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Xindaris
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icon Beethro's Awakening: Super-early preview and recruitment drive (+4)  
What is this?
This is a public very very early preview of Beethro's Awakening, a hold-in-progress I've been tinkering with for a while. It's a take-off of Link's Awakening, but is in no way a carbon copy, and has (or at least is planned to eventually have) loads of original stuff to it.

At present, this version has very few non-placeholder graphics, which makes a lot of things look nothing like what they're supposed to represent, only a little it of the overworld-related work done, etc. BUT, it has one entire dungeon composed of 25(!) pure puzzle rooms in probably its final state, save for the usual playtesting-requiring fixes any hold goes through before completion. This hold so far features a special custom element, found in that dungeon, that completely changes the way the player must think of pits and pools of deep water, and roughly half of the dungeon's rooms feature puzzles that ask the player to use this unique item in various clever ways.

There's also a few legs of the trading sequence, but they're kind of silly and incomplete at the moment.

Why is this?
I had the inspiration to start making this hold while playing through MetDROiD and Link's Awakening DX around the same time. The logic in my head went that if someone can make not one, not two, but three holds based loosely on Metroid, which has almost no obvious relation to DROD whatsoever, why can't I, or we, make a hold based on a Legend of Zelda, which has an awful lot of similarity? Think about it: Puzzles, dungeons, monsters, swords, walking around on a grid, big overworld maps? All things that DROD and LoZ have in common.

But why am I previewing it so early?

Well, it's taken a lot of time and effort to make the first dungeon, and that's less than eighth of what I want the whole hold to be. I'm seriously considering asking for the help of fellow architects in coming up with some more interesting overworld puzzles than there presently are (in most rooms, there isn't any puzzle at all, just some window dressing), and more importantly, possibly giving an entire dungeon to a single other architect to work on. If I do manage to attract any collaborators, they could even contribute ideas and maybe even coding for more items like the one in the first dungeon that allow for unique puzzles and gameplay possibly not seen before in DROD.

So, this is more or less an interest-gauging exercise to see whether anyone might have an interest in having a hand in building this hold. Also possibly to see if anyone besides me is really interested in playing it.

How to play this?
Probably the only really important thing to this hold so far is that you should step on or bump into people and items to interact with them, pick them up, etc. Also, bump into the doors of houses to enter them. Caves are currently represented by tunnels; walk into the tunnel to go into the cave. If you bump on a house's door and don't go anywhere, that means the house hasn't been put into the hold yet.

The hold is, as usual for an in-progress hold, anyone edit. Since the first dungeon is the "meat" of this preview, feel free to just stick Beethro in the entrance to that and play through.

If you want to play "legitimately" and you've never played Link's Awakening, I'll put a short walkthrough in the following secret for how to get to the dungeon:
Click here to view the secret text


Items? What?
In MetDROiD AE all you get are codes that act as keys to certain doors throughout the hold. In Prime, you get more codes that act as keys to open doors. In Echoes, you get a mix of things that just act as basic keys, things that players already have access to in other holds (i.e., mimic potions), and a few unique things created to help the player get past newly-made obstacles.

I want to do something different with Beethro's Awakening. Rather than adding new obstacles or just giving the player "keys" to unlock "doors" I've added, I want the items in Beethro's Awakening to allow for new ways of interacting with already-existing elements of DROD.

Here's a list of item ideas that might give you some clue what I'm talking about, including the one I've already implemented into this preview:
Click here to view the secret text


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[Last edited by Xindaris at 10-15-2015 04:10 AM]
10-13-2015 at 02:20 AM
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Someone Else
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icon Re: Beethro's Awakening: Super-early preview and recruitment drive (0)  
One comment so far: Level 1 1W has a few squares which are not lit up, though they should be. I'm liking it so far!

Confused about the challenge in 1N3W: I'm not sure whether mine was the intended solution:
Click here to view the secret text


Also, when did I get the ability to leap pits? I don't remember any mention of that.

EDIT: Ah, I see. The Float feather is explained after I already have to use it. But where did I get it?

[Last edited by Someone Else at 10-13-2015 04:49 PM]
10-13-2015 at 04:40 PM
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Xindaris
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icon Re: Beethro's Awakening: Super-early preview and recruitment drive (0)  
I can fix the lights pretty easy, just missed them. The challenge in 1N3W just checks whether or not the mirror is on that tile with the scroll at the time the room is cleared, so the idea is to put the Gentryii over on the western plate. It's not really all that hard to do, but the room has an "easier" way to solve it by placing the mirror on the west plate and the arrows easily trapping the gentryii on the east one.

You're definitely not supposed to be able to leap before getting the thing that tells you about the float feather; that's supposed to be the point where you gain that ability. Some rooms are meant to be passed through the first time, and then cleared after getting the feather.

EDIT: Never mind, I found the issue. I had a character who set the "does Beethro have this item" variable to "yes" before he's really supposed to have it for the purpose of testing the "Boss" room. I'm about to upload a new version with that character removed. Whoops! Terribly sorry about screwing that up.

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[Last edited by Xindaris at 10-13-2015 05:43 PM]
10-13-2015 at 05:19 PM
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Pinnacle
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icon Re: Beethro's Awakening: Super-early preview and recruitment drive (+1)  
So this idea is basically ZelDROD. It's an idea that's been tossed around for the past decade or so, but it's just too ambitious for any one architect. So there's definitely interest.

My only objection to using Link's Awakening as a template is that the overworld in Link's Awakening isn't Hyrule, and the ZelDROD overworld should have the iconic places like Death Mountain, Hyrule Castle, Lake Hylia, etc. Not sure if it's too late to change that though.

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10-13-2015 at 11:22 PM
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Dischorran
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icon Re: Beethro's Awakening: Super-early preview and recruitment drive (+1)  
Should be possible to make my hookshot script do the same thing with walls that it does with monsters. Can't move door assignments and stuff, though, and probably best to have hard wall be immune to keep exits from being made everywhere; good luck with the USes!

EDIT: also, if it turns out to be too ambitious, I'd encourage you to take what ideas you have and make a Lavender Levels type thing with them (but solvable).

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[Last edited by Dischorran at 10-14-2015 03:39 AM]
10-14-2015 at 03:36 AM
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Xindaris
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icon Re: Beethro's Awakening: Super-early preview and recruitment drive (+1)  
I started out doing Link's Awakening because it happened to be the Zelda game I was playing at the time that gave me the inspiration. Using any of the 3D Zeldas as a "template" would require much more original work to build the maps, much harder than the "adapting" thing that I've been doing so far. I admit that maybe coming up with more original content would be cooler, but for the purposes of making the project not too ambitious to ever complete, this little bit of "laziness" seems conducive. Since the complaint is not seeing Hyrule itself I doubt anyone would be appeased by using one of the Oracle games (my personal favorites) instead of Awakening. So that leaves LttP as the most likely alternative, but there are at least a few decent reasons to continue using this one instead of that:

-Plot: Kind of minor, but the "it was all a dream" thing makes it easier to put this whole hold into a meaningful place in DROD canon. I have in mind to use the point in TSS right before (spoilers)
Click here to view the secret text


-It's easier: There are several reasons Link's Awakening is easier to do than LttP:
--Link's Awakening has a very discrete screen-by-screen map, which I've been translating into a DROD map by taking each set of 4 screens and turning it into one room. LttP has a more "fluid" map that might be a bit harder to adapt.
--Link's Awakening has only 1 overworld and 8 dungeons, so this would only need about 9 (if I put in a Big Final Exam Level instead of a final boss); LttP has 2 overworlds and 3+7+Ganon's Tower+Hyrule Castle = 12 or so?
--LttP has the Master Sword, which I'm not really sure how to "translate" into DROD concepts; I can skirt this issue with Awakening because in that game the sword upgrade is just a secret bonus thing. I could just leave the seashells out, replace the seashell house with some other thing, and be fine.
--Link's Awakening presents (almost) every dungeon as a single "floor" with a particular shape and some secret passages between parts of the dungeon that shape doesn't allow normal travel between, which can just be directly turned into the shape of a level in DROD. LttP has a bunch of floors to each dungeon, probably not as many individual rooms, and this would at least require some thought to decide just what to do with it. And for the most part, no cool map shapes once every room has been revealed.

-Trade Sequence: Link's Awakening has a trade sequence, which I've actually enjoyed coming up with some characters and dialogues specifically for even in the hold's present, very early form. LttP doesn't have a trade sequence as far as I recall.

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Click here to view the secret text


[Last edited by Xindaris at 10-14-2015 03:45 PM]
10-14-2015 at 03:40 PM
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DimWiddy
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icon Re: Beethro's Awakening: Super-early preview and recruitment drive (0)  
Hmm... when I give the lady in the Plush House the plush doll with my sword facing north, she is apparently unable to return to her original position and thus I am stuck in an infinite cutsene. But I really like this idea!

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10-14-2015 at 05:06 PM
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Xindaris
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icon Re: Beethro's Awakening: Super-early preview and recruitment drive (0)  
Ohh dear. I think I can fix that by having her teleport the last few steps, since as far as I can recall teleportation under swords is ok? I'll look into it at any rate.

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10-14-2015 at 07:29 PM
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Someone Else
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icon Re: Beethro's Awakening: Super-early preview and recruitment drive (0)  
Level 1: 2N1E needs a checkpoint. It is possible to render the room impossible to complete, and it's awful to have to redo the first two parts. :(
10-15-2015 at 12:09 AM
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Xindaris
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icon Re: Beethro's Awakening: Super-early preview and recruitment drive (0)  
Wow, I forgot to put a checkpoint in one of the rooms? Sorry about that. Out of curiosity, though, what sort of movements render it uncompletable? Pulling the Gentryii from a later square into some particular alignment that's unsolvable, or tangling up the "current" square in such a way that a Gentryii can't ever get off its button? The former isn't supposed to be possible because that'd be annoying.

Latest upload has hotfixes for the plush lady (for now, she just "comes back" to a place hopefully out of Beethro's sword-range for him bumping her to talk) and aforementioned checkpoint is added.

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109th Skywatcher

Here are some links to Things!
Click here to view the secret text


[Last edited by Xindaris at 10-15-2015 04:14 AM]
10-15-2015 at 04:12 AM
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Someone Else
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icon Re: Beethro's Awakening: Super-early preview and recruitment drive (0)  
Yeah, imagine this: (not exactly what I got, because I don't recall exactly)
PP..
P11.
.221
.221

Where 1 is one gentryii, 2 is another, and both of their heads are in the corner. I don't think it's possible to mess up a later square like this, so a checkpoint will suffice.
10-15-2015 at 01:33 PM
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