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A one-man indie is attempted to create a procedurally-generated RPG based on the original Legend of Zelda.
Called Songbringer, the game is being developed by Wizard Fu Games: the studio name of Nathanael Weiss. Weiss claims to have 20 years of games development experience, but this will be the first game he develops solo, handling everything from code to art and music.
The premise of Songbringer is that players enter a six-letter seed before they begin, which generates a random world packed with dungeons, enemies and hidden treasures. In a nod to the original Zelda, all quests start near with a cave in which players find a special sword.
Weiss also suggests that players will be able to repeat seeds in order to attempt speed runs in worlds they have already explored. The game will boast 308m possible overworlds.
Also harking back to the days of 8-bit RPGs, Songbringer does away with XP, experience levels and other typical role-playing tropes. Instead, progress is made by finding new items and weapons and defeating bosses.
“There’s something magical about how the original Zelda game felt so open and limitless, yet the overworld was entirely just a simple 16 x 8 screens,” Weiss writes on the game’s Kickstarter page. “It is this simplicity that is a constant beacon on the path to creating Songbringer.”
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