End of The Year - Monthly Update January

http://memoski.deviantart.com/art/Indie-Collision-447101402

I'm noticing that I'm less and less inclined toward playing video games lately.  And as this has become the case, I notice I tend to narrow my focus when gaming.  I really only play one or two games at a time.  And I really want to finish them out and put them to bed.  The latest has been starseed pilgrim.  I've played this game off and on for a year, and I've gotten close to beating it but dammit if I can't seem to beat the thing!  Even now, as I'm typing, I'm wondering if I should give it another shot.

... and yes, I tried, and no, I didn't finish it.  So close!  arrrgh!  I do love that Starseed Pilgrim, though.  This game is so challenging and rewarding.  I find it can really absorb my attention, and that concentration can be good for me.  Just so long as I can put the thing down before I'm pulling too much of my hair out.

I also started playing Chrono Trigger the other day, just to see what it would be like.  I was being very good too, playing about 30-60 minutes a night, occasionally skipping some.  But the holidays threw that out of whack.  A skipped day flows into a couple days visiting family and friends and then suddenly I'm out of the habit.   Incidentally, that's exactly how it always goes for me when flossing, exercising and other good habits I want to get into.

Frog Fractions, seems innocuous enough, but is it really?

I suppose I should take some time to actually review the year, for this year in review.  Wow, a lot can happen in a year.  My year in gaming started out strong, with the unique and often hilarious game, The Stanley Parable.   Jaconian and I both played this game, and had a blast.  I would recommend this game to anyone who has played a lot of video games.  I actually had a similar experience playing the flash game Frog Fractions.  Though the two games have much different game play, there is a similar sense of parody and tribute to games past.  All in all, Frog Fractions was a great time hidden in the guise of a math game.

I should mention that I entered 2014 as a member of our nations unemployed, and it was in this unemployed state that I discovered Zelda Classic, the Legend of Zelda quest editor.  Zelda Classic occupied all my attention for a solid month.  I had very high hopes.  Unfortunately, when I finally got a job, I tapered off on Zelda Classic before being able to produce anything I was really proud of.   
My new job was at a garden nursery, so for a while, all I could think about was plants.  I stopped gaming almost entirely.  Unless you count doggie soccer.  I start doing a lot more book reviews, reviewing old games and rambling on about gardening.

Toward the end of the year, I started playing and buying magic cards again, after a many-year hiatus.  I still regularly get together with my friends Ghost and Ramsden.  It's still really fun, though I sometimes wonder for how much longer.

I think I'll have to call Starseed Pilgrim my game of the year.  Even if it didn't come out this year.  The point is that this game captured my attention more than any other game I played.  I may even have to write another post after I finally beat the thing.  Zelda classic comes in second, and would have won if I could have played it more consistently throughout the year.  Unfortunately, Zelda classic is a much heavier commitment.  The Stanley Parable gets special recognition, and always will.  

Looking forward to the new year,  I'm mostly thinking about my job and my housing. I don't have any goals related to gaming.  And that's just fine.  Maybe I'll check a new indie title, or get involved in some multiplayer games.  I'll probably do some exploration of the past, probably playstation 1 era.  Whatever the case, video games are here for me if I need them, and I wouldn't have it any other way.  

-D

P.S.  I also want to take a second to say how much I love the MIDI Week Singles column that Jaconian introduced this year.  It's such a fun series to follow and to write for, and the possibilities are limitless. There is always something to say on the subject.  Jaconian has long been 'tending the fires' of video game music, and his appreciation for the medium cannot be overstated.   

Zelda Classic Quest Roundup

Since I don't have anything to say right now that doesn't involve Zelda Classic, I thought I'd give a brief rundown on each quest I've played so far.  All of these quests can be found at Purezc.net


Tale of St. Christoph by Moosh

A fun little quest with good design, and a tough difficulty spike.  This was the first quest I played and it was a good introduction into Zelda Classic and what sorts of things you can do with it.  Not too flashy, though each boss was custom made (and very silly).  Five dungeons, nice length.  


Somewhere In Between by Russ

This was a creative quest, story driven and different.  The game focuses on a duality, leading the player back and forth between two worlds, collecting items and abilities.  Kudos to this game for including both the Zelda III style 'slash' sword strike, and the ability to shoot your sword a la Zelda I.  Another short quest, the final boss is really cool.  The game has a nice visual design, using Zelda III tileset.


The Darknut Within by Moosh

This is a ridiculous and fun quest wherein every single tile is a Darknut.  All enemies and items, even landscape pieces.  And it works.  It'll make you cross eyed at times, but I loved it.  There's something really fun about working to determine what a given item or enemy is without having the visual cue.


I Hate Mayonnaise by Rambly

This is a fun little quest with bright colors, quality screen design, mild difficulty and a good sense of humor.  This might be an even better introduction into Zelda Classic.  I immediately downloaded the sequel because I had such a good time with this one.  The title is meaningless.


Engage to Zeldawock by Moosh

Just finished, it was awesome.  My new favorite quest.  You play as Zelda.  Contains so many modifications that it isn't really a Legend of Zelda game anymore.  At least not formally.  It is short, just how I like them, four dungeons, no overworld.  There are multiple endings.  I've only gotten one and it was a pretty sweet ending!


Depressive Donuts:  I hate Mayonnaise 2  by Rambly

In Progress.  Looks like more of the same, in a good way.



-D

Misc Mid Month March Update

I don't have much to say today, so I thought I'd include some silly and neat fan art that I lifted from J.Bruneau's Tumblr.  He is very prolific and it's always easy to find something really interesting or beautiful at that Tumblr.  In fact, the image I chose wasn't the most eye-catching I saw today, but it has a certain sweetness that I really enjoy.  

I'm not playing anything but Zelda Classic right now.  Sorting through some of my older posts, I don't have anything that's ready, but in reviewing some of my older ideas, I did get a glimpse at the limitations of Zelda Classic.  Primarily, the Zelda engine doesn't allow for a few things, namely:  multi-player, heavy dialogue, extended screens and more.

However, there is a scripting language that allows people to bend and break the rules of Zelda Classic.  Quest Designers have built 2d sidescrollers, Megaman themes, Metroid, a bullet hell shooting level?  So, there's definitely room for growth with Zelda Classic.  On the other hand, I am fine with the limitations of the Zelda engine, and I'd like to plan for those limitations and recognize that every one of the game ideas I've had for the last twenty years doesn't necessarily have to work in ZC (Zelda Classic).  

Oh, did I ever mention that Zelda Classic is free?  That's pretty important.  I suppose it has to be free, for copyright infringement reasons.  I think it would go pretty deep too, because even if you replaced every image with a non-Zelda image, you would still be using the Zelda engine. 

Still... how about a Zelda MMO, maybe?   Nah.

Steam just pitched to me a new MMO called Pixel Piracy.  It actually looks pretty neat!  I'm really surprised I hadn't heard of a Pirate themed MMO up to this point, but watching the video, the themes of cannon battles, plundering and island hopping are compelling.  It doesn't hurt that it's in a retro-style.  I'm afraid this game falls into the category of 'a neat looking game that I might never play,'  (so many games end up there) but I hope to hear good things about it soon.  

I'll leave you with a picture.

-D

Zelda Classic Follow-up: Darknut Edition

Zelda classic has eaten my brain.  It's all I do.  Sometimes I forget to feed myself.  When I wake up in the morning, I'm thinking of screen design, and when I ride my bike, I'm thinking of screen design.  It's actually a whole lot of work, though, and it's not all screen design.  That's just the easy and immediately rewarding part.  Working out the bugs, and installing secrets is a ton of work, but completely necessary for an interesting Zelda quest.  

In addition to designing quests, I'm trying to play other custom quests, to get design ideas and general ideas about what's out there.  So far, I've played through the Tale of Christoph, by Moosh, Somewhere Between, by Russ and I'm halfway through Hear to Darknut by Moosh.  

'Tale of St. Christoph' was a great introduction into Zelda Classic.  Using a variation on the original Zelda tileset, it has an interesting overworld, five dungeons, lots of goofy humor and some pretty cool modified enemies.  It also has an insane difficulty spike, and some pretty obnoxiously tough rooms.  Darknuts and Blue Wizzrobes and more Darknuts and more Blue Wizzrobes.  Still, it was a pretty cool quest.  Took me three days and forty lives, and I didn't beat the final boss.  I wrote a review and posted it on the purezc database, but I think I may reverse that trend, and post reviews here, with little blurbs at PureZC.

'Somewhere in Between' was a cool little plot-based quest, using a Zelda III tileset.  Only two dungeons on this one, it played with a different sort of design, with some cool results.  I got stuck on a couple puzzles, and I ran into another Darknut problem, but other than that, I thought it was a great quest.  Two days and twenty five lives.  

Yes, this is what it looks like

Now I'm playing 'The Darknut Within' by Moosh.  Yes, this appears to be a theme for some of the designers over at purezc, and this game is the ultimate tribute to Darknut.  Every enemy, every piece of landscape, every item and every character is a Darknut.  It's awesome, it's hilarious.  It's awful.  I'm halfway through, but I'm having a great time.  The mere fact that this game, while a bit headache inducing, is even possible - this is an achievement.    

In other news, Got through the tutorial up to Chapter 3.  Shout out to Alpha Dawg for being the originator of the tutorial.  Also to Armageddon Games for building Zelda Classic in the first place!

-D

First Impressions: Zelda Classic

Picture lifted from 'It's Dangerous to Go Alone' kickstarter - look it up!

Zelda Classic is a game editor for the Legend of Zelda.  Yes, just like I always wanted.  I had heard of it, and unsuccessfully tried to make it work, wrote it off as bunk.  I just revisited it, this time with success, and I am thrilled to report that this is for real.  Just like I always wanted.

I had occasion to return to this game when a stumbled onto a posting at The Indie Game Source extolling the virtues of Zelda Classic.  This post pretty well expresses much of the enthusiasm I feel at the prospect of fan-made Zelda games in the NES and SNES style.  The links in the above article are all broken, but you can find them again by searching the Zelda Classic archives.  

But actually, I didn't particularly care for the two games I tried from the above article.  One thing I've noticed about some of these quest designs is that they tend to come big and kind of overblown.  In making my own quests, I want to start small, concentrate on making a fun game, and not an epic journey.  

There is a thriving community of Zelda Classic fans, players and designers over at purezc.net.  I've just signed up for the forums, and so far have been well received in the community.  I was looking for a Classic style game (I'm not really interested in the 16-bit style right now) and I was pointed to a forum contributer who goes by Moosh.  I tried out his game "Tale of St. Christoph" and so far I really like it! 

There's so much potential in Zelda Classic, I'm very excited.  The way I see it is that The Legend Of Zelda was such a great game, that it can be remixed time and again, and still be fun.  I'm so glad there is a tool available for the common person to do this.  

So far, I've made a small map, which was fun and simple to do and easy to get carried away with.  Now I'm working on dungeons, and getting the caves to go to the dungeons- and I got stuck there.  I'm following a guide, but it's still tough.  But when I've learned a few basic tricks, I'll turn out a couple quests.  

Essential Links:  (hehe, links)  

Zelda Classic

The official website.  Download the programs here - The editor is called ZQuest and the player is called Zelda-w  (this is important, because if you make the same mistake I did, you'll try to play the games with the editor.  No.  It's for editing)

Zelda Classic User Guide

Zelda Classic isn't particularly intuitive; a guide is definitely necessary.

PureZC.net

Search the Quest Database at PureZC.net to find a quest to play.  I recommend choosing 'mini quests' using the genre menu on the right side.  
This... could...be... awesome!

-D