Ever since Nintendo came out with the marvellous Super Mario Maker and its immediate sequel, Nintendo fans have been frankly begging for something similar for the Legend of Zelda franchise.
Well, the unfortunate news is that we're probably not going to get anything Zelda-related anytime soon - beyond the experimental feature showcased in the Switch remake of Link's Awakening, anyway - but fear not, because developer Firechick is looking to bring something pretty similar to the Switch with Super Dungeon Maker.
We covered the title earlier this year, but the Kickstarter campaign for the Switch version has now officially gone live; with 28 days left to go, it's already roughly a third of the way to being fully funded, so we reckon this one is a near certainty. Estimated delivery on all pledges is April 2023.
Here are some key features from the Kickstarter page:
- Build your own dungeons easily in just few steps
- Cross-platform level sharing
- Channel mechanic makes it easy to "program" creative or complex dungeons
- Endless possibilities for puzzles
- Decorate your level as you like
- Play thousands of dungeons from the community
- Optimized for Joycons/Gamepad and mouse/keyboard
Pledges for the Kickstarter range from €5 all the way up to €1000+, with the top option giving you the opportunity to work directly with the game's artists to create your very own dungeon theme, so that's pretty cool if you have the cash to spare.
Do you like the look of Super Dungeon Maker? Reckon Nintendo will ever do a Zelda Maker? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
[source kickstarter.com]
Comments 17
Link's Awakening DX: "You're not getting a what now?"
Yay.... thousands of zelda dungeon copies...
Seriously though I'll probably get this and remake a few zelda dungeons too...
It will be interesting to see how big this one gets. Mario Maker is big enough that it has essentially become the ultimate 2D platformer title in my opinion. You have an endless supply not only of levels in general, but specific types of levels as well. No matter what kind of 2D platforming itch you have, Mario Maker says "here are more options than you'd ever hope to finish." It's certainly my favorite 2D Mario game ever, and I can't see anything surpassing it.
Will this do the same to top-down Zelda and Zelda-likes?
This looks amazing. There is definitely some epic puzzle potential too.
I like the looks of it.
Hah. "Dungeon Building". Nice pun.
(whispering to any indie devs who might be reading this) metroidvania maker
Now they just need to partner with Nintendo ala Cadence of Hyrule...
@naxuu I've heard Metroid Maker, but the whole genre of Metroidvania and its namesakes would be...
I mean, Samus fighting vampires?
Dracula fighting Metroids?
Yes, please.
I just backed this on kickstarter.
Thought about getting this via Steam but...eh, might wait for now. Seemed like it was kinda barebones and stuff, also would be nice to change the character so you're not a chicken...lol
I actually wouldn't mind an expanded version of Link's Awakening's dungeon editor.
Maybe something to consider for the Oracle of Ages/Seasons remake?
Why has there not been a Super Mario Maker 3D? Is a 3D one too hard to make?
Too much plagiarism for me. That's also why I detest Blossom Tales and quite a few other indie games.
hopefully you can use other characters besides that chicken LOL it looks great.
I ended up buying this for my Steam Deck (runs great, and handheld is ideal!) It's great fun and I could easily spend many hours playing dungeons from the community and making my own. It is somewhat barebones - all the Zelda dungeon essentials are there (Link to the Past seems to be the most heavily borrowed from-title, understandably), but it doesn't have the "embarrassment of riches with endless things to try out and be delighted by" feeling of the Mario Makers. I'm particularly disappointed by a lack of variety and amount of enemies. The controls are also not quite as tight and polished as a Zelda game, but that's to be expected given Nintendo has always been the reigning king at that stuff.
It's still "Early Access" though, for what it's worth. My understanding is that the developers are committed to making this title as great as can be, are listening to feedback from the community, and are committing to a roadmap for plentiful updates with added elements, themes, enemies, etc. I'm guessing they would be rewarded for this effort by many more people buying the title over time as cool new things get added.
This is probably pie-in-the-sky considering the current state of things to be improved on, but I would also greatly wish for the ability to have several dungeons strung together into a "world", or even make a huge fully-interconnected world. I understand that adding an overworld editor to the game would probably be too big of an effort for this release, but even if there's just a dungeon selection screen, how cool would it be if you could have your player move freely between 7 different dungeons you've created, all with different themes and challenges, as they gain skills and open up new places to explore gradually? Then you could really make your own interesting 4-5 hour Zelda-like experience.
There's also a certain kind of "dynamic" feeling to creating levels in Mario Maker that means you can make a level, and then be gob-smacked by the results when you play it yourself as different level elements play off each other in surprising ways. But there's not much like that here. They need to have spontaneously dynamic stuff happen in levels. For example, lighting a bat on fire with an arrow that's passed through a torch, and then the bat flapping around fast and lighting other things on fire as chaos breaks out would be cool as hell and give more than just a basic Zelda clone feeling. Or skeleton enemies hurling bones at you, but their bones can trigger switches, extinguish torches, or damage other enemies upon contact. You could set up a cool puzzle-boss fight where the player has to damage the boss by positioning it in the way of bones being thrown. There could be hundreds of little interactions like that. Different level elements need to be combinable and interact with one another for fluid and unexpected gameplay.
This ended up longer than I thought. Gonna paste it into a Steam review so maybe the devs read it, lol.
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