So say you're a game developer and you notice all these places a certain game could improve. Maybe you're not the best out there but you're fairly confident you could do better if you sat down made the thing.

Then one day, half jokingly, you make an extended sprite sheet for that game and post it on a website which archives sprites.

After that, you might get the crazy idea that you could actually do it, probably in less time than it took the original devs, on a budget of zero dollars in your spare time.

And a few months later, you do.

That's what my journey has been like, but let me not skim over the details.

Remaking Hydlide was actually pretty challenging.

The easy part is the core engine; Some solid blocks, a slime or two, let Jim move in 8 directions and some light RPG mechanics and there you go;

What comes next is the big haul.

See, Hydlide is kind of wondrous in how hard it disguises how thin its spread. The world is an 800x800 pixel square but the map wraps around itself. You'll never find the edge because the edges are stitched together to give the illusion of a larger world. The enemies are all tough and you start off so weak because it's the closest thing Hydlide has to gameplay. The progression is obtuse so you have to puzzle it out for ages when in reality, at max level, the game can be beaten in under an hour if you know what you're doing. Zelda might take you a full day even with a walkthrough and a map.

So I had to undo those knots. I made the enemies easier, and I made the combat more enjoyable. Not saying I did the best job but it's a remarkable improvement.

Then I closed off the world. No more wrapping around, the game world was a boxed in 800x800 square and I wanted the player to get to know it.

I changed up some of the progression. The Dragon no longer drops medicine, burning trees is a core mechanic rather than something you use exactly once, all of the "bosses" have been replaced by versions resembling bosses (although some are still rubbish, like I said, I never claimed to be the best, I'm just touching up what I can as I go).

And here's the crazy thing; Hydlide does do some stuff I couldn't replicate (or at least it would have inflated the schedule if I incorporated it). There's a cool trick it does with small trees, draining the waterways and adding an extra dimension to explore is super cool, when you reach a certain level, the game throws harder versions of enemies at you. And Hydlide's enemy AI isn't dumber than spit.

Vampires and Slimes have the same AI in my build.

But truth be told, I cut a lot of corners.

I wasn't trying to make a super faithful remake, I wanted to make... Well, the equivalent of a combat and UI mod.

But in the end, I still prefer my version. It's not perfect and heck, it might not even be good but I do still think it's a marked improvement.

I guarantee at least that my version won't overstay it's welcome.