| Platforms | Windows |
| Years Active | 2005–2007 |
| Team size | 5 |
| My role | Designer |
| Engine & Tools I Used | Game Maker 7 Adobe Photoshop |
Development Log
My first major foray into game development was with The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Life, also known as Oracle of Life Online. This was a Zelda fan game that was also an online RPG. I worked on this between 2005 and 2006 alongside a small core team of approximately four others, all of whom came together at Zelda Fan Game Central. Our playerbase were other members of those forums.
Although the game borrowed Zelda’s art, characters and branding, Oracle of Life’s gameplay was quite far from the acclaimed action-adventure series. It actually shared more in common with a MMORPG, including features such as click-to-move, character progression, questlines, equipment, spellcasting, a party system and in-game text chat.
Due to the game’s online requirements and dependence on a private server, it is no longer available to play. The game’s project files are available to download here, however the executable files may be incompatible with modern operating systems.
Design
The bulk of my work on this project was designing the game’s maps. This involved sketching out plans for levels, importing tile sets curated by the game’s artists (based on A Link to the Past), and designing levels using an early version of Game Maker’s map editor. The maps themselves were designed around the game’s questlines and features, including an arena for players to practice fighting enemies and each other, towns for receiving quests, and various areas for completing those quests.
Please feel free to peruse some of the maps that I designed.
Credits
AoDC – Project Lead, Designer, Programmer
HoF (myself) – Designer, Mapper, Story
Yue – 2D Artist
Kren – 2D Artist
gm112 – Server, Development
Andrew Nardi – Game Designer 