Hello there!
My name is Guillaume, I'm a French developer and Computer Science student. I'd like to share some info about a fangame I contribute to.
The Legend of Zelda: Mystery of Solarus started off as a game made on RPG Maker 2000 by Christopho from 2001 to 2002. It came out on April 26th, 2002, and has been downloaded almost 400,000 times solely on theofficial site (we have mirrors on other big websites but no precise count, unfortunately). The game is set to be a direct sequel to "A Link to the Past" on the SNES, using the same graphics and game mechanisms. However, due to the nature of RPG Maker, the game, while a completely playable Action RPG with 9 dungeons, was still heavily flawed in many aspects.
]A spiritual sequel, Mercuri's Chest, was then scheduled, but we only made it to a first demo in 05- the project was abandoned shortly after.
Which leads us to April 2008, during which we announced the development of The Legend of Zelda: Mystery of Solarus DX (or ZSDX to be short). The game would be a remake of the original. The engine is written mainly in C++ (I can provide technical details if you wish, please let me know) to make up for the flaws of the original game, and is placed under the GPL.
We have a first demo that just came out that you can download here:
http://zelda-solarus.com/jeu-zsdx-demo&lang=en
Even though all our games are originally French, we have made an effort to provide ZSDX in English (I am the one in charge of the English adaptation), Spanish, German and Dutch- with possibly other languages to come.
This is just the first demo, including the game up to the end of the first dungeon. We have no definite release date planned, but things are moving on pretty fast, and we expect a full release sometime in late 2010 or early 2011.
Concerning resources, we use the original AlttP sprites and music, and some additional ones made by our own graphist and composer.
As far as using protected ressources for our game, we are fully aware that the elements we use are not in the public domain and protected by copyright laws. Our only intention is to promote the Zelda franchise by dedicating our skills to it, and we do not make any form of profit. Should Nintendo contact us with any demands we would cooperate promptly, however this has never been the case in almost 8 years.
I'd really appreciate it if you tested out the demo and, if you enjoy it, maybe talk a bit on your blog or website if you have one. We're amateurs, and the biggest reward we can get is people speaking of us.
Have fun!
English website
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