Legend Maker | |
---|---|
Developer(s) | Justin Sink |
Series | The Legend of Zelda (unofficial) |
Engine | GameMaker |
Platform(s) | Windows |
Genre(s) | Action-adventure, level editor |
Mode(s) | Single-player |
Legend Maker, formerly known as Zelda Maker, is an indie video game developed by Justin Sink. Inspired by Super Mario Maker , it allows players to create their own top-down adventure games in a similar graphical and gameplay style to early games in Nintendo's Legend of Zelda series. A first demo of the game was released in 2015, but was subject to a cease and desist and copyright takedown from Nintendo, despite positive feedback from critics and fans. The game was then rebooted with similar, yet original art assets as Legend Maker so as not to infringe on Nintendo's copyrights. While a 2016 Kickstarter campaign failed, the game remains in development as of 2024.
Creation of Legend Maker began in 2015, when Nintendo stated that it would be too difficult to create an official game in the vein of Super Mario Maker , but for Zelda . Hobbyist developer Justin Sink took it as a challenge and began creating a GameMaker game that would let fans make Zelda levels, in the hopes that Nintendo would realize it was not as hard as they believed. The game then went viral, showing that fans were interested in such a concept. However, videos of the game, as well as the prototype's download, were taken down as copyright infringement. Sink was aware of Nintendo's reputation for cracking down on fan works, and had been prepared for the situation, setting out to create a new engine and artwork in order to relaunch the game as Legend Maker. Despite this, a lack of development skill caused the game to enter development hell. He eventually used the game to create a different, standalone game, Runiya, setting up a Patreon for it. [1] [2] [3]
In its original incarnation as Zelda Maker, the game was positively received. Mark Serrels of Kotaku Australia called it "pretty cool", but stated that he was not sure the game would have the same impact as Super Mario Maker if it existed as an official product, due to the effort involved to create an entire Zelda world. [4] Meanwhile, Emanuel Maiberg of Vice said that the game made a "strong case" for the existence of an official Zelda Maker, noting that, like Super Mario Bros. , it was 2D with a clear design language. [5] Mitch Vogel of Nintendo Life said that the game was "rather impressive", despite still being in an early stage of development, [6] while Ben Reeves of Game Informer called it a "fun little project". [7]
In a later article highlighting the game's Kickstarter campaign, Thomas Whitehead of Nintendo Life called it "interesting", saying that such a game was desired by many fans. [8]
Shigeru Miyamoto is a Japanese video game designer, producer and game director at Nintendo, where he serves as one of its representative directors as an executive since 2002. Widely regarded as one of the most accomplished and influential designers in video games, he is the creator of some of the most acclaimed and best-selling game franchises of all time, including Mario,The Legend of Zelda, Donkey Kong, Star Fox and Pikmin. More than 1 billion copies of games featuring franchises created by Miyamoto have been sold.
Super Mario 64 is a 1996 platform game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. It was released in Japan and North America in 1996 and PAL regions in 1997. It is the first Super Mario game to feature 3D gameplay, combining traditional Super Mario gameplay, visual style, and characters in a large open world. In the game, Bowser, the primary antagonist of the Super Mario franchise, invades Princess Peach's castle and hides the castle's sources of protection, the Power Stars, in many different worlds inside magical paintings. As Mario, the player collects Power Stars to unlock enough of Princess Peach's castle to get to Bowser and rescue Princess Peach.
Koji Kondo is a Japanese composer and pianist at the video game company Nintendo. He is best known for his contributions for the Super Mario and The Legend of Zelda series, with his Super Mario Bros. theme being the first piece of music from video game included in the American National Recording Registry. Kondo was hired by Nintendo in 1984 as their first dedicated composer and is currently a senior executive within their Entertainment Planning & Development division.
Princess Zelda is a character in Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda video game series. She was created by Shigeru Miyamoto for the original 1986 game The Legend of Zelda. As one of the central characters in the series, she has appeared in the majority of the games in various incarnations. Zelda is the elf-like Hylian princess of the kingdom of Hyrule, an associate of the series protagonist Link, and bearer of the Triforce of Wisdom.
Link is a character and the protagonist of Nintendo's video game franchise The Legend of Zelda. He was created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. Link was introduced as the hero of the original The Legend of Zelda video game in 1986 and has appeared in a total of 21 entries in the series, as well as a number of spin-offs. Common elements in the series include Link travelling through Hyrule whilst exploring dungeons, battling creatures, and solving puzzles until he eventually defeats the series' primary antagonist, Ganon, and saves Princess Zelda.
Ganon is a character and the main antagonist of Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda video game series and franchise, as well as the final boss in many Zelda titles. In his humanoid Gerudo form, he is known as Ganondorf. A massive and malevolent pig-like creature, Ganon first appeared in the original The Legend of Zelda game in 1986, while his alter ego, Ganondorf, was introduced in Ocarina of Time. He has since appeared in the majority of the games in the series in various forms. He is the archenemy of the protagonist Link and Princess Zelda of Hyrule and originally the leader of the Gerudo, a race of humanoid desert nomads before becoming the ruler of his demon army.
The Master Sword is a fictional divine magic sword in Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda series. It is also known as "The Blade of Evil's Bane", the "Sword of Resurrection", the "Sword that Seals the Darkness" and the "Sacred Sword". It was introduced in the 1991 action-adventure video game The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and has since appeared in most other games in the series.
Tingle is a recurring character in The Legend of Zelda series, designed by Takaya Imamura. He first appeared in Majora's Mask, where he is a map salesman who wants to become a fairy. He has since appeared in several installments, including The Wind Waker, where he provides maps to help Link find pieces of the Triforce. He has gone on to be the star of Freshly-Picked Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland, where his origin as Tingle is shown as him tasked with collecting as many Rupees as possible. He also appears in its sequel Irozuki Tingle no Koi no Balloon Trip, where he is transported into a storybook and has to enter into relationships with women in order to escape.
Retrogaming, also known as classic gaming and old school gaming, is the playing and collection of obsolete personal computers, consoles, and video games. Usually, retrogaming is based upon systems that are outmoded or discontinued, although ported retrogaming allows games to be played on modern hardware via ports or compilations. It is typically for nostalgia, preservation, or authenticity. A new game could be retro styled, such as an RPG with turn-based combat and pixel art in isometric camera perspective.
A fan game is a video game that is created by fans of a certain topic or IP. They are usually based on one, or in some cases several, video game entries or franchises. Many fan games attempt to clone or remake the original game's design, gameplay, and characters, but it is equally common for fans to develop a unique game using another as a template. Though the quality of fan games has always varied, recent advances in computer technology and in available tools, e.g. through open source software, have made creating high-quality games easier. Fan games can be seen as user-generated content, as part of the retrogaming phenomena, and as expression of the remix culture.
Super Mario Bros. Crossover is a fan-made crossover platform Flash video game launched on Newgrounds on April 27, 2010 by Exploding Rabbit. It is based mostly on the gameplay of Nintendo's Super Mario Bros. for the NES. The only major difference is the ability to control characters that debuted in other Nintendo Entertainment System games unrelated to the Mario series, plus the ability to use "skins" of levels and characters from other games and platforms. The latest version available (3.1.21) was released on December 27, 2013.
Narcissa Wright is an American speedrunner and co-founder of the website SpeedRunsLive, which allows speedrunners to race with one another in real time. She previously held the records for the fastest completion of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker on the GameCube, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on the iQue Player, Paper Mario on the Wii using Virtual Console, and Castlevania 64 on the Nintendo 64.
Super Mario Maker is a 2015 platform game and game creation system developed and published by Nintendo for the Wii U, released worldwide in September 2015. Players could create, play, and share courses online, free of charge, based on the styles of Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, and New Super Mario Bros. U. The game was revealed as the final challenge of Nintendo World Championships 2015.
Nintendo Entertainment Planning & Development Division, abbreviated Nintendo EPD, is the largest division within the Japanese video game company Nintendo. The division focuses on developing and producing video games, mobile apps, and other related entertainment software for the company. Nintendo EPD was established in September 2015 after merging their Entertainment Analysis & Development and Software Planning & Development divisions.
Full Screen Mario is a 2013 browser game created by American programmer Josh Goldberg. It is an unofficial remake of the 1985 game Super Mario Bros. and was built using HTML5.
Nintendo is one of the largest video game publishers in the world, producing both hardware and software. Since the release of the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985, the company has generally been proactive to assure its intellectual property in both hardware and software is legally protected. Nintendo's protection of its properties began as early as the arcade release of Donkey Kong which was widely cloned on other platforms, a practice common to the most popular arcade games of the era. Nintendo did seek legal action to try to stop release of these unauthorized clones, but estimated they still lost $100 million in potential sales to these clones. Nintendo also fought off a claim in 1983 by Universal Pictures that Donkey Kong was a derivative element of their King Kong in Universal City Studios, Inc. v. Nintendo Co., Ltd.; notably, Nintendo's lawyer, John Kirby, became the namesake of Kirby in honor of the successful defense.