Where I study there will be a “Software Presentation” where students can showcase anything that they are developing or developed, I’m really thinking on taking Zelda Souls to it.

But for me to do it I have to at least have 5 playable minutes, a name and a small story.

I will really dedicate so I can do it, of course, the playable 5 minutes will be entirely with pixel art made by me and 2 or 3 musics also composed by me, I really think I can do it.

So… Zelda Souls, at least for the next month, is now called Midnight Journey! I’ve been thinking on having a story related to the night and/or dreams and I think that this is a suitable name, it can still change, but I hope I don’t need to.

PS: Some points that I don’t remember saying in any Zelda Souls posts, I want to try something called “unreliable narrator”, so maybe you will see me doing it in the posts when talking about the characters or the story. Also I want to present hidden information on the game, so the ones who pay more atention and look closely will be rewarded with more information about the world.

Main Character: The main character is called Ethan Wolstenholme, he has green eyes and light brown hair. He trained a little bit in sword combat but he is not very good at it, anyway he always carry a small dagger with him. I think he is not so smart but has a great mind, always helps the ones who need and is really strong, although he doesn’t look like a strong person.

The Playable 5 Minutes

Mechanics to Implement:

• Dodging in Combat
• Charge Attack
• Getting experience when diyng
• Save Points
• User Interface that can show information on the tutorial
• Boss Fight

Ideas: 

• Cutscenes maybe can be described as Finite State Machines, each state will render some kind of animation and do some things.
• Maybe the User Interface can also be described as a Finite State Machine, the state will tell if you are on battle, off battle or in a boss fight, the game render the interface according to this.
• WTF I LOVE FINITE STATE MACHINES NOW

Main Menu: It will be a regular Main Menu with a beautiful art with the name “MIDNIGHT JOURNEY” and the options “New Game” and “Options”, maybe a “Credits” option. All HUD elements will be in Pixel Art and the music will be just a note progression on a scale that I will choose according to what sounds better to me, maybe I will add a melody on top of it.

New Game: 

Part 1 – Waking Up: After clicking New Game the screen goes black, and slowly you start seeing a scene, there is a random person laying down in the middle of the screen, in the grass. It’s really dark, it must be late at night, and yet, there is a strange feeling, it feels like this is not real, maybe this is just a Dream? (Note: This is the “tutorial” and it happens in Ethan’s dream). You can see something being written in the screen, dot by dot, really slowly you can just see a “…”, the person gets up and look around, he takes a step forward and look at the sky, Again, something in the screen “It is that day again? Oh…”.

Part 2 – Getting your Weapon: Finally you can control the character, as you walk forward the camera transitions and you can see a statue with a sword, you approach and a (?) mark appears on your character, it is a sign that you can interact with the statue, on the screen appears: “Looks like a sword…” (note: everything written in the screen will appear letter by letter really slowly) “Should I take it? > YES > No” – If the player choses YES you get the sword, if the player choses NO he will die when he finds the first monster lol, when he die the screen will show: “I should have gotten the sword…”

Part 2.5 – You Died: The first time you die you will se a message explaining that you get experience when you die, because we all learn with our mistakes and learning is the most valuable experience we can have.

Part 3 – Engaging in Combat: As you walk through the grass field you will find some really weak enemies that you can easily beat, it will teach you how to do a regular attack, a charge attack, heal yourself and dodge

Part 4 – Tutorial’s Boss: A really easy boss just so you can see how you a boss fight really is. It is guy with a strange weapon that seems to do some kind of trick, he is surrounded by death enemies and he himself doesn’t feel really great. You look closely to him and talk to him, he looks a little bit like a werewolf?

• Ethan: “So… It’s happening again… Isn’t it?”
• ??????: “Do you still have dreams?”
• Ethan: “No.”
• ??????: “Good.”
• Ethan: “What about you?”
• ??????: “It’s been a long time…”
• Ethan: “…”
• ?????? faces Ethan and wield his two swords: “… Sorry, it’s for your own good.”

And then the battle start and you should defeat him.

Part 5 – Wake me Up! – After beating the tutorial, the character will wake up in his bed, blink his eyes twice and the demo will be over.

I think this is everything that I will focus on for the next month starting tomorrow! I should hurry!