Introduction

As for every year, we hold a general assembly for the Solarus Labs non-profit organization. We take advantage of it to look back on past year and establish upcoming projects.

Projects we worked on in 2024

Solarus 2.0.0

The release of the long-awaited 2.0.0 version of Solarus is sooner than ever.

  • Huge improvements to Audio API by Metallizer.
  • Improvements to general Lua API by Christopho.
  • CI maintenance and updates by Hhromic.
  • Improved support for Raspberry Pi.
  • Improved QtWidgets launcher.
  • Ergonomics improvements for the editor.

Solarus videos on PeerTube

Tutorials have been uploaded to PeerTube, a free and open-source alternative to Youtube, without any ads.

However, we don’t host our own server, but are gratefully hosted by TILvids, a PeerTube instance dedicated to e-learning, and DIY computer tutorials. Consequently, we are limited in storage and can’t upload all tutorials. At least, the videos hosted on Solarus’ website won’t have any ad or tracker.

PeerTube Screenshot

Dark mode for Solarus Quest Editor

We began working last year on a dark theme and UI overhaul for the quest editor. It’s a separate library named Qlementine, already used in production by some companies and getting some traction on GitHub.

Qlementine is today sufficiently stable, is already used in the editor on dev brand. What’s left to do is making Solarus-colored dark and light JSON themes.

Solarus Quest Editor in dark mode

Solarus for Android

Solarus Android development continued during the beginning of 2024.

  • UI rewrite by Steve Spear, based on Olivier’s design mockups.
  • Compilation maintenance by Hhromic.

Current state of Solarus for Android

Games by the community

Zelda fangames

The community is growing and people seem to have fun making Zelda fangames with Solarus!

  • Another Hyrule Fantasy demo release, by Zeldo.
  • The Labors of Zeldo release, by Zeldo.
  • Region of Deseraph demo release, by Razdarac.
  • WIP A Link to the Past remake by KaKaShUruKioRa, Zeldo, etc.
  • WIP A Link to the Dream (Link’s Awakening remake) by Binbin’s team.
  • WIP Mercuris’ Chest by Metallizer.

Mercuris’ Chest screenshot

Other games

The community made also non-Zelda games, and one even got a Steam release!

  • Galacta Knight release, by Blazie.
  • Long Steel release, by Kyle Tassone, on Steam!

Long Steel screenshot

Miscellaneous

  • The community continued to contribute to Solarus-related projects (resource packs, games, engine improvements).

On pause

These projects were on pause in 2023:

  • Solarus WASM port.
  • QtQuick Solarus Launcher.
  • Children of Solarus.
  • Text tutorials.
  • Migration of Doxygen documentation to the new MkDocs site.

Projects Planned for 2025

Engine and tools development:

  • Solarus 2.0.0 release.
  • Solarus 2.x.y releases:
    • RecalBox support.
    • iOS support.
    • Android support.
    • Web support.

Website:

  • Switch to Markdown for docs.
  • Markdown tutorials.

Games:

  • WIP Children of Solarus
  • WIP The Legend of Zelda: Mercuris’ Chest

Events:

  • Discovery session on game creation with Solarus in René Descartes High School Science Club on February 18th 2025.

Conclusion

As for each year, we initially thought that the past year has been a blank year, but actually it was a productive year!

We can tell you now that Solarus 2.0 is closer than ever before! Seriously.

Thank you to all community members who make this project possible, by their help, their donations and their passion.