The Legend of Zelda is an endless saga. The hero, his weapons, monsters everywhere, terrain obstacles... Would you like to make a game like that? Most of those who answer yes tend to lean toward solutions like RPG Maker, but if you want something much more aligned with the spirit of Zelda, then you need to download a copy of the Solarus engine, which is open source and completely free.
The Zelda franchise is one of my great pending subjects. I suppose that at some point I will start playing it from the beginning, and if the information published in the book “Hyrule Historia” is accurate... let's say I have my hands full. A detail to highlight about The Legend of Zelda is that it didn't hesitate to adopt different visual styles, whether 2D, 3D, cel shading, or a combination of all. However, those of us with some years on our shoulders fondly remember the 2D Zelda games.
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Now, what if you could create your own game with a similar essence? A small hero against a gigantic two-dimensional world, full of threats, items, and royal damsels to rescue.
The first thing you need is an engine, and that's where Solarus comes in. Programmed in C++, Solarus is a creation of Christopo, a fan of the Zelda series like few others, who basically got bored with the natural limitations of RPG Maker. Solarus comes with a quest editor with a good number of open source resources, including sprites and sounds. The development engine works under Windows, macOS, Linux, BSD and with Android support on the horizon.
The flexibility of Lua allows for much deeper control in development, and the official Solarus page offers a complete tutorial, which honestly takes a while to absorb. There are several videos and some exceed half an hour, but with enough patience you'll end up creating fabulous titles.
If you prefer to explore other finished projects before starting to create your own, you're in luck. Christopo and his team developed four Zelda-inspired fan-games that have been online for several years despite using original Nintendo resources.
In the site's game library, you can also choose from several creations by other developers, many of which are quite good. Even if the Japanese giant fires its nuclear missiles, both Solarus and the quest editor will stay afloat. The last engine update is very recent, from April 6, 2021. Don't miss trying it!
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