No One Understands How Nintendo Made ‘The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom’
No One Understands How Nintendo Made ‘The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom’
by Seicair
29 Comments
Seicair
>“Now, I’m happy that we’ve arrived at this method where we’re giving people lots of options, and there are many answers to a single problem, and all of them can potentially be correct. I feel happy that we’ve arrived at this type of development style.”
Will Zelda join Pokémon and Mario for the foreseeable future? That’d be pretty cool.
Edit- My understanding is that Zelda games historically have not performed as well as Mario and Pokémon games. BotW changed that, TotK is continuing. Will it keep going for the foreseeable future?
Dukemon102
Time, budget, hard work and determination.
joshspoon
Zelda Party? Think if Ganon became a “fun” character who interacted w/ Link and Zelda in off-world Zelda games like Bowser.
Matteria
The only issue with the game is the outdated hardware, it’s commendable how much they’ve managed to cram into this game and it still runs.
I really hope we’ll be able to replay it at 60ish fps on the switch successor, 7 years and still going strong.
Imagine how much more they could do if they had the resources, system-wise
Crpto2007
Lots of hard work and determination
The_Frozen_Inferno
I don’t understand how Nintendo makes any of its games. I think they have Oompah Loompahs working for them. Almost every other studio or publisher speaks a fair bit, or is somewhat accessible. Nintendo just says “the game is coming out on ____” then it comes out and it just works. Are there actual people somewhere making games like this or is it some kind of wizardry?
ThreeStoogesFan
I enjoyed this article, it was a good read. And does make you think, “huh, how they do that?” especially on the dated switch.
This is what I mean when I say, “gameplay over graphics.” Now imagine if games like jedi Survivor, horizon series, gta, etc., implemented the same trial and error physics system that totk has.
Pizza__Pants
They just elbowed a copy of BOTW like the Fonz with a broken jukebox and this is what they got.
QbertRegionalChamp
Theres a tweet in the article saying theres no jank
I’d argue all of this falls under jank, it’s just good jank.
CrimsonPig
They used ancient Zonai technology
IncorrectDatabase
Lmao this is taking one tweet and making a whole article about it. They have a lot of money and lot of talented devs of course they can make the physics work is nothing that hasn’t been seen before
Lilac_Moonnn
TotK is the result of a development team that didn’t limit themselves, but kept adding more and more features and ideas, instead of rejecting them. Usually when a game developer makes an game, they have many ideas, but only select a couple to use. With this, they committed to many of these ideas, and made the game as jam packed with features as possible.
vodkaffee
It’s called programming
THE_GR8_MIKE
With computers and lines of code, I’d imagine??
Also a deadline set when the game is done. Not when some stupid bullshit merchandise *has* to be out for that year.
ninthchamber
Psychedelics
bwoah07_gp2
It just proves that you don’t need the most powerful hardware all the time. I find people are too infatuated with hardware and specs and speeds when it comes to console gaming, which is why I’m not enthusiastic about the speculation Nintendo is ready to move onto next gen. I don’t think that move is gonna happen as early as the general public think. The Switch as it is has legs to run still. At most, we need a mid gen upgrade, but completely replacing the Switch? Nah, that wouldn’t be right.
RDGOAMS
its nintendo not EA games
Bobbert_McGee
It’s Nintendo and they took 6 years (not a criticism)
People can say what they want about Nintendo (I know they have their faults) – but their games are usually fantastic and definitely have something that no other developer seems to be able to pull off.
Pancake_muncher
I’m in awe of how they made the physics in the game work so well. You think moving/glueing pieces, reversing objects, and all in an open world and nothing is buggy, wonky, or broken. Everything is so well thought out in how every resource works in choir with crafting and building.
Imagine you program a wheel, the physics of it being on a hill, and slowly rolling down that hill that it begins to accelerate and speed up or up the hill where it will slow down, and how it will stop and fall based on the angle it stops at. Now you’re glueing it to other pieces, you have a large mass and other moving pieces that the game has to calculate the mass, the weight, acceleration, gravity, and movement on this new contraption. It’s kind of a miracle how well it runs on a 6 year old piece of hardware that is a little more powerful than the Wii-U.
bmyst70
They probably focused much more heavily on revamping the gameplay and not on drastically improving the graphics. Creating and manipulating high quality graphics (i.e. large, detailed textures and complex models) is by far the most system intensive thing to do.
Which was a very smart move for Nintendo. Zelda’s loosely cartoony graphical style doesn’t need super hefty graphics to work well.
And the innovative out-of-the-box gameplay will keep us happy for many years, long after much prettier graphical games have come and gone. Sort of like how people are still finding hidden stuff in Skyrim, 11 years later.
Cryptolution
>Again, to be able to do this without breaking a million different things in the process is absolutely wild. It’s something I feel like I haven’t seen since the Portal games, where you could sometimes bypass the “right” answer to a room puzzle with some creative tool use, but this is a level I have never seen in a game before.
This is the meat right here. It’s a game that has really complicated physics mechanisms in which you can solve puzzles in many creative “non-standard” ways, and that makes it really fun.
It is truly amazing they’ve done this on the switch and it *actually* runs well
Alon945
They also doubled down on specific areas that were successful and didn’t put any time or energy into the few things that did get criticized. I think this probably helped too.
Like the combat for example
CaspianX2
There’s another few elements that people aren’t even talking about here.
First, It’s not just that you can combine anything with anything without breaking the game, but then you can combine this with both Recall and Ascend in all sorts of interesting ways. Build a complex contraption, fill it with unattached objects, lift it into the air, let it drop, use Recall to have it rewind its course in time while the unattached objects respond, and ascend to jump up on it while it’s still being lifted by the *memory* of you lifting it with Ultrahand.
In addition, all of this is being done… with real-time lighting and shadows. When you’re constructing odd machines and structures, then rewinding them through time when they fall down, it doesn’t matter if you’re looking up from the top of a mountain down on a sun-lit valley, or in the depths where the scarce lights you have in front of you are all you’ll see… the lighting and shadows remain consistent.
And then there’s the massive world, the draw distance, the way the game remembers where you planted light blooms…
It’s funny, despite only being 30FPS (and regularly dropping under that), this game is still a true feat of engineering.
neutrinoburrito
I’d say their Zelda and core Mario (non-sports) games are sacred and they keep those close to the chest. They give those types of games all the time needed to make something truly excellent. I bet they spent a year or more of development time on just optimizing TotK so the gameplay experience could be as smooth as possible on the Switch hardware. BoTW had its laggy moments but it seems like they even worked out most of those kinks as they refined their engine.
I truly hope they keep using this engine, even if they decide to make more linear Zelda games on Switch in the future. But I highly doubt they will; you can’t put this open world genie back in the bottle. These games have been my favorite Zelda games of all time and my first Zelda experience was the OG on NES! I’ve played almost every Zelda game out there except the DS ones.
Algorhythm74
They build around the limits of their hardware. When you design the hardware, and the game engine, you have complete control. You can get every ounce out of both.
The problem with PC and “next Gen” consoles lately is the game engines, wildly different specs they have to consider, and chasing overly ambitious hyper real looking graphics.
I’ll take a stylized game over “realistic” anyway since those realistic games only have about a 2 year shelf life before they look outdated.
fuzzynavel34
The physics aspect is a fucking marvel
Naptiva
Because they take 5-10 years between Zelda’s. That’s why. Each one for the most part is a masterclass and it’s because they don’t rush.
TM1619
Yeah, this game (and BotW) are pure magic. I’m always in disbelief when I jump from sky island to the depths underground and it all happens seamlessly and without a hitch. Add all the physics systems and the endless possibilities of shit you can create and man, it’s breathtaking stuff.
29 Comments
>“Now, I’m happy that we’ve arrived at this method where we’re giving people lots of options, and there are many answers to a single problem, and all of them can potentially be correct. I feel happy that we’ve arrived at this type of development style.”
Will Zelda join Pokémon and Mario for the foreseeable future? That’d be pretty cool.
Edit- My understanding is that Zelda games historically have not performed as well as Mario and Pokémon games. BotW changed that, TotK is continuing. Will it keep going for the foreseeable future?
Time, budget, hard work and determination.
Zelda Party? Think if Ganon became a “fun” character who interacted w/ Link and Zelda in off-world Zelda games like Bowser.
The only issue with the game is the outdated hardware, it’s commendable how much they’ve managed to cram into this game and it still runs.
I really hope we’ll be able to replay it at 60ish fps on the switch successor, 7 years and still going strong.
Imagine how much more they could do if they had the resources, system-wise
Lots of hard work and determination
I don’t understand how Nintendo makes any of its games. I think they have Oompah Loompahs working for them. Almost every other studio or publisher speaks a fair bit, or is somewhat accessible. Nintendo just says “the game is coming out on ____” then it comes out and it just works. Are there actual people somewhere making games like this or is it some kind of wizardry?
I enjoyed this article, it was a good read. And does make you think, “huh, how they do that?” especially on the dated switch.
This is what I mean when I say, “gameplay over graphics.” Now imagine if games like jedi Survivor, horizon series, gta, etc., implemented the same trial and error physics system that totk has.
They just elbowed a copy of BOTW like the Fonz with a broken jukebox and this is what they got.
Theres a tweet in the article saying theres no jank
I’d argue all of this falls under jank, it’s just good jank.
They used ancient Zonai technology
Lmao this is taking one tweet and making a whole article about it. They have a lot of money and lot of talented devs of course they can make the physics work is nothing that hasn’t been seen before
TotK is the result of a development team that didn’t limit themselves, but kept adding more and more features and ideas, instead of rejecting them. Usually when a game developer makes an game, they have many ideas, but only select a couple to use. With this, they committed to many of these ideas, and made the game as jam packed with features as possible.
It’s called programming
With computers and lines of code, I’d imagine??
Also a deadline set when the game is done. Not when some stupid bullshit merchandise *has* to be out for that year.
Psychedelics
It just proves that you don’t need the most powerful hardware all the time. I find people are too infatuated with hardware and specs and speeds when it comes to console gaming, which is why I’m not enthusiastic about the speculation Nintendo is ready to move onto next gen. I don’t think that move is gonna happen as early as the general public think. The Switch as it is has legs to run still. At most, we need a mid gen upgrade, but completely replacing the Switch? Nah, that wouldn’t be right.
its nintendo not EA games
It’s Nintendo and they took 6 years (not a criticism)
People can say what they want about Nintendo (I know they have their faults) – but their games are usually fantastic and definitely have something that no other developer seems to be able to pull off.
I’m in awe of how they made the physics in the game work so well. You think moving/glueing pieces, reversing objects, and all in an open world and nothing is buggy, wonky, or broken. Everything is so well thought out in how every resource works in choir with crafting and building.
Imagine you program a wheel, the physics of it being on a hill, and slowly rolling down that hill that it begins to accelerate and speed up or up the hill where it will slow down, and how it will stop and fall based on the angle it stops at. Now you’re glueing it to other pieces, you have a large mass and other moving pieces that the game has to calculate the mass, the weight, acceleration, gravity, and movement on this new contraption. It’s kind of a miracle how well it runs on a 6 year old piece of hardware that is a little more powerful than the Wii-U.
They probably focused much more heavily on revamping the gameplay and not on drastically improving the graphics. Creating and manipulating high quality graphics (i.e. large, detailed textures and complex models) is by far the most system intensive thing to do.
Which was a very smart move for Nintendo. Zelda’s loosely cartoony graphical style doesn’t need super hefty graphics to work well.
And the innovative out-of-the-box gameplay will keep us happy for many years, long after much prettier graphical games have come and gone. Sort of like how people are still finding hidden stuff in Skyrim, 11 years later.
>Again, to be able to do this without breaking a million different things in the process is absolutely wild. It’s something I feel like I haven’t seen since the Portal games, where you could sometimes bypass the “right” answer to a room puzzle with some creative tool use, but this is a level I have never seen in a game before.
This is the meat right here. It’s a game that has really complicated physics mechanisms in which you can solve puzzles in many creative “non-standard” ways, and that makes it really fun.
It is truly amazing they’ve done this on the switch and it *actually* runs well
They also doubled down on specific areas that were successful and didn’t put any time or energy into the few things that did get criticized. I think this probably helped too.
Like the combat for example
There’s another few elements that people aren’t even talking about here.
First, It’s not just that you can combine anything with anything without breaking the game, but then you can combine this with both Recall and Ascend in all sorts of interesting ways. Build a complex contraption, fill it with unattached objects, lift it into the air, let it drop, use Recall to have it rewind its course in time while the unattached objects respond, and ascend to jump up on it while it’s still being lifted by the *memory* of you lifting it with Ultrahand.
In addition, all of this is being done… with real-time lighting and shadows. When you’re constructing odd machines and structures, then rewinding them through time when they fall down, it doesn’t matter if you’re looking up from the top of a mountain down on a sun-lit valley, or in the depths where the scarce lights you have in front of you are all you’ll see… the lighting and shadows remain consistent.
And then there’s the massive world, the draw distance, the way the game remembers where you planted light blooms…
It’s funny, despite only being 30FPS (and regularly dropping under that), this game is still a true feat of engineering.
I’d say their Zelda and core Mario (non-sports) games are sacred and they keep those close to the chest. They give those types of games all the time needed to make something truly excellent. I bet they spent a year or more of development time on just optimizing TotK so the gameplay experience could be as smooth as possible on the Switch hardware. BoTW had its laggy moments but it seems like they even worked out most of those kinks as they refined their engine.
I truly hope they keep using this engine, even if they decide to make more linear Zelda games on Switch in the future. But I highly doubt they will; you can’t put this open world genie back in the bottle. These games have been my favorite Zelda games of all time and my first Zelda experience was the OG on NES! I’ve played almost every Zelda game out there except the DS ones.
They build around the limits of their hardware. When you design the hardware, and the game engine, you have complete control. You can get every ounce out of both.
The problem with PC and “next Gen” consoles lately is the game engines, wildly different specs they have to consider, and chasing overly ambitious hyper real looking graphics.
I’ll take a stylized game over “realistic” anyway since those realistic games only have about a 2 year shelf life before they look outdated.
The physics aspect is a fucking marvel
Because they take 5-10 years between Zelda’s. That’s why. Each one for the most part is a masterclass and it’s because they don’t rush.
Yeah, this game (and BotW) are pure magic. I’m always in disbelief when I jump from sky island to the depths underground and it all happens seamlessly and without a hitch. Add all the physics systems and the endless possibilities of shit you can create and man, it’s breathtaking stuff.
They ripped off Genshin Impact clearly!