[RMVX ACE] I'M MAKING A ZELDA GAME!

author=LightningLord2

author=Shoobinator
Write down all the reasons why the Legend of Zelda was good, and then use that as inspiration and a foundation for making your own original game. It doesn't even have to be a game of the same genre too.

If you're doing this more for coding practice, remake something simpler from scratch like Pong or Tetris.

If you still want to make a "fan game", don't call it Zelda, and don't go to extensive lengths to make it look exactly like the original Zelda either. If you go to all the trouble of coding the whole thing and adding worthwhile twists or game mechanics that live up to the original, would you still want it to look like it belongs to another developer (i.e. Nintendo)?

Edit: I don't mean to bash fan games. There are a lot of great ones. But to make a successful fan game, the developer has to truly know why the source material was so great in the first place.

If you are new to game development or haven't made games before, I would recommend to not start with a full-blown fan game and instead go for something smaller/simpler first. This will save you a lot of time in the future as you will learn a lot from the first project(s) you finish, knowledge/wisdom which you can then use to make something bigger!

Working out the good things is a good idea, but it's not enough - you'll end up with a just alright copy at best and a watered down knockoff at worst. What you also need is to write down what was bad about Legend of Zelda and figure how to make it better.

Also, practicing coding with LoZ is fine as long as he doesn't try to make the full overworld - 4 screens would be all that's needed to do a top-down adventure game.

Once you have a simple game out, go ahead and make the fangame - don't be afraid to make up a new mechanic, as Zelda games did this every time and it prevents your game from being more of the same.