Log 1 – 19.4.26 – 26.4.26

Main thing: Proof of concept went well – so i am going to make my own placeholder graphics and make a new version from scratch…

Proof of concept v1 is done! Exceptionally rudimentary – enough to prove concept… Proof of concept v1 (8 Apr 2026) – it’s here: demo

Read – write – make

Interestingly, as i made the proof of concept in GBstudio, I could feel a connection to place as I made the scenes and labelled them and started arranging them together – i could see how there was indeed a direct connection between what I was doing, and the place i was aiming for.

And now i feel a sense of excitement around ‘building’ a home – and that ideas come to me where i can take advantage of the digital format – e.g. I can rearrnage the layout and configuration of the rooms and spaces and how they connect.

Focus of the week:

the pre thing and the website and the promo – from the reading, playing and planning…

Mon

read

Started playing with struture of proof of concept #2 – mainly around figuring out how to have it so that when you leave a scene/screen at one point, you actually appear in the same place in the next one – otherwise it was a bit jarring (go from the near any of the corners of the screen and see where you pop out to see what i mean…) Not so hard – just have to store x and y pos and direction vars then use them in next scene as required.
The other thing was trying to see if strings of text can be stored in variables. They can NOT. This is a limitation of gameboy i believe. Fine. I will just need to be creative…
Final thing was to start mapping out the map – and sort out grid code etc. Of course, given strings are off the table, i might need to consider a numbering ‘naming’ convention for each scene. I think that should work out ok…

Tue

Spent some time building the subliminor site – its a start and will do for now – I just need to work out a better way to host working demo files etc. as well as sort out a mailing list…

Takeaways

things are happening. slowly…

Wed

Project work 2

case study – analysis – set up how to do screen recordings of games – and how to edit and post them online (for inclusion on blog)
- the tools
  - emulator (i am using mGBA (https://mgba.io/) on a mac) – set up to display hard pixels – set at a decent magnification: 3x seems to be good – set correct palette (sometimes they can be WILDLY off…)
    - FPS target – native (59.7275)
    - Sync video and audio
    - Gameboy – game boy palette – greyscale – default color palette only
    - Video record – Presets – lossless – 480p (533×480) – lock aspect ratio (10:9) – MKV – libxrgb wavpack
  - Thereis another emulator that also has a quite of debuggint and realtime data tools – Gearboy – https://github.com/drhelius/Gearboy
  - video editor – to trim off the frames that aren’t needed
    - using a FOSS editor called Shotcut https://www.shotcut.org/
    - pretty strait forward except for adding an on screen frame coutner (could only get it in seconds and 10ths of a second. That will do.)
    - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayPWVUp7gwY
  - video player – something that allows for frame-by-frame stepping forwards AND backwards – and allows for displaying frame numbers
  - This set up should allow for being able to do frame accurate timings of portions of game play/animations/character movement etc.

The opening sequence is part of the “prologue” which goes up until you have your shield and sword. This is really the tutorial section – it is limited to the town and the beach area.

Zelda Links Awakening – opening sequence breakdown…

Sequnce 1 – Opening loop(approx. 100 seconds)

(there is a good article about it here: https://gbstudiocentral.com/tips/dissecting-classic-cutscenes-from-the-game-boy/)

00.0 – nintendo logo –
00.3 – ship on ocean
15.5 – close up of link holding rope – eyes open
17.6 – close up of link holding rope – eyes closed
18.1 – ship on ocean – struck by lightning – fade to WHITE
19.2 – fade from WHITE – dreamy music – sound of waves
23.3 – flickering, like opening of eyes after a long sleep – revealing… a beach
24.0 – camera starts tracking right – we see someone walking right, along the beach – they suddenly stop – then tentaively start again, hesitating – camera follows them – then, we see another person lying on the beach, eyes closed… hestiant, the first person approaches the second person and then touches them – and begins to shake them
46.1 – camera pans upwards – above the trees, a mountain, at the top of the mountain sits.. a giant egg – the music changes – the begnning of a new mood – the camera continues to pan – then there is a pause in the music
51.5 – camera continues to pan upwards, but is slowing down – a trumphant piece of music starts that sounds like – a familiar theme
55.8 – the camer now comes to a rest – the egg sitting on the mountain top is framed here now – the music continues
57.3 – in the sky above the egg, the title is revealed with a centre wipe “The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening” c1993 Nintendo – a series of glints flash across the logo
100 – the glinting continues – until the cycle (except for the nintendo logo) begins again.
This continues to loop indefinitely….

Sequence 2 – from first interaction – to opening in first scene (approx. 10 seconds assuming you have a char to choose, probably half this as i faffed around a bit…)

Note that the timings are based on some faffing around on my part – take the first one as 0 and look at the difference.

48.0 logo screen – loops until any interaction (goes to white for 3/10 second)
player select screen – loops until interaction (goes to white for 3/10 second)
if x and slot empty – goes to player creation window (goes to white for 3/10 second)
if x and slot has character – loads from last room (if there is one)
59.0 theme music stops

Sequence 3 – from opening in first scene – to then outside (approx. 40 seconds minus a bit of me faffing around interacting)

marin interaction – 20 sec

tarin interaction – 15 sec

As before, Note that the timings should be scaled

music changes
59.319 – link char turns from side to side.- then stops and blinks twice – only interaction is with moving the text box
109:0 – “What a relief! I thought you’d” – flashing arrow indicated you can interact with it – there is an indicative ‘pickup’ sound effect when it is time to interact
1.10.5 – 1.12.0 “never wake up! You were tossing”- flashing arrow indicated you can interact with it – there is an indicative ‘pickup’ sound effect when it is time to interact
112.22 – 113.6 “and turning… What? Zelda?” – flashing arrow indicated you can interact with it – there is an indicative ‘pickup’ sound effect when it is time to interact
113.65 – 115.3 – “No, my name’s Marin! You must” – flashing arrow indicated you can interact with it – there is an indicative ‘pickup’ sound effect when it is time to interact
115.33 – 116.8 – “still be feeling a little woozy.” – flashing arrow indicated you can interact with it – there is an indicative ‘pickup’ sound effect when it is time to interact
115.33 – “You are on Koholint Islnad!” Text box rolls up
119.8 – we can control Link – walk over and get shield.
122.0 – 137.7 – more text box (interestingly, the Marin character disappears as the yext box appears at the top of the screen) – shield appears in our equipment box – triumphand music etc – Tarin explains what the shield is good for
We are NOT able to leave the house until we have the shield
139 – fade to white upon exit from house

Sequence 4 – from outside – to getting sword

Again, Note that the timings should be scaled.

40.0 – When link leaves the house, he ducks down as he exits…
get past a bunch of stuff…
1.13.7 – get to beach and the SWORD – owl drops in
1.15.8 – no more interactions – turn to chat to owl.
1.47.13 – triumphant music and lots of excitement – sword appears in our equipment box
1.47.13 – we can now move freely – main theme plays

Music:

piece 1 – the storm
piece 2 – the theme – plays over the logo
piece 3 – inside marins house
piece 4 – going in the village and beach
piece 5 – the theme – after you get your sword back

So, music is sometimes narrative based, and sometimes place based, and sometimes a combo of both.

4 pulse width modes selectable in addition to full square wave – duty cycles

http://woovebox.aife.me/support/guides–tutorials/genres/chiptune/gameboy

Takeaways

it is obvious where the layers are – the rain and the boat are connected – there is a slight overlap between shot one and shot two
i am not sure if its my capturing approach, but the transition from closed eye link, back to th eboat, it splits into 5 sections and
The whole opening sequnce 1 is a 100 second infinite loop.
intersting how you are sloly able to control things – from the house scene when talking – to then being out of bed and moving around…

Thu

Project work 2

Actually, i continued on analysing Links Awakening.

flow theory
email – major updates and releases – spam free and not sharing to anyone else…
think about other games to investigate prologue –

Fri

Project work 3 –

Using Gearboy – it has been very illuminating plaing through Links Awakening with just one channel of audio switched on to see what it is used for. For further discussions, see LOG 5 (unpublished at this point) – in particular, ‘Tues’.

PSG

Sound effects and UI sounds etc. take priority.

Volume is also turned down while you are in the menu – then turns back up when you leave.

Music

	SQ1	SQ2	WAV	NOI
opening scene
opening music	Bass line	counter melody	Bass line – mirrors the other one, but MUCH bassier – a fifth lower?
transtion to beach	wibbly wobbly sound	wibbly wobbly sound	wibbly wobbly sound
beach music	(echoes swav) plays on a three octave range – suggestes low notes, then high notes	echoes sq1) plays on a three octave range – suggestes low notes, then high notes	beach music (echoes sq1)
theme over credits	plays high notes	plays high notes also swaps to a more reedy sounding instrument for the actual theme	plays high notes
Player select scene	Bass line	counter melody
Outside – in town	Bass line	counter melody
Outside – away from town			Bass line	rhythm – shaker and snare

Sound effects

	SQ1	SQ2	WAV	NOI
Opening scene				lightning sounds – pitch drops
On the beach				wave noise
Logo screen				‘kapowww’ sound when logo appears

Player select scene	interface clicks			shuffling rhythym
				sword sound – there seems to be three variations which are played randomly
Outside	thump when hitting chicken (not that i did that…)		squark when hitting chicken (not that i did that…)	wiggy sound
	pickup sound		pickup sound
			owl ‘talking’ sound
	destroying enemy			destroying enemy – explody sound
	next text sound (prompt to interact)
	jump down			jump down
				hacking a bush
Interface in/out	woosh up woosh down	woosh up (8ve higher than sq1) woosh down (8ve higher than sq1)

Dynamics and tempo are used a LOT for effect.

Use of crescendo – interesting how they always keep some volume in reserve for particularly dramatic moments – e.g. in the opening sequence when lightning hits – the sound gets a little bit brighter too perhaps?

Use or arpeggios – sometimes outlining rythmic phrases too…

Use of Ritardando – It is more obvious perhaps in the outside music after you leave Marin and Tarins – but the music uses slow downs at the end of some phrases

mock up player – start by drawing them…

– reading about place – continuing with Relph

Takeaways

There is a lot of perception management – the direct interaction sounds are given priority – at the expense of bass line sometimes, but when things are all going on at once, it is very hard to notice even when you are aware (not so when listening channel by channel, which is the point:))

Sat

Finish off tasks or, if done – start another task…
Finishing off listening through Links Awakening Prologue channel by channel – decided it was easier to add the notes to the above section, so thats where they are
Also, consolidating notes -during the week, a lot of stray ideas make there way into my notes folder, so its time to give them homes:)
trying to sort out getting email up and happening on the subliminor.com site
icon/logo – design to work at small scale…

Sun

A quick catch up session

read some of the Relph

mockup chars – hair styles -i mean is it supposed to be me? Well, yes it is. And how much hair do I have? Hmmm. But it can get a bit scruffy, so that is a starting point. Then I will look like the dog…