I’m drained from the massive amount of E3 content I’ve watched. That combined with all this design work I’ve been doing makes me exhausted to say the least. E3 is typically my glimpse into the future to see the direction gaming is going. I always feel small after watching it, like I’m never going far enough to make it to that stage. I didn’t feel that way this year. I feel so strangely ambitious about this that I partly question whether I’m delusional.

Everyone is probably still gawking over the E3 media right now, but still, I’d like to talk about 3 different Es which are a detriment to direction my game is going in. To do that, I’d really like to go into the source of my inspiration for these elements, Zelda.

I’m truly CERTAIN you could never tell it, but Zelda has been a hallmark in my design when making the series. The closest game to probably relay it the most would probably be Samba of the Wolves. I remember playing Four Swords Adventures a lot during that time and while, once again, none of those elements are likely to be visible in the end product, I think the spirit of it is there in the level design. Speaking of which, I’m still just begging to a game where the DS connects to a console, I don’t even really care what I’m making I just wanna do it!

Anyhoo, the three key works which I like to tag Zelda for, exploration/ environments, equipment, and epic are what I feel is missing from the project. To an extent, it’s been on purpose as I’ve always said to myself  “This is just a demo, I’ll do it in the main version.” Unfortunately, if I don’t take things up a level, there won’t be a main version. What you’ll find in this game, are the missing pieces from the others.

Environments

I never got to tackle the free roaming nature of the series. The large world, strange characters, and surrounding events in the environment all seem so new from what I’ve presented. I can’t go full bloom this but  there will be free roaming points spread throughout the game akin to Zelda in-between temples but on a small scale. The beginning of Tandem Tales is probably my best example of this, but that was at best a watered down version of the concept.

Equipment

I’ve always like the idea of equipping items with functionality and knowing when to use those  tools later on. Unlike Link however, the logic based nature of the Felix series prevents Felix from holding a bunch of items at once. Yes, I’m taking my fantasy world a bit seriously but that’s the magic of it and it really only helps me think of new ways of how equipment can work. In short a “magic bag of tricks” is out of the question. Felix adopts mostly a “Macguyver” like spirit using various items scattered around the world for a brief period. Any specialized equipment like a jet pack or something is likely to be used at set durations of the game. I like the idea of slowly collecting equipment and using what you’ve learned to proceed; while I can’t do that directly, I can do it on a low level.

Epic

I’ve seen the word tossed around a lot, but The Legend of Zelda, Ocarina of the Time is the most epic game I’ve played to date. That sense of adventure is something missing from the many games today where you’re completely immersed in the experience. Being an Indie Game, it feels impossible to immerse a player in a game  2 hours or so in length. This won’t stop me from trying though. I’m not expecting some tale that will cause hoards of players flocking to the boards writing fan-fiction and trying to decrypt the world and the characters, but I want the core for something like that to be there. I want a story that makes you interested in what’s occurring. I want characters that are living and breathing not just pawns to help the story along. I want the deep dark despair of Lithodora to shower you in sorrow  in rain from a cold dead sky. Although gloomier than usual, I  just want a complete and immersing experience that finally shows off the story properly. At the heart of it all will still be the cheery helpful fox, and his glamorous yet scornful counterpart.

This isn’t some goal to repackage elements of a series I love, but rather to find those elements within my own series and present it in a unique way. In a way, my past plans are plans for the future.