You can make glZelda 2 a reality

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You can make glZelda 2 a reality

18 April 2010

17 Comments

Tags: Zelda 3, Zelda Classic, glZelda

Posted by Benjamin Arnaud

Dear Warriors,

Even though we focus on PC Gaming we're not ignoring the great console titles out there. I remember when I received Zelda Link's Awakening for Christmas. I was 12 or something. I spent the whole day playing it ignoring the very rest of my presents (mum please forgive me). I couldn't believe how they shrinked a full Zelda into such a small console. This is possibly my best Gamer Memory. It was a real quest, it was long, deep and engaging (yes yes you could steal items from the vendor's store).

A few of you might know the Zelda Classic project.

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Zelda Classic is a tribute to (what we think is) the greatest video game of all time: Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda. It has been developed into an exact replica of the NES version that we all know and love. Beyond that, Zelda Classic allows the development of new quests that can use either the traditional graphics or enhanced graphics, as well as new enemies, items, and challenges.
http://www.zeldaclassic.com/what.php

With Zelda Classic, for the first time you had control over the Hyrule universe and you could shape up little adventures to share with your friends. When typing Zelda Classic on youtube you'll get a few examples of what was possible.

Here is two of them:

Zelda NES clone:

Heavily modified Zelda Classic:

That's the same engine in both videos, as you can see if you take time to change the sprites and fine tune everything you almost get a Zelda 3 like result. The people behind that engine deserve Kudos, congratulations to them.

Five years ago, I put online a tech demo called glZelda. The objective was creating from the ground up a Zelda 3 engine. This SNES game is considered by many as the greatest Zelda of all time. More than forking the engine I wanted to add a few OpenGL touches. That's why I filtered every sprites with the hq3x compression. Inspired from Zelda Four Swords, I added a zooming feature. Last but not least I added the day and night cycle.

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At this point I realized that one could make miracles with very simple sprites and a few modern effects. Also, the balance you get between technology and editing possibilities is interesting. You can read my article about Doom on that matter.

Surprisingly a lot of people tried it, a lot of people asked for the code, some people proposed their work. I wasn't ready for all this back then. It was a tech demo.

Many people thought it was what it wasn't: a full Zelda 3 port. glZelda was a tech demo. It’s not intended to make a full game with it. From this perspective the project is finished.

We're five years later and people are still asking news about glZelda. Recently someone named MasterPhW posted about it here.

So here we are folks.
You want a glZelda sequel? More than just a tech engine ? You want a Zelda 3 Classic ?
We can build the technology but we need the community.

It's time to show your support:
- Register the Warrior Labs community.
- Comment this blog post.
- Post your support in the glZelda board.

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Zelda Fans, it's time to Unite.
Tell your friends. Spread the news !

More infos:
Support and suggestions
Contribution proposal

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Benjamin Arnaud.

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17 Comments On This Entry

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aganim

18 April 2010 - 10:37 AM

I WANT glZELDA2! :rolleyes:

MasterPhW

18 April 2010 - 10:51 AM

Nice to already see an impact of my promotion on different sites.
Btw: I didn't just posted about glZelda at Homebrewheaven, I also did at 1emu, Xtemu, Youtube, Emutalk,Ubuntuforums, generalemu and last but not least on two big German pages called AEP-Emu and Consolewars (In 3 parts! Part1, Part2 and Part3). :D
And I also retweeted your message and shared it on Facebook. :)
Hope there will be enough messages and emails to get glZelda2 started!
You can also count on me, if you need help!
Regards, the Master

BaptWarrior

18 April 2010 - 12:45 PM

I always loved zelda games since I was 6 years old

. I've played for the first time on Game Boy Classic. The game was one of my brother. It didn't work very well sometimes

.
Then I played on DS classic! It was really good! But my favorite stops on the Wii :rolleyes:

! The game is very long and varied! This is an excellent idea of resettling the memories of the good old 2D zelda With glZelda 2!

Fendoel

19 April 2010 - 02:10 AM

We want your own Zelda Adventure, not a a full Zelda 3 port. :lol:

MasterPhW

19 April 2010 - 11:19 AM

A fully and enhanced port of Zelda III would be great, too.
So much capabilities, only your imagination could stop you... the project just need to happen.

KrossX

19 April 2010 - 02:32 PM

Imagine if the engine could support 3d models... then replace the zelda sprites for nice little 3d models. O_O

MasterPhW

20 April 2010 - 02:20 AM

Something like this:

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Don't need it. Looks great, but IMO something like this would be enough:

Posted Image

KrossX

20 April 2010 - 11:36 AM

Oh, that looks even better than what I was thinking. I was thinking in something more like Torchlight but lower poly models. Having an engine possible of that, and a user-friendly editor could lead to tons of pretty adventures and even gorgeous remakes of nice old games.

selon

31 May 2010 - 11:05 AM

would be nice if there was an editor similar to Graal's editor. graal was formerly known as zelda online, until nintendo stalked the creators til they changed to graal, and changed graphics:) love the editor for the game, and haev made a LTTP adventure in it using the lttp sprites and tiles.

Chris Waner

18 June 2010 - 02:05 PM

I'm really excited about this; I thought the tech demo was fantastic and the idea of a full-fledged engine coming online for LTTP is wonderful.

Kirbichu54

23 June 2010 - 10:59 AM

This sounds really cool. I'm in!

abc159abc

03 July 2010 - 07:24 PM

Just a little question.
What about copyright?
I guess Nintendo won't just let you use their game's name, assets and universe without complaining, right?

Benjamin Arnaud

04 July 2010 - 03:35 PM

Hey abc,

That's a good question.

If we do glZelda 2 we'll do it this way:
1. An asset driven engine with scripting and modding capabilities.
2. All the Zelda specific / copyrighted stuff is either in texture files or in simple scripts.

That way your game is a "mod" from your engine. If at one point Nintendo shuts your "mod" off then you can still iterate with your own graphics. Beside when you talk about the Zelda Snes universe it's a very common RPG setup after all so you could reproduce the same kind of fantasy without green hats and triforces.

If you add up the fact that the game would be a 100% free and driven by the community it's more like a great viral advertisement for upcoming Zelda titles than a commercial threat.

That said if the product becomes really good (which never really happened with Zelda Classic), I think at one point we might have to switch to our own property. Doing that could bring exciting new mechanics since we would not be reduced to the existing Zelda sprites and gameplay anymore.

All in all, deciding to kill a project like this is a trade-off for Nintendo. A trade-off between what they gain and what they loose.

- If you make them loose money they'll sue you.
- If you "work" for them without knowing it, they'll let it slide.

abc159abc

07 July 2010 - 09:47 AM

Honestly, they don't have much to lose in such a battle.
They would lose more letting a free project based on their universe becoming too popular and creating competition agains their games.

Maybe Zelda 3 gameplay is common to many action/adventure games (Yeah, there is no RPG in it), but the universe is intellectual property of Nintendo and be sure they care about that:
http://www.techdirt....433407589.shtml
http://aperturegames...own-by-nintendo

I cannot count how many mods and games where shutdown because they were based on some famous existing universe (stargate, starwars, ...) without license.
To be free of any risk you should:
- rename your project
- make sure none of their assets is included in it.
From what I read in the earlier comments, people care more about having another zelda something than an engine inspired by it they could use to create something new.

Benjamin Arnaud

08 July 2010 - 09:01 AM

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From what I read in the earlier comments, people care more about having another zelda something than an engine inspired by it they could use to create something new.

That's a good remark. The problem is: what people ask is not always what they really want. I think doing a remake of Zelda 3 is not needed. Zelda 3 already exists, it's great, end of the story.

What's interesting is taking the Zelda 3 mechanics and create your own adventures.

Take Little Big Planet, they are doing an editor for people to create their own platforming game. I have an opposite view: I start from looking at Zelda 3 gameplay and then I wonder: "how could I provide the very best engine / editor for doing that ?".

What has value is the editor. The Zelda 3 Sprites and universe are great and they would perfectly match it. But if Nintendo shut us down, no worries, we pay a graphist and we change every single sprite staying in the Zelda "tone".

Now people really attached exclusively to the Zelda universe might leave us at this point, but others will stay.

At the end of the day, the engine + editor is where the value is. As opposed to the latest Zelda title where the value is in the gameplay, universe and the story.

So we would not be doing Zelda 3.2. If I had to compare what we want to something existing I'll point you to this: http://springrts.com/

Nowadays it's a "project aiming to create a new and versatile RTS Engine". But it used to be a Total Annihilation remake. If you ask the community whether they'd go back, they would probably say no, because now they're inventing new gameplays and mechanics, that's what's exciting !

The bottom line is: do you want a Zelda 3 PC port, or do you want a community based "Zelda 3 like" engine + editor to create your own quests ?

nosume2000g

10 August 2010 - 07:24 PM

I would love to see this project a reality. Anyway I can help I'm in!

PhillipDSX

29 August 2010 - 12:07 PM

Woooooow, this looks simply awesome >.<! I've been a Zelda fan since I played it on the NES a loooong time ago, after that came SNES, then GB/GBC, then N64... and many many more... But having it on the PC... AND LOOKING LIKE THIS?!

I totally support this project, at least in spirit (because I have no coding or editing skills whatsoever T_T) so thanks a lot for working on it =D!

Do your best!

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