Oracle of Ages and Seasons | Boss Keys

Just using an emulator for those (and Minish Cap). 3DS and DS games will be captured from actual hardware though

Game Maker's Toolkit

Could I ask how you're going about playing all the GBC Zeldas? That big chunky pixel look is amazing, on an original fat Nintendo DS?

Thanks dude - and do try and play a Zelda game, even if it's just on an emulator!

Game Maker's Toolkit

I agree with Vesselin. It was so good, I signed up and am supporting this series for that reason. I've watched that episode probably over 30 times now. The complaints on youtube that you didn't talk specifically about their favourite game is kind of funny. I understand what they're saying, but it's like they missed the entire point of the concepts explained. This one episode will help more with my level designs in a game I'm trying to make than anything else I've watched or read yet.

Many YouTube commenters seem to not understand what you are doing and why. This episode was too meta and too abstract for a large audience, I guess. I want to say, as a backer, that this is some of your best work so far. I love your graphs. I did similar ones on paper (not as good as yours) when, a decade ago, I tried to analyze the design of the first Tomb Raider games, most Prince of Persia style games (Flashback, Blackthorne), The Lost Vikings, Project Eden, even the first Half-Life. Turns out that all of the complexity and diversity in their level design, 2d or 3d, can be simplified into a small number of concepts. One repeating pattern in the level design that I love is constantly seeing things you can't reach yet, or changing a room and its meaning, or even making two rooms that don't make sense separately, to make sense together. I made a series of simple symbols, like "one sided door", that is, something you can open only from inside. Anyway, I just wanted to say that your videos in general made me feel as if I'm not some insane overthinking overanalyzing freak. Seeing someone reaching similar conclusions and obsessing over similar principles feels great. It feels even better to learn how Zelda games (which I never played, Eastern Europe is not a place where consoles thrive) follow the same principles that many of my other favourite games do. Thank you!

Vesselin Jilov

Mmmmm love the diagrams. Really great to see them used to compare the games. Would be amazing to see a recap episode at the end where you compare the evolution of dungeons throughout the games.

Great stuff as always Mark. Played the Oracle of Ages recently and was shocked that it went so under the radar. Capcom did a really nice job. BTW Mark - Kotaku just posted an article about your Boss Keys series. Congrats!

Love those graphs. The GMTK episode that these Boss Keys eps are leading to is gonna be a doozy. I can't wait for you to tackle Wind Waker and Twilight Princess.

Joey

Anywhere from 1000-2000 - anything outside of that is too short or too long for a video i find

Game Maker's Toolkit

Deliciously nerdy video! Yum. And as for those graphs? Prime material for PornHub, surely. I was wondering Mark, how long is your script word counts, on average?

Liam Harvey

Those charts are brilliant!

Dave Hoffman

Very cool graphs, Mark. They're a useful way of getting a quick snapshot. I'm excited to see how they hold up for Wind Waker!

Rich Stoehr

Seasons definitely has the best power-up, but it also needs to be said that Ages has the worst power-up in the entire Zelda series; the mermaid suit. There have been many lame or useless power-ups in Zelda, but this one forces you to tap the d-pad in order to move, which is just obnoxious and makes the Jabu-Jabu dungeon even more frustrating to navigate. Coincidentally, this example sums up how I feel about playing Ages in general.

James

haha, they're from the terrible Zelda CD-i games. a dark note in zelda's history

Game Maker's Toolkit

Where are those horrible Link cutscenes taken from (the ones in the middle and at the end)?

Fabian

It'll be fascinating to see how differently dungeons are designed in A Link Between Worlds.

Dan Root

I think your dungeon graphs could make for a nice Boss Keys poster.

I liked the new graphs for the dungeons, thanks for all your effort.

drixkarasu

Just subscribed this morning; this is a great way to get started. :-) Looking forward to see much more.