Howdy, r/NintendoSwitch!

I'm desertcucco, the developer of Isle of Reveries, a new Zelda-inspired adventure that just released for Nintendo Switch and Steam. I'm here to answer any questions about Isle of Reveries, getting into game design, and so on!

Trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1nexSsl-bY

I started development on it a few years ago, and got a Kickstarter campaign funded last year. It's been getting a lot of camparisons to games like The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages and Mina the Hollower (visually for the latter, at least -- this game is much more puzzle/exploration driven!). There's a demo available to play on Steam.

Here's a review from Solo Wing Fury: https://youtu.be/vorgwJfs7lw?si=lOLXxciQTh25zXhl

About Isle of Reveries

Take control of an owl named Lief as they make a pilgrimage skybound to the forsaken Isle of Reveries, where it's said that any wish can be granted. Players will fight through six mysterious dungeons, each with their own unique themes and puzzles, and meet charming anthropomorphic characters along the way in this Zelda-inspired adventure.

Use your fairy companion’s magic to duplicate and spawn a variety of objects in the world, and discover how they interact with your robust set of items to solve head-scratching puzzles.

Links

Isle of Reveries on Switch: https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/isle-of-reveries-switch/

Isle of Reveries on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3100970/Isle\_of\_Reveries/

UPDATE: I've gotta hop off now, thanks for the questions everyone!

Thanks for doing an AMA today!

How do you evaluate a good puzzle, or what's something you always try to keep in mind when designing one?

How hard is it to avoid puzzles that are unsolvable without a pile of clues needed?

Hi! Congrats! That's a great achievement. Just a silly curiosity of mine: how many hours would you say you've put into this project? How was your day-to-day work routine?

I think one fun way to avoid having too many clues at once is to use earlier puzzles as a training ground for part of a more complex puzzle. The clue is something the player's already solved, and hopefully logged in their brain for later. I do this a lot in IoR with all the mini-interactions and things you can copy and spawn.

It's sometimes hard because you know the solution yourself, so something that might not be clear to someone else is clear to you. But puzzle solving is a skill, and not everyone is on the same level with it. It's important to have people whose taste you respect to playtest for you. And at least one friend that plays videogames but isn't great, because they'll go around wrecking puzzles for you!

God, I have no idea. I had a nice work from home job before getting laid off a few months ago, so I was able to get a lot done while multitasking. I probably worked on it almost every day for 2.5 years. It's insane how much time it takes to make a game.

Your level design is really really good, dungeons have verticality and shortcuts and are like a maze but without being too confusing. How do you approach level design, what is your exact process?

Thank you! I watched all of GMTK's Boss Keys videos, specifically about how Zelda dungeons are designed. He has a really useful dungeon progression chart system, so I designed the dungeons that way instead of drawing them. Mapping the layout becomes a lot easier that way. Then of course I wanted each dungeon to have its own gimmick that's essentially a big lock & key system that doesn't look like a lock & key.

https://www.youtube.com/show/VLPLIHWeJc\_MLQ8?sbp=KgtsN3hYVzBFYks0Z0AB

Which limitations of original GBC hardware did you (largely) adhere to, which did you deliberately break, and why?

My art guy https://x.com/CiscoRaglandJr did the art for this. We kept it at 4 colors per 8px, with some exceptions for when an actual GB game would use multiple sprites to increase the number of colors. The GB also has this requirement for a set number of unique patterns it allows in a layout, that one was broken just to have a more varied-looking game. I think what people most remember about the GB is the limit on the number of colors you can use.

Hello congrats on console release! What was something you wished you could have included in the game but didn’t have time or for other reasons. Also what’s your favorite 2D Zelda?

Favorite 2D Zelda: Link's Awakening.

Orinally I wanted to do a co-op mode like Four Swords. The game ended up releasing with two co-op stages for that, but... I honestly ran out of ideas by the time I got there. It's something I'd like to return to in the future. But I was able to do everything I wanted to do with the main quest, which ended up being part of the problem for the co-op