My Zelda Fan Game: "The Legend of Zelda: Spirit's Quest"

Hello all! I feel it is time to introduce you to my no-where-near-complete Zelda fan game called... *drum roll*

The Legend of Zelda: Spirit's Quest (a.k.a. TLoZ: SQ)

First things first, I must be clear that THIS GAME IS NOT AFFILIATED WITH NINTENDO IN ANY WAY. It's a fan game. The idea of a Zelda fan game is a lot like an artist drawing his/her own interpretation of Zelda on a canvas; it's inspired by Zelda, but it's still the artist's own work.
Furthermore, THIS GAME WILL NOT BE SOLD upon completion, because it is still using the names Zelda and Link (among other names), which are registered names under Nintendo. I'm not making it to make money anyway; it's just for personal satisfaction and for the love of Zelda. This means that this game will be given out as freeware; no charge will be made whatsoever (not even any donations) and no profit besides the satisfaction of being able to pay homage to the Zelda franchise and to allow other Zelda fans to enjoy my interpretation of the series. It will all be my own work (even that title graphic is a placeholder), all the graphics, code, sound effects (hopefully), everything. However, if I must use unoriginal works, anything that isn't mine will be properly credited with disclaimers and will be legal to use in a freeware fan game.

I do feel it's necessary to point out where my inspiration comes from though. Besides being inspired by Zelda (obviously), I was very much inspired to make TLoZ: SQ after playing a freeware (i.e. the original is free) game called Cave Story. Just check out my version of Link and you'll see the similarity between Cave Story's main character and mine:

Yes, I did make a direct edit of Cave Story's main character, which means that the character is not entirely mine. However, I went quite a bit beyond Cave Story's character and made many of my own animations. Here is an example of some stuff I've made:

I definitely couldn't have done it without Cave Story, so special credits must also be noted to that game.


WHEW! Now that all of the disclaimer stuff is behind, I can tell you what Spirit's Quest is all about. TLoZ: Spirit's Quest is an oldschool(ish) 2d action/adventure platformer style game for PC. It's being made with Game Maker 8. Now I'll stop right there. If any of you know the reputation of Game Maker, you probably have huge doubts after me mentioning that. However, I have been using GM ever since it came out in the mid 90's, and I've made enough failed projects to have the experience to know what makes a game good and how I can properly use GM to make fairly professional looking and feeling games.

Spirit's Quest's story is minimal, but that is because the design is planned to be a bit less linear than other Zelda's. The game starts with Link sleeping in his bed at night. Suddenly Link is awoken by the appearance of a Wizzrobe. The Wizzrobe introduces himself as Tangle. Tangle continues on to tell Link that he has a game that he wants Link to play. Unfortunately, the game is a life or death game where Link must fight his way through a massive dungeon. Escape or die. It's clear that Tangle is a bit short in the head; yes, he's crazy. Before Link can grab for his sword, Tangle transports Link into a dark dungeon room.

Now there is a ton I could talk about, but this would be waaaaaaaaaay too long, so I will just tell some of the good stuff. This "massive dungeon" is the entire game, but it's made up of many parts and Link will travel through forest-like areas, desert, snow, ice, swamp, all kinds of places. The game will be designed in a way that will allow the player to play these different areas in ANY order they please, thus acquiring main items (e.g. bow, bombs, boomerang, etc) in any order that sounds good. Do you want bombs first? Go for the area where you will get bombs. You want the power of the boomerang in the palm of your hand? Go ahead, it's your choice! Now, you're choice is not without strategy. Enemies will get harder as you go. Would you want to end up playing the ice area LAST with the HARDEST enemies? ... probably not. Because slipping and sliding while fighting the tough guys is.. well it's tough.

The game is designed with replay value in mind. I even plan to have most of the game made up of semi-randomly generated rooms. It should make each new quest a truly "new" quest.

Another cool thing: Link has a fairy, called Sprite. BUT, she is not as helpless as other fairy's you may know of. Sprite has magic and she can hold her own. You will gather new spells for her to use; face-melting spells that will decimate all on screen. Though magic does run out, so you can't just spam magic.

There is so much more to tell, but I will leave all that for another time. One more thing though: The game has just gotten past the basic physics and collisions code (walking, jumping, swimming, slipping on ice, climbing stairs, etc). That engine is the core of the game, so it is a huge step. I also have TONS of plans documented and a good amount of graphics going. Right now I'm working on coding the HUD functionality.

Here is what the HUD is planned to look like:

And here is a peek at the newest design of the item/menu screen:

Well, that's all for now. The game has a LONG way to go, but it's going strong. I will probably make an update with a playable demo of Link's basic actions next. I don't know how long it will take me to get to that point though. Programming is a hobby, not a job (and I have 3 jobs). So just keep a look out for the next update if you're interested.

Mario Marathon 4 Continues to Bring in the Coins for Child's Play Charity

I, Disc07, promised these awesome guys, in the wee hours of the morning of June 27th, that I would write a follow-up article about their ever so successful Mario Marathon. For almost 80 hours straight, the "Marathoners" have been playing their Wii, fitted with all the classic Super Mario games, all the while, raising over $80,000 for Child's Play, a charity committed to providing books, toys, and video games to children's hospitals across the globe.

Sleep Deprived Nate and Brian play Super Mario Galaxy for Charity. Since then, Brian hasn't shut an eye.

The viewers of their uStream have had the liberty of participating in various contests, including raffles for custom artwork, coloring contests, haiku competitions, and even joint contests with partner sites such as ThinkGeek. Beyond just the ability of winning prizes and contests, participants also get to have plenty of lulz as they watch the sleep deprived "Marathoners" complete the many games that have riddled everyone's childhood memories.

From the NES Classics of Super Mario, Super Mario 2, Super Mario 3, and The Lost Levels, to Super Mario World of SNES, Mario 64, Mario Sunshine, and the most recent Wii titles: New Super Mario Bros, and Mario Galaxy 1 and 2, this marathon will strike a chord with anybody that grew up with a Nintendo console in the past 25 years.

If you are trying to find that perfect way to donate your extra change to a good cause, I think you may have just found it. Grab some Janitor Juice, let these gamers spin the Wheel of Awesome for you, and get ready to get your heart rocked by the musical styling of Jed and the talented voice overs of Vog.

You can donate and check out the stream right here, or head on over to www.mariomarthon.com and join in the chat and twitterfeed fun!




Until I see you,

~~Disc07

Futurama Continues Season Premier with "Benderama"

"Robot, experience this tragic irony for me!" 

The second Futurama episode of the Season 8 premier was entitled "Benderama". As you can imagine, this episode revolves around one of the series' most beloved characters, the drunken robot Bender. Readers with a sharp eye may recognize that part of this episode was read at a panel at last year's San Dieog Comic Con.

This episode features not one Bender, not two (as has been done with the occasional appearance of Bender look-alike Flexo), but billions of Benders. Because as many of us know, Bender is lazy. So when the Professor Farnsworth invents a new machine that makes duplicate copies of anything, in 1/3 scale. So as you can imagine, Bender gets a hold of the machine to make copies of himself to do stuff for him.

This episode features one of my favorite elements from Futurama, "The Scary Door", Futurama's parody of "The Twilight Zone". I always found them to be fun. And they are few and far between. But they are always hilarious when they are used in a story.

This episode also has the appearance of Patton Oswalt who is a stand-up comedian from several different animated shows and movies. He was appearing as the voice of one of the main protagonist, a giant known as the Unatractive Giant Monster, whom the Planet Express crew make a delivery to.

All in I found it to be a very fun episode. I am very excited this new season of Futurama, as it seems to be a true return to form for the series. Last season was great fun, but it was different. But fun.

Look forward to more reviews of this season.

That is all. Carry On!

-Spieg89

Futurama's 'New' Season Begins with "Neutopia"

Last night, Comedy Central celebrated the return of Futurama with the premier of two new episodes of Matt Groening's hit series. Considered to be a premier of a confusing season 8, we see yet another plot that takes the demise of the Planet Express crew and their failing package delivery company, and turns it around for the better in the end. This has been a plot that Futurama fans have grown accustomed to with each big network move, or large stint of programming such as this one that has split season 7 and 8. We have witnessed this time and time before with the beginning of "Bender's Big Score" along with the season premier of season 7.

Matt Groening brought back the talent of J. Stewart Burns, however, to liven up this exasperated plot-line. Burns can be credited for writing the script for the Futurama video game, many earlier episodes of the series, as well as the Emmy Award winning episode: Roswell that Ends Well. This gave me high hopes when it came to the quality of this return of the series.

As mentioned before, the plot of the episode puts Planet Express in turmoil as it once again is about to belly up as a business. The team finds themselves on a gender-free planet composed of creatures made entirely of rocks... yes... rocks. I for one was excited for the new species of alien, cause well, I am a geologist, and rocks are kind of my thing.


The planet itself was a phenomenal creation, with actual plausible geologic features scattered throughout the background of many of the shots, something that I was really pumped to see. The team soon finds that this planet's sun is about to burn the surface and it is up to them to trek to the "Cave of Harmony" to provide shelter from the heat. Push comes to shove, and the gender's find themselves split and encouraged to work together to get to their goal. But instead of working together, they instead try to betray one another and from here, the story begins to unravel.

Let's just say that this new rock species has a "gender-empowering" capability, and we begin to start seeing the more feminine and masculine sides of the crew that we have never seen before. Back on Earth the team finds a creative way to fund the now in-debt Planet Express company that you will indefinitely crack up about.

Funny little science jokes were scattered throughout this episode, a mainstay of much of Groening's comedic style, without excluding the immature jokes we all know and love. All in all, it is nice to see the return of Futurama and I am sure we all can't wait to see what escapades the Planet Express crew gets themselves in to.

What's this you say? There were two episodes that aired last night? Check out the second portion of the Season 8 review coming up soon on Wired Gamers!

~~Disc07

Sonic Generations Demo

So this completely slipped under my radar. Yesterday, SEGA released a demo for its upcoming Sonic Generations, SEGA's way of celebrating Sonic the Hedgehog's 20th Anniversary. This game combines both the 2D and 3D games. And the 2D levels have an element of 3D to them. This is also the first Sonic game to support stereoscopic 3D.
I downloaded the demo today. You can download it here for Xbox : Sonic Generations Demo. It is also on PS3.

There is an important thing to note though, this demo went up today and will only be up for 20 days. So if you have any interest in this game, I would recommend that you download this demo. In fact you all should download it.

This demo covers the first area in the game, the always iconic Green Zone.

I played the demo, and this game plays great. The visuals are simply stunning. I stopped dead in my tracks on more than one occasion to just look around at my surroundings. I can't recommend this demo enough. Just download it.

That is all. Carry On!

-Spieg89

The Lego of Zelda

I've had this little red Lego boat since I was about six, it came in a pirate set called Rock Island Refuge(I think I know the names of all my Lego sets, is that strange? hmm). Pretty much ever since Wind Waker was released, I wanted to make this, it just fit so perfectly with my little Lego boat. After years and years, I finally got my Legos out of my parent's attic, and I've been catching up on lost time.

Mark I (right): Sorry for the ugly cell phone camera pic.
Pretty straight forward. The yellow slope things were cool because they were just the right angle for his "neck plates". Too bad there's a gap in his neck because of them. Also, the mast is too short. I put it in front of my Wind Waker painting for reference :)





Mark II (below):
On the rebuild, I changed the yellow neck parts, so it's now seamless. I also gave him eyes, and fixed his horns, so they're not growing out of his sideburns. The mast has been raised, and I added a cannon under the mast. There are actually two turrets under the mast, one for the mast, and one for the cannon, so they move independently of each other, which is one of my favorite things about the model.

So that's a long description for a relatively simple creation, but I haven't posted anything on here in a while, so I figured I should make up for it. Now that I started building the Lego of Zelda, I'm sure I'll post more models in the near future.
I hope this has inspired you somehow :)

Cliff Blezinski - Gaming Master

Nostalgia just got thrown in to my face when I read this RT from @therealcliffyb

"...Hey how did you ever get that sick high score in Mario when you were 13?" Because I was a gaming MASTER? ;)"

Apparently not only is he renowned for his work with Epic Games and Gears of War, he was also an NES master as well. I'll have to go digging through my old Nintendo Power magazines to see if I can find this issue. Heck, maybe if he is at PAX Prime 2011, I'll even have him sign the thing!

Credit to @micro23 for the picture via twitter

~~Disc07

Kinect-Enabled Ads coming to Xbox

Microsoft today announced a project that they are calling: Natural User Interface Ads (or NuAds).

This is a project that Microsoft is going to implement next year that will allow users to interface in unique ways with the advertising that Microsoft throws at them.

Microsoft showed off five NuAd scenarios, but the possibilities are endless. Here's a list of what they demoed:

 1. When a user says "Xbox tweet," he or she can immediately tweet something about the brand.

2. Saying "Xbox More" lets users request additional information or a coupon to be emailed to them.

3. Saying "Xbox Near Me" pulls up a Bing map that locates the nearest retailer, and sends the user a text message with the location.

4. Saying "Xbox Schedule" sends the user a calender reminder about an upcoming show.

5. When prompted to vote at the end of an ad, the user can wave his or her hand to give feedback.

Here is a video that Microsoft posted to YouTube today to explain it:



This could be a very interesting way for Microsoft to show off Kinect and its interest in social networking.

You may have also noticed that this was all demoed on the new Xbox Live UI.

This feature is expected to begin to be implemented in Spring 2012.

I'd also like to give a shootout to the guys over at G4 for this story.

That is all. Carry On!

Cooperatively Playing Games with Parents. How did it affect you? A new study may have the answers.

Call me a nerd, but there is nothing I enjoy more than researching what I love on the internet. It's pretty rare when I stumble across an accredited peer-reviewed article about gaming, but when I do, I always find it a fantastic read. I guess there has been a method to these years of college under my belt after all. This is a little something out of the ordinary for a blog, or even a gaming news site, but I will try my best to make it as interesting as possible for all audiences.



A study has come out of Brigham Young showing a positive relationship between families that game together. Particularly (and @Assassionista you will love this) between the parent and daughter. Their research asked approximately 300 families simple questions about how they interact with video games as a family, the age-appropriateness of the games they play together, and how much time is spent playing these games.

It was found that about half of the children played games alongside their parents, and these levels were associated with larger amounts of parent-child connectedness when it game to girls playing age-appropriate games. However, when it came to playing age-inappropriate game (eg. Grand Theft Auto, Duke Nukem, etc.) the sense of reality between parents and offspring faded since it was almost as if games (and the actions therein) were looked upon as being positive.

When playing appropriate games with their children parents show that they are willing to enjoy and engage in an activity that their daughter also enjoys, tightening the bond and quality parent-time between them. Girls that were studied also exhibited a lower level of stress, anxiety, and aggression when co-playing games with their parents.

What do you guys think? Did you ever play games with your parents or siblings when you were younger? And how did you turn out? Was it always a positive experience for you?

This article really got me thinking about how our parents (and video games) really have an effect on how we grow and learn about the world as an adolescent. Most of my childhood I grew up playing games locked away in my bedroom. I can remember weeks of playing Super Mario RPG on the SNES and having a total lack of social interactiveness during that time, but whenever I would play games such as Mario Kart or Goldeneye with my mother, we would have one heck of a bonding experience.

If you want to read the aforementioned article you can do so here. Until Later.

~~Disc07

Green Lantern Review

I thought that I'd contribute to our big comeback by writing a review about the new movie Green Lantern.

In brightest day, in blackest night,

No evil shall escape my sight

Let those who worship evil's might,

Beware my power... Green Lantern's light!

-Green Lantern Oath

This movie released on Friday. It is follows the origin story of the first human to be selected to join the a group of inter-galactic peace keepers known as the Green Lantern Corps, Hal Jordan. Hal Jordan is a fighter pilot who is charged with saving our sector of the galaxy.

 

I saw this movie in 3D. It is yet another movie that I felt didn't benefit from 3D. Another trend I am starting to notice about 3D movies is that they seem to be a lot darker in 3D then they are in 2D. This is a trend I don't like. Especially since I feel like the Green Lantern would have significantly benefited from having a little brighter outlook. 

As far as the story goes I found that many of the various Green Lanterns that were featured were great deep characters. The story I felt was a little underwhelming, but I felt that Ryan Reynolds was great in this role. One of the things I've heard people complain about is the fact that Ryan Reynolds is all CG when he's in the suit, but it makes good sense in the movie. I won't spoil it, but don't get caught up on it, but it will make sense if you see it.

Many critics have been harsh to this movie, but I felt that it was a good fun movie to go to. I would recommend this movie. It was definitely on par with the other superhero movies that I've seen so far this year.

Welcome back! And keep checking back for more!

That is all. Carry On!

-Spieg89

Use Kinect to Control Master Chief?

Earlier today, It was announced that the Kinect was indeed going to be used to enhance 343's remake of the classic: Halo: Combat Evolved, slated for release November 15th. But what will this Kinect augmentation be used for within the game? Neither 343 Studios nor Microsoft have released any details on how the motion sensing and voice controlling will be implemented within the game; we have already seen positive feedback of what the Kinect in capable of with apps such as Netflix and Hulu Plus, but how will this technology, which seems perfect for these applications be transitioned to a fast-paced action-adventure such as Halo?

At this years E3 we saw some implication of the microphone of the Kinect with squad-based controls in the upcoming Mass Effect 3 game and the newly released Kinect Fun Labs have shown full execution of the 3D-imaging capable of the accessory. And we even heard an announcement of a release of Minecraft by 4J Studios (the same group that ported the classic Banjo Kazooie and Banjo Tooie to XBLA) that would plot you chopping wood, mining gold, and killing innocent livestock with your bare hands all while controlling your pixelated character around the world.

All in all, the Kinect is a very young peripheral, and although the Wii has had the motion-sensing market for much longer than the Xbox, I can see the Kinect taking their technology much further than anything that Nintendo can conjure up. But is Halo really the right place to be marketing these Kinect features? Will the Kinect respond quickly enough to the fast-paced action that we tend to see throughout the franchise? If done correctly it would be awesome, but if not, it just might not be enough to persuade the hardcore gamer to the new motion sensing technology, at least for games such as this.

Microsoft followed up their announcement later with this statement:

"It's no surprise we're exploring ways Kinect can enhance game experiences in authentic and meaningful ways. The Kinect features we're exploring with 'Halo: Anniversary' are additive and will not affect the core gameplay experience or alter our mission of delivering a faithful recreation of the original game. That said we have nothing else to share just yet."

~~Disc07

Mario Marathon 4: A Unique Child's Play Experience

In 2003, the guys over at Penny Arcade (the geniuses behind the Penny Arcade Webcomic and the biannual PAX Gaming Expo) set up a vision to expand their civic engagement to not only help make the world a better place, but to also help the world realize the positive impact that the gaming industry can have. Henceforth came the Child's Play Charity; a "community-based" organization that has partnered with over 70 different hospitals across the globe to donate money, toys, books, and most importantly, video games, to sick children. Thus far, according to www.childsplaycharity.org, partners have donated over 2.3 million dollars to help the cause.

Through the years, there have been many different ways to donate to the charity: Making text donations, donating at various expositions or through their online site, holiday gaming auctions, and most recently the first annual golf tournament in Pasadena, California. One unique way that Penny Arcade acquires donations for Child's Play is through events such as Rupeethon, and Mario Marathon.

Rupeethon is now going on their second year, while Mario Marathon is on it's fourth and slated for June 24th. What these two events are, are live online webcasts that gather donations while gamers, including celebrities, go on to finish every Mario and Zelda game in one sitting. Four guys, no showers, only the occasional bathroom break, irregular meal breaks, and lack of sleep for says all for the sake of charity. As many of us are hardcore gamers, this seems like a cinch right? Well this is not totally the case. The more donations that are gathered, the further these guys go on in the series. So, it is up to us to donate and watch them move on in the games we all grew up to love for these last 25 years.

So far, Mario Marathon 4 has gathered more than $8k dollars in donations with still four days until the live event. For those of whom that would like to donate to the cause, I have included a donation widget to the right where you can directly donate to the Mario Marathon event, and track how much Wired Gamers has helped to donate to Child's Play as a whole.

You may also stream the live event, starting Friday, June 24th @ 11am PST on Wired Gamers in the embedded video at the top of the page. Thanks for tuning in and donating to the cause!

~~Disc07

For more information about Child's Play and Mario Marathon, check out the links below:

http://www.mariomarathon.com/
http://www.childsplaycharity.org/
PATV Child's Play Episode