The game takes place on the Overworld map from The Legend of Zelda. You are trying to collect the seven orbs. The only enemies are skeletons and a red witch.
You don't get any items, but you can switch tiles around using magic. The red witch can also change tiles. Really, anything that happens that seems like a bug or a glitch is, in fact, the red witch's evil magic.
I wanted to make a game where players experience a familiar space in a new way.
Thank you for playing, Spike.House.Games spike.house.games < a t > gmail < d o t > com
CONTROLS: The game can be controlled with the keyboard or joystick.
* Arrow Keys & Joystick: Moves character. * X & Joystick Button 1: Swap held tile with the tile in front of you. * Z & Joystick Button 2: Swaps the tile in front of you with the tile behind you.
ABOUT THE GAME: This is my first jam entry. Zeldish is written using Python/Pygame. Graphics were edited with GIMP. A million thanks goes out to the makers of open source game art, without whom my untalented self would be stuck making Tetris clones. Also special thanks to Al Sweigart, who managed to pull the map data off of The Legend of Zelda.
Though the map data was used, none of Sweigart's source code was used.
ART CREDITS: The game uses open source art work from a variety of sources. All the artwork used in the game is located in the Artwork folder. Any modified artwork is licensed CC BY-SA 3.0:
* The Liberated Pixel Cup assets set for the girl sprites, and the map tiles. <http://lpc.opengameart.org/static/lpc-style-guide/assets.html>; Anthors: Lanea Zimmerman (AKA Sharm), Stephen Challener (AKA Redshrike), Charles Sanchez (AKA CharlesGabriel), Manuel Riecke (AKA MrBeast), & Daniel Armstrong (AKA HughSpectrum) This art is attributed CC BY-SA 3.0
* Some of the mountain tiles contain art based on <http://opengameart.org/content/2d-lost-garden-zelda-style-tiles-resized-to-32x32-with-additions/>; Credit goes to Daniel Cook's 2d Circle Graphic Archive, Jetrel's mockups resized 32x32, Bertram's improvements, Zabin's modification and additions, Saphy (TMW) tall grass and please provide a link back to OGA and this submission. This art is CC BY 3.0.
For someone who's never played Zelda the map etc didn't really make sense. Also the skeletons are quite aggressive, so it seems impossible to get somewhere without having to deal with a huge crowed of them. Interesting idea of swapping the tiles though!
Very original take on the weapon. Controls are tight and indeed the entire thing feels similar to zelda. Managed to get the orbs by running like crazy after a couple of tries.
Welcome to the Ludum Dare! For your first entry, well done. Thank you for crediting the sources - even in jam entries that's uncommon but a very kind courtesy to those who worked on it! As for the game itself, I felt the controls were spot-on but there was a bit of a collision issue when too many skeletons were trying to have a nice calcium-filled moshpit with the princess. I was able to duplicated it only once more, but not again. I didn't score lower despite this, but a good entry!
Very interesting mechanic, but no safe place to try it out and learn. If this game ramped up slowly I bet it would be awesome but man those skeletons were right on top of me from the instant I started playing!
I loved that mechanic. I liked exploring and gaining access to new areas by taking advantage of that power. It almost felt like I was getting away with something. Great job!
@eXpl0it3r: Even though there are a ton of skeletons, they aren't so bad because you have a pretty good stretch of invincibility after you get hit, and they don't cause knock back.
@pkenney: They do get there pretty quick; one thing I wanted to do is have a skeleton jump out the door on the first screen before anyone tried to go through the door and get the wood sword.
@MegaMasterX: I'll try to hunt down that bug. Was it a problem regarding the collision with the player, or were the skeletons having trouble with the environment? I can think of ways that either thing could go wrong in the code. One funny thing is that the skeletons don't z-order properly, but you never really notice because they are always running aroud all crazy.
The tile swapping mechanic is definitely cool, but I didn't get to play with it much as the skellies were on my case constantly. They just move too fast to out maneuver them. Otherwise nice game, and well done.
Traceback (most recent call last): File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/cx_Freeze-4.3.3-py2.7-linux-i686.egg/cx_Freeze/initscripts/Console.py", line 27, in <module> File "zeldish.py", line 96, in <module> pygame.error: File is not a Windows BMP file
I think this is an idea with some potential, but I think it needs polish to be truly good. The tile swapping is neat, but I didn't really know what I was meant to be doing with it, can I use it offensively? Or is it just to mess around with the world itself? A good start though!
@eemmbbeerr: I converted the PNGs in to BMPs and updated the Linux build. This should make it work until I figure out why Pygame is sometimes having trouble with the image module.
@ArcturusDeluxe: Thank you. I was thinking about doing some sort of quick introduction with the red witch (who has the same powers as you) so that I could show that she is an enemy and show that the tile swapping is not really useful as a weapon. Just something that just takes a few seconds; maybe she summons the skeletons.
Perhaps if you had implemented the play mechanic in a different world that made more sense to the game instead of just appealing to Nostalgia, it would have been a better game.
Interesting concept, though it felt unfair when I got hit by enemies right after entering a screen since I couldn't see them. Maybe slower movement would help with that problem. The tile swapping mechanic was very neat though. Good job!
@jmborden: If you mean, this game would be better if it took place in a world actually designed for the play mechanic, then I whole heartedly agree. I was thinking of adding a level editor post-jam. The game is basically a level editor anyway, so this shouldn't take much.
But if you mean, the mechanic isn't fun, then less nostalgia isn't going to help it. I need to either fix the mechanic, or double-down on nostalgia. Maybe the main character saves Error. They have beautiful kids, but can't find them in the woods. Everyone talks constantly about how dangerous going alone is.
@SuperPokeunicorn: I knew there was a reason I missed the old Zelda screen transitions.
Neat idea! Got glitched by the "witch" early. (Ended up inside a wall by sliding between tiles.) Am super curious to see what this would be like if it was a bit more fleshed out than a weekend allows.
The swap the item in front/behind you button didn't seem to work super consistently when moving sideways, maybe? I enjoyed spamming the "swap terrain" button to get away from skeletons, though. It was a cool mechanic. Nice work!
Someone said that it's nice that you credited the source, and I agree. Maybe keep working on this and see where it ends up, cause this could get a lot of fans.
Fun, creative mechanic (reminds me of Anodyne!) and well made. A bit too easy to get stuck on corners, and some audio feedback (when taking damage) would be nice.
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Interesting idea of swapping the tiles though!
But I found that the easiest strategy (at least for me) was to just make a mad dash for the orbs. :P
@eXpl0it3r: Even though there are a ton of skeletons, they aren't so bad because you have a pretty good stretch of invincibility after you get hit, and they don't cause knock back.
@pkenney: They do get there pretty quick; one thing I wanted to do is have a skeleton jump out the door on the first screen before anyone tried to go through the door and get the wood sword.
@MegaMasterX: I'll try to hunt down that bug. Was it a problem regarding the collision with the player, or were the skeletons having trouble with the environment? I can think of ways that either thing could go wrong in the code. One funny thing is that the skeletons don't z-order properly, but you never really notice because they are always running aroud all crazy.
- sfx & music would be nice
- Loved the idea about a new adventure in a classic world.
I managed to beat the game!
zarandy@zarandy-Aspire-V3-531G:~/Downloads/Zeldish [Linux Dist. 1.0]/dist$ ./zeldish
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/cx_Freeze-4.3.3-py2.7-linux-i686.egg/cx_Freeze/initscripts/Console.py", line 27, in <module>
File "zeldish.py", line 96, in <module>
pygame.error: File is not a Windows BMP file
But if you mean, the mechanic isn't fun, then less nostalgia isn't going to help it. I need to either fix the mechanic, or double-down on nostalgia. Maybe the main character saves Error. They have beautiful kids, but can't find them in the woods. Everyone talks constantly about how dangerous going alone is.
@SuperPokeunicorn: I knew there was a reason I missed the old Zelda screen transitions.
The swap the item in front/behind you button didn't seem to work super consistently when moving sideways, maybe? I enjoyed spamming the "swap terrain" button to get away from skeletons, though. It was a cool mechanic. Nice work!