Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon - Sketch Layouts

A panel dedicated to Animation Magic's Zelda games and their influence was hosted by Limited Run Games at PAX EAST 2024:

Within the panel were interviews and appearances by Jeff Rath, Link's voice actor, and Rob Dunlavey, one of the games' background artists. During Rob's interview, three sketch layouts of areas from Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon were shown off (and previously-shown early art for Gamelon's map), each containing differences between them and the final levels. (It was also noted that Rob did the level sketches for both Animation Magic Zelda games, though he only fully painted the Faces of Evil backgrounds - the Wand of Gamelon backgrounds were painted by Tom Curry.)

I thought it would be cool to compare these sketch layouts to their final counterparts and see what changed. The sketches' small size makes it hard to compare them to their final equivalents (and read their text), so the comparisons will be text-only for now. Who knows, maybe we'll get clearer scans of all of them?

(An equivalent page for The Faces of Evil does not currently exist as only one layout has been posted as of writing. You may view it on Dunlavey's website here, and read an analysis of it here.)

Gobiyan Ship

Gobiyan Ship's layout contains the least amount of changes - at least, in terms of background design. The only real difference between the sketches and the final art is within the first map - the dunes have a different, taller layout and lack fine details such as grass and the wooden fence on the cliff.

The area where Gobiyan Ship really differs is its enemy and item placement, which changed quite a bit from the sketches to the final maps:

Nokani Forest

This page shows the layout for the third and final map of Nokani Forest, where Zelda obtains the Fairy Lantern. It appears that, instead of meeting Myra and getting that lantern, you were meant to find an item called the "Gobumo Nut" instead (again, it's hard to read w/ small text). Furthermore, the player would've encountered Tektites and Arpagos instead of the Bots and Moas that Nokani Forest has in the final game.

The background art itself appears to be more detailed than the final map, containing more foliage and a few branches/platforms that the player would have difficulty jumping to (given the platforming engine).

The most interesting thing about Nokani Forest's early layout is that the last map is labeled as 4 instead of 3. This implies that Nokani Forest lost an entire map when it was implemented into The Wand of Gamelon. And, as you'll see in the next section, this isn't a one-off thing...

Reesong Palace

Of the three The Wand of Gamelon areas to have their sketch layouts shown, Reesong Palace has the most changes by far. We'll have to use a list to break down each difference...