but it doesn't look like a clue until after you know it's there. I might have seen it if it were symetrical)
• Wizrobes, hands down awesome and a real challange even with a ranged weapon, moreso then the final boss.
• Level design, very nice, you had me going for a while in the forest, I knew there was something more there that I was missing somehow just from your use of design.
• Adam, what more can I say. RIP
• Cuccoos, but it would be nice if they could kill you.
• Music. Your original tracks were very much appreciated. Now all you need are some jingles that fit with the music for events like death or opening a secret area.
• The polish, even the parts I didn't like as much fit in well with the whole of the game. Even though it's a demo, everything in the game feels like it belongs.

Kelster... you tried using WINE to emulate the game so I want to know: do you experience no sound at all when playing the game; or something else happened?

There was no sound at all and it was unbearably slow.

Yup. Looks like we're having the same prob.
And that I don't use Windows now.

I want another demo! Gimme nao! D:<

There most likely will not be another demo for some time. We are going to be focussing on getting the rest of the game lay out, fixing what we have now, and then we'll start looking towards another one.

Actually, now that I've gone back and looked at TMC, I realize that the same thing happens with the doors, only to a lesser extent. Instead of having the field that is above the sprite be halfway across the door top, it should be just below it on both sides. That should fix the problem a little bit.

Is it just me, or is the reach of Link's sword too short? In Link's Awakening it's like double that length.

^ In Link's Awakening you could only swing in a 90 degree angle. In Timeless Haven it's like double that

I'm not talking about angle. I'm talking about length.

Yes, but what Hombre's saying is that even if it's not as long, you have a wider range of motion with it. Think of it as a trade off.

No offense, but I don't like that trade off. It feels like Link is fighting with a dagger instead of a sword.

Hey guys, I thought I would do an actual LP of the demo instead of just dinking around like last time. I wanted to see how far I can get. It's probably going to be a trilogy or quadrilogy depending on circumstance.

Here's my first video:



Sorry if I get mad. I'm just not cut out for keyboard gaming.

^ Don't worry, if we have it our way the controls won't be bound exclusively to keyboards for long

No offense, but I don't like that trade off. It feels like Link is fighting with a dagger instead of a sword.

I can see how you feel that way after having played LA and you probably feel the same way if you go back to playing TMC (same sword).

That being said, this sword isn't final so... who knows what'll happen.