Sol_HSA
09-04-2005, 11:32 AM
I wrote this several years ago, thinking that I might write a zelda-like RPG one day. Someone of you might find it useful.
Zeldaism
Classic Zelda - Analysis
1. Definition
There are several games in the Zelda series, and some aspects of the game
have survived through all these generations. The games, in order of appearance;
Zelda 1 - the legend of zelda.
- NES game. Rather horrible, but had some of the basic elements.
Zelda 2 - Link's return (or revenge or something)
- NES game. Side-scrolling platform game that had nothing to do with zelda.
Zelda 3 - A Link to the Past
- SNES game. _The_ zelda game.
Zelda Color - Link's Awakening
- Sort of cut-down version of the SNES zelda, but with some elements from zelda64. This could be considered the "minimal" classic zelda game.
Zelda64 - Ocarina of Time
- n64 game. totally 3d game, instead of tile-based, but surprisingly many
zelda-elements have survived.
The 'classic zelda' I'm talking about is something between zelda3 and zelda color.
2. Game world
In zelda color the world contains 'rooms', each containing 10x7 16x16 pixel tiles (320x224 pixels total) with some status stuff on the bottom of the screen. Zelda3 expands a bit on this having maybe 2x2 screenfuls per room (scrolling). The world contains NxN rooms with N dungeons, each containing NxN rooms (typically 5x5 or so) and N levels. Houses can also be considered 'dungeons' with 1-2 rooms and sometimes 1-2 levels. I'll call a dungeon or house a 'map'. Traveling between maps (world-dungeon, world-house, dungeon level-dungeon level etc) is handled with special tiles. Room-to-room movement is handled by letting the player walk through some side of the room.
The rooms in every zelda game are reset when player exits the room (except for some key items, end-of-level monsters and switches which are remembered per dungeon), which saves on the data required for save games but may be rather annoying.
So in summary:
Pixel - a dot on screen.
Tile - a 16x16 or 32x32 tile of pixels on screen.
Room - 10x7 or bigger grid of tiles.
Map - NxN rooms.
3. Tiles
A zelda game contains 8 different tile types.
1. Floor tile
- Passable.
- Unalterable.
2. Wall tile
- Non passable.
- Unalterable.
3. Weak wall tile
- Nonpassable
- Possible to change into floor tile (via explosives, using key on a door etc)
4. Weak floor tile
- Passable
- Possible to change into special 'portal' tile (via explosives or by standing on a weak tile too long etc)
5. Alterable floor tile
- Passable
- Possible to change into an unalterable floor tile (via cutting grass or digging soft ground for items)
6. Item tile
- Nonpassable
- Possible to change into a floor tile by either breaking the item or picking it up (either of which may require special item - pots may be picked up easily, heavy stones require giant's gloves, etc)
- Chests are special item tiles; picking stuff from them doesn't make the tile passable.
7. Switch tile
- Passable or non passable
- stepping on, hitting, throwing items at may make something to happen (open doors, change 'death portal' tiles to floor tiles and vice versa). These switch tiles generally have two states, and the state is changed for the whole dungeon at once.
- unalterable (except for its state, which may mean passable/non passable change as well).
8. Portal tiles
- Stepping on a portal tile either kills you ('death portal' - bottomless pit, lava etc) or transports you to another map.
- May be visually a cave entrance, house entrance, staircase, ladder, hole in the ground, a well..
So, each tile may have the following characteristics:
- Passable or non passable
- Unalterable or alterable, if alterable, how, and what does it change?
- Switchable or non switchable - what does each switch state mean?
- Switch or non-switch
- Portal, death-portal or non-portal. If portal, to where?
Additionally each tile may contain slipperiness and slope characteristics (slipperiness means the character slides after movement stops and accelerates slowly; slope moves the character in certain direction if the character is not moved)
Water is a special case of 'death portal' as well. If the character doesn't have certain items (boat, scuba-gear or something) he drowns.
4. Sprites
On top of tiles we have sprites. Player character is a sprite. Monsters are
sprites that try to kill the player. Item sprites are stuff the player can pick up.
NPC sprites are sprites that player can talk to (non passable, unalterable).
Zelda games also contain pushable sprites, which look just like some non-passable tiles but can be moved. If a pushable sprite is moved on top of a specific switch tile, it can keep the state held (i.e.. push a statue on a pressure plate).
Most monsters can be killed but others cannot ("trap" effect monsters - spiked rolling balls etc).
5. Items
Zelda games contain 4 item types:
1. Bonus items
- including health bonuses ('medikits'), mana bonuses ('magic rechargers'), arrows, bombs, money, fairies, and other stuff that may appear in unlimited amounts.
2. Armament items
- Weapons, primary weapon upgrades, shield and its upgrades, different armor. Generally only one piece is found in the whole game, sometimes buyable, others can only be found in dungeons. Curiously, the player always finds better weapons, never any worse ones.
3. Keys
- Small and master keys; these only work in the same dungeon they are found in. Used to open doors. (master key used to open the end-of-dungeon-monster-room door)
4. Special items
- Only one of each in the whole game.
- Includes quest items ('gather 7 holy hairpins to save the world'), some of the armament items and other helpful items that generally make it possible for the character to explore more of the world (giant's gloves to throw away some big rocks that have blocked different routes and areas etc). Also includes special power ups such as pieces of heart (4 of which give the player one more heart - or hit point, if you may), bottles (which can be used to store fairies and other power ups), and the ocarina.
The ocarina (which first appeared in Zelda Color, and plays (no pun intended) a major role in 'ocarina of time') is zelda's version of spell casting. Use the item, then play a short tune for Something to happen. Often has to be done in a specific place to trigger events (opening of a dungeon for example) but may include healing or teleportation from anywhere.
6. Battle
The character in zelda has many ways of fighting. Primary way being swordsplay. If the character can hit the enemies with his sword, the enemy loses one (more or less) hit point, and dies when they run out.
If the character's hit points are full, and the character wields a specific sword (generally the best one there is) a lightning also is cast from the sword (zelda1 and zelda3 at least, don't know about zelda color) which is an effective projectile weapon.
If player holds fire for a while and then releases it, the character does a 360
degree swing, possibly killing enemies all around. (in Zelda64 you can also rotate the character 360 and then hit fire which triggers the same effect).
The player can block enemy fire (arrows or their equivalent of swordsplay) by *not* using his sword and facing towards the enemy (thereby using the shield to block).
Other weapons give other ways of fighting. Arrows are projectile (and some enemies are only vulnerable to arrows). Bombs are explosive and can be thrown. Big hammer can flip some enemies (turtles) around and make them vulnerable. Boomerang and hookshot can hit faraway targets but without using ammo.
Each weapon can also have special uses in zelda games. Hookshot and boomerang can be used to fetch items from afar. Bombs can break walls and floors. Most projectiles can be used to trigger switches. The hookshot can be used to pull the character over bottomless pits.
7. NPCs and shops
The npc:s in zelda games are generally extremely simple and boring. You walk to one and click, then read whatever this has to say and that's about covers it. Shops work in a similar manner; you walk in them, pick up an item on the floor and your money goes away. Or you get a message that you can't afford that.
8. Item management
Zelda games generally have action buttons and menu button. In the menu you can assign one to three items in your inventory to action buttons, and then use these items in the game by pressing the assigned button. Fire button (sword) and possibly the 'run' button are both non-assignable. So, in order to use a health potion you must assign it to some action button, resume game, press this action button, return to menus, switch back to some weapon and continue battle.
9. Improvement ideas on the concept
Lighting in general. Dynamic lighting (via extremely simple 2d ray tracing). Field of view. Transparent walls. One-(huge)-room-maps. More complex NPC model. More complex RPG model. Spellcasting. Flow of time. Change of weather, of season. Deeper plots.
Zeldaism
Classic Zelda - Analysis
1. Definition
There are several games in the Zelda series, and some aspects of the game
have survived through all these generations. The games, in order of appearance;
Zelda 1 - the legend of zelda.
- NES game. Rather horrible, but had some of the basic elements.
Zelda 2 - Link's return (or revenge or something)
- NES game. Side-scrolling platform game that had nothing to do with zelda.
Zelda 3 - A Link to the Past
- SNES game. _The_ zelda game.
Zelda Color - Link's Awakening
- Sort of cut-down version of the SNES zelda, but with some elements from zelda64. This could be considered the "minimal" classic zelda game.
Zelda64 - Ocarina of Time
- n64 game. totally 3d game, instead of tile-based, but surprisingly many
zelda-elements have survived.
The 'classic zelda' I'm talking about is something between zelda3 and zelda color.
2. Game world
In zelda color the world contains 'rooms', each containing 10x7 16x16 pixel tiles (320x224 pixels total) with some status stuff on the bottom of the screen. Zelda3 expands a bit on this having maybe 2x2 screenfuls per room (scrolling). The world contains NxN rooms with N dungeons, each containing NxN rooms (typically 5x5 or so) and N levels. Houses can also be considered 'dungeons' with 1-2 rooms and sometimes 1-2 levels. I'll call a dungeon or house a 'map'. Traveling between maps (world-dungeon, world-house, dungeon level-dungeon level etc) is handled with special tiles. Room-to-room movement is handled by letting the player walk through some side of the room.
The rooms in every zelda game are reset when player exits the room (except for some key items, end-of-level monsters and switches which are remembered per dungeon), which saves on the data required for save games but may be rather annoying.
So in summary:
Pixel - a dot on screen.
Tile - a 16x16 or 32x32 tile of pixels on screen.
Room - 10x7 or bigger grid of tiles.
Map - NxN rooms.
3. Tiles
A zelda game contains 8 different tile types.
1. Floor tile
- Passable.
- Unalterable.
2. Wall tile
- Non passable.
- Unalterable.
3. Weak wall tile
- Nonpassable
- Possible to change into floor tile (via explosives, using key on a door etc)
4. Weak floor tile
- Passable
- Possible to change into special 'portal' tile (via explosives or by standing on a weak tile too long etc)
5. Alterable floor tile
- Passable
- Possible to change into an unalterable floor tile (via cutting grass or digging soft ground for items)
6. Item tile
- Nonpassable
- Possible to change into a floor tile by either breaking the item or picking it up (either of which may require special item - pots may be picked up easily, heavy stones require giant's gloves, etc)
- Chests are special item tiles; picking stuff from them doesn't make the tile passable.
7. Switch tile
- Passable or non passable
- stepping on, hitting, throwing items at may make something to happen (open doors, change 'death portal' tiles to floor tiles and vice versa). These switch tiles generally have two states, and the state is changed for the whole dungeon at once.
- unalterable (except for its state, which may mean passable/non passable change as well).
8. Portal tiles
- Stepping on a portal tile either kills you ('death portal' - bottomless pit, lava etc) or transports you to another map.
- May be visually a cave entrance, house entrance, staircase, ladder, hole in the ground, a well..
So, each tile may have the following characteristics:
- Passable or non passable
- Unalterable or alterable, if alterable, how, and what does it change?
- Switchable or non switchable - what does each switch state mean?
- Switch or non-switch
- Portal, death-portal or non-portal. If portal, to where?
Additionally each tile may contain slipperiness and slope characteristics (slipperiness means the character slides after movement stops and accelerates slowly; slope moves the character in certain direction if the character is not moved)
Water is a special case of 'death portal' as well. If the character doesn't have certain items (boat, scuba-gear or something) he drowns.
4. Sprites
On top of tiles we have sprites. Player character is a sprite. Monsters are
sprites that try to kill the player. Item sprites are stuff the player can pick up.
NPC sprites are sprites that player can talk to (non passable, unalterable).
Zelda games also contain pushable sprites, which look just like some non-passable tiles but can be moved. If a pushable sprite is moved on top of a specific switch tile, it can keep the state held (i.e.. push a statue on a pressure plate).
Most monsters can be killed but others cannot ("trap" effect monsters - spiked rolling balls etc).
5. Items
Zelda games contain 4 item types:
1. Bonus items
- including health bonuses ('medikits'), mana bonuses ('magic rechargers'), arrows, bombs, money, fairies, and other stuff that may appear in unlimited amounts.
2. Armament items
- Weapons, primary weapon upgrades, shield and its upgrades, different armor. Generally only one piece is found in the whole game, sometimes buyable, others can only be found in dungeons. Curiously, the player always finds better weapons, never any worse ones.
3. Keys
- Small and master keys; these only work in the same dungeon they are found in. Used to open doors. (master key used to open the end-of-dungeon-monster-room door)
4. Special items
- Only one of each in the whole game.
- Includes quest items ('gather 7 holy hairpins to save the world'), some of the armament items and other helpful items that generally make it possible for the character to explore more of the world (giant's gloves to throw away some big rocks that have blocked different routes and areas etc). Also includes special power ups such as pieces of heart (4 of which give the player one more heart - or hit point, if you may), bottles (which can be used to store fairies and other power ups), and the ocarina.
The ocarina (which first appeared in Zelda Color, and plays (no pun intended) a major role in 'ocarina of time') is zelda's version of spell casting. Use the item, then play a short tune for Something to happen. Often has to be done in a specific place to trigger events (opening of a dungeon for example) but may include healing or teleportation from anywhere.
6. Battle
The character in zelda has many ways of fighting. Primary way being swordsplay. If the character can hit the enemies with his sword, the enemy loses one (more or less) hit point, and dies when they run out.
If the character's hit points are full, and the character wields a specific sword (generally the best one there is) a lightning also is cast from the sword (zelda1 and zelda3 at least, don't know about zelda color) which is an effective projectile weapon.
If player holds fire for a while and then releases it, the character does a 360
degree swing, possibly killing enemies all around. (in Zelda64 you can also rotate the character 360 and then hit fire which triggers the same effect).
The player can block enemy fire (arrows or their equivalent of swordsplay) by *not* using his sword and facing towards the enemy (thereby using the shield to block).
Other weapons give other ways of fighting. Arrows are projectile (and some enemies are only vulnerable to arrows). Bombs are explosive and can be thrown. Big hammer can flip some enemies (turtles) around and make them vulnerable. Boomerang and hookshot can hit faraway targets but without using ammo.
Each weapon can also have special uses in zelda games. Hookshot and boomerang can be used to fetch items from afar. Bombs can break walls and floors. Most projectiles can be used to trigger switches. The hookshot can be used to pull the character over bottomless pits.
7. NPCs and shops
The npc:s in zelda games are generally extremely simple and boring. You walk to one and click, then read whatever this has to say and that's about covers it. Shops work in a similar manner; you walk in them, pick up an item on the floor and your money goes away. Or you get a message that you can't afford that.
8. Item management
Zelda games generally have action buttons and menu button. In the menu you can assign one to three items in your inventory to action buttons, and then use these items in the game by pressing the assigned button. Fire button (sword) and possibly the 'run' button are both non-assignable. So, in order to use a health potion you must assign it to some action button, resume game, press this action button, return to menus, switch back to some weapon and continue battle.
9. Improvement ideas on the concept
Lighting in general. Dynamic lighting (via extremely simple 2d ray tracing). Field of view. Transparent walls. One-(huge)-room-maps. More complex NPC model. More complex RPG model. Spellcasting. Flow of time. Change of weather, of season. Deeper plots.