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What I'm Working On - Boss Keys
🕑 Added 2016-06-05 20:03:00 +0000 UTC Hi everyone! First things first: I'm 1 off of 500 Patrons. Holy Shibuya, you guys. I don't even know what to say. Any cool ideas for stuff I / we could do to celebrate? Please drop them in the comments.Anyway.
A video I've wanted to make for a long time is an episode about the dungeon design in The Legend of Zelda series.
I love these things. They're these self-contained mazes, filled with puzzles and enemies. They're non-linear, forcing you to think about how you'll navigate their twisting corridors. And the very best ones are like massive great puzzles in of themselves, where you have to manipulate, and carefully navigate the dungeon to find the treasure.
They also have great architecture and their own, unique atmosphere. Sometimes they have clever gameplay mechanics that get explored throughout the dungeon. And they're topped off with a great puzzle-like boss fight that tests you on the item you just found.
So I want to talk about how Zelda's dungeons work. How they're constructed so they give you freedom to explore, but also guide you through the maze. How mind-bending puzzle dungeons like the Water Temple tick. And how Nintendo's design philosophy has changed over the years.
But to do it properly, I need to revisit a whole bunch of Zelda games and that would require literally hundreds of hours of research, just for one video. That's crazy, even by my standards.
So I thought perhaps a more interesting way to tackle it would be to document my journey through all the games and put the findings up on the YouTube channel as I go.
(They just need a name to differentiate them from GMT. I'm thinking Boss Keys - what do you reckon? Like the logo?)
Each game (I'm not sure exactly which games I'll tackle - will likely skip some of the handheld ones) will get a video with my thoughts and findings on every dungeon.
If you're are interested they can follow along, but if you'd like something a bit more bite size you can wait for me to finish and put together the actual episode of the show some time later this year.
So I had played and took notes on the whole of Ocarina of Time - but then decided I should start with the 2D games and have now finished and taken notes on Link to the Past. That will be the first video, sometime later this month.
I won't be charging for these videos (as always - it's a max of 2 episodes of Game Maker's Toolkit a month/ A normal episode, probably on Downwell, will also arrive in June) but your generous support of course makes this sort of bonus stuff possible.
Lemme know what you think!
Comments
Björn Kaidel
Great idea and video, looking forward to the rest!
Game Maker's Toolkit
Two early names were "Dungeons in Details" or "Dungeons by Design", but I already have a video series with a mouthful of a name that no one can remember exactly (game maker's studio, game designer's toolkit, game maker's tool shed) so I wanted to try something more... abstract. Other games I could potentially tackle if people like the series are Metroid, Souls, Resident Evil, and... I dunno!
Sounds awesome! What other titles do you have in mind for the series? I think Boss Keys is a fantastic title for focusing on the Zelda series. Struggling to think of a name that's less tied to the Zelda series, but equally cool. Maybe just explicitly throw in the word 'dungeon'? Feel like that word is pretty widely known in games to mean area-with-floors-and-rooms-and-puzzles-and-exploration-and-baddies-with-boss-at-the-end, but something like Dungeon Keys sounds too obvious. Keep up the great work! :)
I would love to watch that, I've always found the design of Zelda dungeons fascinating. You could do a longer series analyzing game by game and then maybe one on Game Maker's Toolkit with the most interesting highlights.
THAT LOGO. Very creative!
The Legend of Zelda is my favorite game series. I'd love to see videos on its dungeon design. I'm thinking the key games would be LoZ, aLttP, OoT, MM, and Phantom Hourglass (recurring central dungeon). I think you should also compare LoZ and Oracle of Seasons since OoS was originally going to be a remake of the first LoZ.
Pabloo
Wonderful Mark, I just become patreon a few days ago and I just want to thank you for you work. This new idea about dungeons on TLOZ games sounds fantastic to me ! Waiting for it !
Matt Hauke
Clever logo, Mark. You seem to have an eye for graphic design.
That sounds great!
Dave Hoffman
YES.
Robin Lasne
I'd love to see another format, this series seems to be the perfect way to do it (plus, the logo's great) To celebrate the 500 cap, what about some online game matches with your fans ?
Game Maker's Toolkit
Yeah, could definitely see myself doing something like Dark Souls, Metroid, or Tomb Raider in the same vein if popular
Harrison Dempsey
I think the name is fitting given it's an iconic component to their dungeon design. It's easily learnable too, so even if people don't immediately get it, 10 seconds of intro could make it clear anyway. I'm super interested to see what you come up with :)
Game Maker's Toolkit
Yeah, I'm not looking forward to replaying Skyward Sword but it's one I'll definitely have to hit
Game Maker's Toolkit
The boss key is the key to the boss's door! A very important part of every dungeon :D
Game Maker's Toolkit
I have! Yes, I'm going to have to be careful not to retread his old ground. Luckily he doesn't focus much on the dungeons and I will be going in more depth on that specific part
Game Maker's Toolkit
Not a Let's Play. More like mini analyses of each dungeon.
Vivian of Ultimate Evil
Boss Keys sounds like a great series, and seems like it could easily include other games with similar "dungeons".
Gordon Freischlad
I'd love to hear from you about Zelda games as long as the regular videos don't suffer but it seems like you've got that covered. I like the boss key design but it seems less related to the theme of the videos than, say, Dungeon Map. Definitely wouldn't be a buzzkill or anything to have it be Boss key though. Have you seen Matthewmatosis' videos on the 3d Zelda games? Very cool(and long) series
Game Maker's Toolkit
I did, yes! It's slightly different from my approach but had lots of helpful stuff in there. A great GDC talk. And two things: the videos are completely additional, won't affect the main stuff which will be on a variety of games. And if they're well received the series could also continue on to other franchises with good level design like Metroid and Souls. We'll see!
Gabriel Henrique Dalposso
I don't know how I feel about a series of videos on one franchise only. It makes sense like you said, but yeah, idk. About the video on Downwell, did you see the GDC Vault's video on the creation of the game? I think it explains most of the sources of the ideas for the game...
Alex Bradley
I love this idea, and the logo is awesome. Make sure to play through Skyward Sword, if just for how absolutely perfect the Sky Keep is with its sliding puzzles and revisiting all the past worlds and enemies. One of my favorite dungeons in the whole series, along with Twilight Princess' Snowpeak Ruins
Is a boss key a thing? If it is go with it. If not, erm, maybe. The logo is certainly awesome. 'Legendary something' is what immediately came to mind. Legendary Dungeons? I dunno. On the 500 patreons front, maybe a Playlist of favourite games beginning with D (not sure whether I should point out I'm talking about Roman Numerals or not, but I've typed it now so it stays)?
Sounds great! I would reevaluate the name though, at least for me it immediately kindled association to Cliffy B's studio Boss Key. I like the logo though.
Fermenter Games
Heck yes. I'm in. I'd love to see some of the research work and thoughts that go into GMT. That logo is boss, too. Fits your aesthetic, but is different enough from GMT. (Perhaps the vertical gap between "BOSS" and "KEYS" is a bit big. I understand needing that gap for the key rod part, but it's just slightly uncomfortable. Not sure how I'd fix it though.) Thanks for makin, man!
