Legend of Zelda Maker Fan Project is Currently in Development

Well, it will be Zelda's 30th anniversary soon. Maybe Nintendo will come up with their own version.

Somehow I know this comment section won't be pleasant.
I do hope for a Zelda Maker someday... I still have to play Mario Maker, though.

There's already an unofficial Zelda Maker that has been around for years. Zelda Classic. http://www.zeldaclassic.com/

This looks great! I wish Nintendo tried to do something like this. With the engine of A Link Between Worlds, it would be nice for top down Zelda games interfaces to be available. Not as hard as they said in some interviews, I think.

Looks fun.

Hello lawsuit, goodbye dreams...

Hahahahaha. They were taking videos down of custom made mario stuff. This has no chance (and would be crap anyway)

@brianvgplayer You just completed my life with this!

Let's see how long this stays alive before Nintendo strikes it down. Sigh. Why do people even bother?

As long as the don't charge any money for the game they should be alright,I think.

@NandN3ds That hasn't stopped Nintendo before.

Even if trademarks were not in the form of 'Defend or Die'...
...recall how Tecmo wanted Hyrule Warriors to be more true to the original games, but Sigeru 'flipped the tea table'.

inb4 C&D comes.

Zelda Classic from Armageddon Games was really quite powerful and great fun. Nintendo probably wouldn't make (too) much money from an official version, but it would be interesting to see their take on it.

Well, that's another great idea up for the legal chopping block. When Valve tried to make mods that you had to buy people flipped but when Nintendo strikes down the creativity of their fans nothing happens.

Looks pretty nice, makes me wonder what it would look like that that famous Nintendo polish.

I dont see how this will get a C&D letter since Zelda Classic has been around for years. As long as you don't sell it, they arent losing out on any revenue.

@Trikeboy People REALLY need to stop bringing up this "as long as you aren't making money off of it" fallacy.
That has LONG been debunked as a complete and utter myth. Companies do not care in the slightest if something is non-profit or not. They still feel it is a threat to their IP, and will still shut it down without malice if and when they find out about it. This happens often, nearly all the time, and all projects such as this are considered to be appropriating and damaging to the Nintendo IP, and they won't hesitate to kill it. If they didn't destroy "Zelda Classic" it's almost 100% positive it is because they do not know about it, or hasn't warranted enough attention to put it into their sights.

*and will shut it down without notice.
Not "malice". That was a typo.

wait, sorry I meant "WITH malice". Sorry. Whatever,

Zelda is a much more complex game than Mario, so it'll be very tricky to produce a good Zelda maker. This looks decent so far for a fan effort.

Just scrap the Zelda stuff, use all original material, and SELL IT. Call it Master Quest Maker or something. Id buy that on Wii U or 3DS. Seriously.

Almost reminds me of Adventures of Lolo but looking way better

I've had a (poorly made) web based demo of a Zelda themed game that uses actual link sprites for 4 years now, and I've never received a dmca. I haven't finished it yet, but that proof of concept demo is still up.

I'll buy whatever platform this game comes for... New wii u, new new 3ds, nx, nxy, nxyz... Even if it comes on ps5 or xboxtwo. Day one purchase!

I was also thinking about a Zelda Maker but personally, I'd prefer it to be about creating dungeons and 2D/Top-Down-Zelda only. You could start out with a sword and shield, get all the stuff you need/may need in the dungeon by exploring and collect all three Triforce Pieces/ find the Triforce to clear the dungeon. It could even feature Heart Pieces so by collecting these, you permanently gain one more heart (like in forever, across multiple dungeons). You should be able to spend your earned rupees, too. Like buy new material so you actually have an incentive to play other people's dungeons.

I hope Nintendo takes notes before sending in the C&D letter. Both the Wii U Gamepad and the Nintendo 3DS touch screen would make this sort of RPG maker GUI quite viable, but now it is just a question if they will do it. Would not mind to have 16 bit "LTTP" style tiles to mess around with.

Even if they do get a cease and desist letter, all they have to do is drop the Zelda name and get new sprites. There are plenty of free sprites out there to use. At that point it is just an adventure game maker.

So how are you gonna make a game like Ocarina of Time and the Adventure of Link with this?

@inverse You do know about the edit button, right

Nintendo usually ignores fan projects. Why is this one any different?

I never understood really the appeal to this, without the actual game progression, it is just a dungeon with random enemies in it. It will never be to the point where Mario Maker is at and it just won't have the same charm. With this, people would make 1-3 dungeons and then stop probably and get bored of it very fast.

Very cool for what it is, although still very rough and clunky (especially just moving around and playing in the world—at least on my machine), but an official Nintendo version of something like this could be very special indeed.

I hope Nintendo sees this and thinks "Yeah, we really should just go for it. Especially considered how popular and loved Super Mario Maker seems to be."

Also, a Metroid (NES/SNES) version of the same kind of thing would be awesome too.

Because it is so hard to make your own game...

@MarkyVigoroth I don't think it would've made sense for Hyrule Warriors to be more Zelda-like, though; I don't know, maybe they could've thrown some puzzles in there, or something?

Zelda classic has been a thing for quite some time now.

It's been forever since I used that, it was my 1st game making program I ever used. Too bad I don't have any of the stupid stuff I made with it anymore, I would probably get a good laugh from that.

If they do rename it as Legend Maker then they'd be very bright to bring this to the eshop, people would love it even without the Zelda aesthetic

@Mus1cLov3r The opposite would have been true; keep the focus on arcade-RPG action the same way that the NES/SNES/GB/GBC games were. Puzzles were normally no part in the early games. That is also the way a Zelda Maker wold be feasible; no puzzles, just arcade-RPG action in dungeons.

@brianvgplayer
I tried to make Zelda games with that back in 2006.

I think a Zelda Maker is very doable. They could do it like they did in ALTTP where the overworld was one map and all caves and dungeons were on a second map, just like Mario Maker is. NPC's could have properties and dialogue all ready in place, so for example you could have A. Basic NPC, says nothing important. B. Tip relating to item, place item on Basic NPC to have them say something relevant. C. Fetch NPC, NPC's that will either direct you to another NPC in the quest for an item or give you the item themselves if they were placed last. So on an so forth, you could also allow an option to customize dialogue but knowing Nintendo that would never be uploadable. The problem is a Zelda Maker, not a Zelda dungeon maker, would be a game for making a full game not individual courses. Having enough diversity between potential player courses to allow users to make them interesting enough to get any kind of commitment from people to play them may be difficult.

@brianvgplayer I was just gonna link that. So much fun.

I'm not to sure about Zelda Maker.....maybe a general Nintendo RPG Maker would work better. Offer Turn based or action RPG modes. Have a list of standard Nintendo Characters and maybe extended basic RPG enemies. Allow custom overworld maps and dungeons. Still how would you seperate good from bad even if most only took a few hours to complete it still requires way more dedicated time then 1 mario level.

@TomJ Nintendo make investment everyday dude, a game they make / sell could either make or break their business just like that and every game / project has a deadline. Fans don't have to worry about projects they make cuz they had all the free times in the world to make them. The only reason why this fan project could get hit is if they make it and profit off of it, if they made it, dropped the copyright, and sell it as their own then it's good on their part. Remember not many fan project got through cause they don't follow this procedure and the few that does it became indie dev, those who became indie dev usually had their first project done 2-5 years after their Kickstarter or Indiegogo goal had been funded.

Some indie devs only made one project in their lifetime (ex: Minecraft) cuz they don't want to deal with deadlines, some took the money and run (like Phil Fish creator Fez), and the few who continue to make project had to deal with deadlines on future project so to not disappoint fans, this is one of the reason some indie devs went on to sign deal with bigger dev and publishers so they could meet their deadlines faster without having to continue asking for free money. When you make success out of something, then you have yourself a business so you either had to run with it and constantly bringing out new ideas (yeah no free time for you) or short-lived that success and just had someone else runs it like Minecraft.

@Kirk
Metroid Maker and Zelda Maker. I'd never leave the house.

@Robotron2084
Certainly you bring up valid challenges to overcome.
Initial thoughts:
There are a limited number of items in Zelda games and part of the construction of your level (or section of overworld) could be based on the combination of items you have at the start.
So... your section would have a list of required items/abilities and the one thing that you can earn by finishing it.
Now, when you play you can choose easy/short quest or full-length quests created from many sections chosen randomly that fit precisely into requirements and rewards.
It could even be a somewhat guided where the servers keep track of underused combinations and you can (or are forced to) get predefined requirements and rewards and maybe even environments to build from.

This way the procedural generator of games can always have many options.

A few people would also make complete games out of this, but the randomly generated games could get very interesting I think and the procedurally arranged requirements/rewards/environments could make for some fun level design challenges.

The same approach could apply to Metroid games.

This video makes me wish that other companies started making "Maker games" for their franchises. I mean, that would help the industry greatly by inspiring kids to become game designers.

@MrMario02 There are maker games (RPG Maker, Fighting Game Maker, Simulation Maker, etc.) out there, but you just had to create them with your own imagination or ideas. Can't use other people's IP to profit yourself.

@crimsontadpoles Depends really,

Take for instance, the first Zelda game is coded in a way that there's an asset of different rooms. IIRC something like 15 or so in total.

The dungeons are made from an unique arrangement of those 15 rooms possible, just with different enemies and locked doors.

Dunno how is ALTTP, but the game has an editor and they are some finished hacks.

People who look at this and say, 'Why would I play a Zelda dungeon without an overarching Zelda story?' are exactly what's wrong with Zelda and Nintendo in general.

The Legend of Zelda was originally a dungeon maker.

Since Nintendo doesn't give a damn about fan input, why not let fans make the games for them if they have the skills to do so?

Maybe Nintendo would be smart and hire you to make an official Zelda Maker.

Unlikely, but it's a nice thought.

Would it be possible to link the world/dungeons you make though?

@Dezzy Said the fanboy

as long as they don't release this online they are safe