It will just show the animation. (since it's implied which melody you're playing, depending on the crest you're standing on)

I think I'll have a message that indicates the harp is ineffective when you try to play it on a crest you haven't learned the respective song for. Maybe the message can hint that a different song is required.

Kaepora Gaebora (the owl that gives Link advice and tips in many games) makes a frequent appearance in the game, so he'll often inform you about the function of these crests the first time you step onto a screen where one appears.

Also - something totally random...



 

Currently, the way I (or Iambian, rather) handle transparency in my games is similar to how NES reserves one channel for masking. In this case, dark gray is always the mask; so sprites only consist of black and white, and light gray. Any dark gray in the sprite is just something that outlines the areas that need to be read as transparent. No need to draw duplicate sprites for masking. It was also decided that avoiding dark grays helps sprites stand-out from their environment. The sprites would appear somewhat brighter than BG objects.

As I mentioned, I already looked into the transparent HUD idea, but didn't get good results. The only way to really distinguish the hearts from the BG is to draw a white outline; but then that makes the hearts appear really awkward in the case of grayscale. I would also have to make them substantially smaller to fit them within an 8x8 space. This is why I decided on the reserved space for the HUD in the first place.

It's fairly easy to distinguish on some models, but less so on others. I just don't think it would work out. Plus, I already have a portion of the maps designed around the current HUD. I can't change it now without completely redesigning these maps.

I've finished Zora's Domain. Haven't added all the events yet, but this is the gist of the map layout.

Ah, ok that's intersting. Looks good to me, but I can understand why you would decided to go with a side HUD instead.
It's nice to see that this is progressing so quickly.

wow that will be larger than expected! Awesome so far

Those maps will be worth the few dozen of KB they'll take

Map updated in previous post. Mt. Goro finished.

I want to note that, if this project is successful and people actually enjoy it, I definitely plan to create a follow-up using the same assets and engine. (generally, a major re-arrangement of maps)

This is looking really nice. Initially I was worried that the game might be really small, but the four sub areas are proving to have quite alot of area to cover. Zelda has always attracted alot of attention, and I'm glad that you're interested in doing a follow up as well. Keep up the great work!

Updated map. The full overworld is now completed.

wow I love that new part o.o

Btw how many maps do you think the entire game will have? Even if just an approximate number (example, the equivalent of 3 other maps of that size). It might give me an idea of how large the final game data might be for maps

Well, the max map grid is 6x6 screens. This applies to dungeons as well as overworlds. Dungeons might be roughly 3/4 of the size of overworlds. (some might be substantially smaller) There are five total dungeons.

The only other maps are caves / passages and indoor areas. These may be so small that they could all fit on a single map grid.

Overall estimate: 10 maps. 4 overworlds, 5 dungeons, and one map to encompass all indoor / cavernous areas.