Kondo on where he usually begins soundtracks, and his first piece for Mario, 1991.
Source: Shmuplations
#SuperMarioBrosQuote
#KondoQuote
shmuplations.com/supermariowo...
Hyrule Interviews
@hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
3.3K followers 61 following 1.4K posts
A database of interviews with the Zelda team. Our goal is to preserve that legacy, share it here, and build a safe community for our followers! By @maxnichols.bsky.social www.hyruleinterviews.com
![PEOPLE:
- Takafumi Noma. Director of Unicorn Overlord. Programmer on The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess.
QUOTE:
Noma: I think that even the low-level strategy elements of the genre, the unit tweaking and the battling, are quite a lot of fun, but to me, the true joy of “strategy RPG” as a genre comes from sprinkling in those broader RPG elements. As you recruit an army full of colorful characters and empathize with their individual stories and personalities, that experience in turn enriches the tweaking-and-battling side of [Unicorn Overlord]. The two genres complement each other particularly well.
That's also part of the reason we allowed players to select just about any character as a partner to take with them to the final battle. We wanted each player to feel like they were getting a special story written just for them.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreihuq5f2vnz3wx7keay4h2x6jqky4z6m5tzhsexdsmqlduwnueyl7i)
![PEOPLE:
- Jim Wornell. Associate Producer and Graphic Designer for Ocarina of Time.
QUOTE:
Wornell: It was November of ‘98 when I transitioned from being an AP over to design. … I was doing the layout work, the manual packaging work for Ocarina. …
Q: The game was released in North America on Nov. 23rd. Were you working on the manual just weeks before?
Wornell: [Thinks] It must have been, because I remember working on the Illustrator layouts for the Ocarina of Time manual. Now the package may have been done, but I do remember working on the layout for the manual. …
We had the production facility in North Bend [WA], if I remember. And I want to say a lot of the— unless I'm thinking of GameCube, but, I mean, God. I definitely remember working on manual design for Zelda in November of ‘98.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreihdbu57pzkyebcaau3s53dusedzmzvjmeiui4yocpdw5iopn5yd5e)
![PEOPLE:
- Jim Wornell. Associate Producer for Ocarina of Time.
QUOTE:
Wornell: We had a debug department at [Nintendo of America]. … We would get a version of [Ocarina of Time] overnight. And then eight o'clock in the morning, we come in and it's ready for us. And our debug team would play it until three, four, five o'clock.
I would need to have bug reports submitted to me by a certain time so I could go through them and figure out, “Okay, this is a bug. This is not a bug. This is a bug.” And then … get it to Japan, so they could check it out, fix any bugs that needed to be fixed and send us another version. …
At the beginning, it wasn't that often. But towards the end, as we got closer and closer to lot check approval, it was every day. Sometimes twice a day.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreicubyg77z56o5zzsxqn54zfrcjvl2wsossxoky2ibzygajvubmenm)
![PEOPLE:
- Jim Wornell. Associate Producer and Graphic Designer for Ocarina of Time.
QUOTE:
Q: How was all the art [for manual and packaging] sourced? Were they sending you big high definition PSDs, how'd that work back then?
Wornell: Yeah we might get… [thinks] Back then we might get discs full of art. I'm trying to remember if we were FTPing back and forth between us and Japan back then. I don't think we were. So yeah, it might've been just a package full of physical discs that you need to put into a computer and do it that way.
Q: So there was a box full of Nintendo classified files being physically shipped.
Wornell: Yeah.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreidcciugkjrtbh4uzewqemv6lbvsi2nxfijxgkmkqbqxhb6hfkxqoi)
![PEOPLE:
- Eiji Aonuma, age 54. Ocarina of Time Dungeon Director. Producer of Breath of the Wild.
QUOTE:
Aonuma: Watching everyone [during Breath of the Wild development], I remembered what it was like making Ocarina of Time all those years ago. When Zelda first went 3D there were no rules on how to make 3D games in the way there are now, and it was my first time making a Zelda game, so, in a real sense, I had no idea how to properly create a 3D Zelda game. We had a blank slate. We would think of something, try it, and if it didn't work, do it over.
Breath of the Wild was similar. It was a type of game that didn't have defined guidelines for development and which none of us had experienced before. It felt like Ocarina all over again. … I’m very happy we were able to reach such heights once again.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreifqi7mtdvh2xxyaub4ugv5nhealrp6w44rfqqjwcfjvmhlxosnr7q)
![PEOPLE:
- Shigeru Miyamoto, age 46. Producer of Ocarina of Time.
QUOTE:
Miyamoto: From the start [of Ocarina of Time development] I tried to act like a producer: “Do whatever you want, as long as it's interesting.” However, midway through the second year, it started to feel like if I wasn't physically there on the floor, they might never wrap things up.
At that point, the different sub-teams … had been working independently and in parallel, so my work was less about adding my own ideas as it was bringing together and consolidating what everyone else had done. Because a game this large is the combined work of a huge number of people, it's not my place to come in and try to exert my own control over everything.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreifjf5b5v35vwxaqlkn2v27lvgcx62wpclvbklbxm6zn3suq2wvjiy)
![PEOPLE:
- Yoshiaki Koizumi, age 43. Ocarina of Time 3D Gameplay Director.
- Eiji Aonuma, age 48. Ocarina of Time Dungeon Director.
QUOTE:
Koizumi: I changed the character design for Link a lot for Ocarina of Time. At first he had a button-nose.
My wife said, "All of Nintendo's characters have funny noses. Don't you have any handsome ones?" I was shocked. Then when we were making Ocarina of Time, I was in charge of Link's character design, so I made him a little better-looking.
Aonuma: Huh? So Link is your wife's type?
Koizumi: Yes. [firmly]
Everyone: [laughs]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreidj54w7yeh4mvtqppzvxpwrakdrhd6uojzm64pzwaxhl55oqlvuga)
![PEOPLE:
- Yoshiaki Koizumi, age 43. Ocarina of Time 3D Gameplay Director.
- Eiji Aonuma, age 48. Ocarina of Time Dungeon Director.
- Satoru Iwata, age 51. 4th President of Nintendo.
QUOTE:
Koizumi: The [Kokiri] village [in Ocarina of Time] has lots of trees and lots of people live there, but it was difficult to display them all at once. I came up with the idea of having each person living there followed around by a fairy. That way, even if we just showed the fairies…
Iwata: I see. If you see the fairy, you know its owner is there, too.
Aonuma: It also led to the scenario surrounding Link not having a fairy at first.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreidmwsm2g4xunoarmuwzruzgngatowhz26lycjn5v22k4r6gc47ygu)
![PEOPLE:
- Toru Osawa, age 48. Script Director for Ocarina of Time.
QUOTE:
Osawa: When development of Ocarina of Time began, they called me in to the Entertainment Analysis & Development Division [EAD, the Zelda & Mario studio] and put me to work. This project had a lot of directors, but I was the oldest, so I was a sort of general director.
Q: About how many directors were there?
Osawa: Five altogether. I listened to each director's opinion and coordinated them, saying, “All right, all right, I get it. This is what we'll do.” I also worked on the story and script.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreierun2sld7fyxcukxcarvadzowy5uykkiupwx6dvqtiulynv5nnjm)
![PEOPLE:
- Eiji Aonuma, age 40. Ocarina of Time Dungeon Director
Majora’s Mask & The Wind Waker Game Director.
- Shigeru Miyamoto, age 50. Creator of Zelda, Mario, & more.
QUOTE:
Aonuma: Well, Miyamoto-san studied product design, but I majored in global design.
Q: With an eye towards making video games?
Aonuma: Actually, I wanted to design for advertising. Initially, I didn't think about designing games, because back then games weren't as popular as they are now. In the process of my studies I discovered that I was more interested in 3D design, creating something with volume. So, I started creating karakuri ningyo — traditional Japanese wooden dolls of carved wood that have a machine inside that allows the doll to move on its own.
When I interviewed at Nintendo, I brought these and showed them to Miyamoto-san. I think that's why I was hired [laughs].](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreihirahtrn743aun2ozcuyrbg23eyqmtlvnr5r2riscjrmri2vaube)
![PEOPLE:
- Shigeru Miyamoto, age 50. Producer of The Legend of Zelda (1986) and Ocarina of Time.
QUOTE:
Miyamoto: [When making Ocarina of Time] we thought of how we should translate the fun of the first Zelda game into a 3D environment, so that it made you feel free in this world you’re exploring.
Sometimes you remember a place nostalgically after some years. [laughs] When you grow up and go back to a place you thought was huge as a kid, like a street, you realize there is barely any space for a car to fit in. So, after remembering the time when you were growing up, you realize there was a time when you saw things like that. Thinking it was a good idea to have that inside the game, we had some very narrow places and we included the game mechanic of going back to those spots [as adult Link].](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreiavjhxxexwvt3aw6ft57wxxeheo6su6yd4s3ykzg3dnz4ijiplrii)
![PEOPLE:
- Shigeru Miyamoto, age 58. Producer of Ocarina of Time, creator of Mario & Zelda.
- Satoru Iwata, age 51. President of Nintendo.
QUOTE:
Miyamoto: I thought of autojump [for Ocarina of Time] on one of my days off. I couldn't wait to get to work on Monday!
Iwata: You couldn't wait to tell everyone. [laughs]
Miyamoto: Right! [laughs] I gathered everyone on Monday morning and said, ‘We're gonna do something called autojump!’ Everyone's response was, “Say what?!” The team that had made Mario games was going to give up the jump button.
… An added benefit was that we could program the pose Link would assume after jumping. We could look at the landform ahead and determine how Link would jump.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreifr4ndnrjdn4dwez3xq464mwhucvv6xywxb7mtphxqbjsz5i63moe)
![PEOPLE:
- Yoshiaki Koizumi, age 43. - Ocarina of Time 3D Gameplay Director
- Assistant Director of Super Mario 64
- Director of Majora’s Mask, Super Mario Sunshine, & Super Mario Galaxy.
- Satoru Iwata, age 51. 4th President of Nintendo.
QUOTE:
Koizumi: I do think they [Mario and Zelda] are often made in pairs. They both [Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time] fell into the category of “3D open-world action games.” I didn't really see the difference between them.
Iwata: If you were to state the difference, it would be how [Ocarina of Time] is the one you don't press a button to jump in.
Koizumi: Even when it comes to that, you had to press a button to jump when we first started making Ocarina of Time.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreidvohoizrktj2zzgonwrafxqpbvdqsmhrgveqseauvb6mylgeipfu)
![PEOPLE:
- Satoru Iwata, age 51. President of Nintendo.
- Yoshiki Haruhana, age 41. Ocarina of Time Character Designer.
QUOTE:
Haruhana: I played the original version [of Ocarina] again for the first time in a long while and sensed an immense amount of hospitality. In the dungeons, for example, I felt as if someone were saying, “Welcome!” each time I entered a room. … there's a roughness in the way it attacks with its full strength. After 13 years, it still has that impact.
Iwata: … What kind of hospitality is hospitality that attacks? [laughs]
Haruhana: Well, when I say hospitality … I mean that when you go somewhere, all kinds of play await for your enjoyment. … And it isn't a highly organized kind of hospitality like today's games exhibit. [Ocarina] has a certain bumpiness, irregularity or roughness.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreidnr5r2usedg5ncp6hld7zeu2v5wybazfh273hxpc5t4ajf4m7u5i)
![PEOPLE:
- Hidemaro Fujibayashi, age 45. Breath of the Wild Game Director.
QUOTE:
Fujibayashi: We divided the [Breath of the m Wild] map into sections resembling checkered flags, and cut this section into ‘dense' and this section into ‘sparse' to balance the terrain, and then asked the people in charge to make it.
However, as time passes, the ‘sparse' erodes and the 'dense' spreads. We would request, ‘horses will run there, so please make it flat!](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreic7c67zbgzl2ytqgzkg5blkf5h62qakd7uowgd6zswqrxe453dlfy)
![PEOPLE:
- Hirohito Shinoda. Lead NPC artist for Breath of the Wild.
QUOTE:
Shinoda: [Early in Breath of the Wild] we tried to dramatically change the Gorons' appearance … I made their heads bigger, made them more human-like, and explored a lot of different ideas, but none of them really fit.
So I returned to their roots and [leaned] into their design from Ocarina of Time. In recent titles the Gorons have had tattoos, but I thought that due to the anime-like styling of this title, we should aim to make use of empty space rather than trying to fill it, so I went with a very clean design. Rather than just making them round, I paid close attention to the 3D model to ensure they felt like a sumo wrestler, someone with body fat and muscles, and that they looked powerful.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreihgivem272x742k6vruhgd5hyfkx7qbtjxpzjz3fxmd2aggk4hiam)
![PEOPLE:
- Yoshiki Okamoto, age 36.
Producer of Oracle of Seasons & Ages [2001]. Director of Capcom R&D. Creator of Gyruss.
- Akira "Akiman" Yasuda, age 32. Street Fighter II character designer.
QUOTE:
Q: What game are you most proud of?Okamoto: This "Strip Mahjong" game that we did in the arcade a long time ago. The same person who does a majority of our character designs, Akiman or Akimoto, made this game and designed the characters.
He even supplied the voice for the man playing the game! Of course, we did not want people thinking that Capcom was THAT kind of company, so we published the game under a different name](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreid4bpcmkfpoy7ewcosrweyj72gtdkuitqrnx45r7yviy6ofagrbpe)
![PEOPLE:
- Hanako Hisada. Skyward Sword field designer & landform coordinator.
QUOTE:
Hisada: Early on in development [of Skyward Sword], we had made not just the backgrounds, but the enemies and objects in a
watercolor style, but everything, including enemies, blended into the background. You totally couldn't pick out your goal. Then we used half-toon rendering, which is similar to cel-shaded animation, to represent characters and others, to make them stand out.
When we tried using that technology, it didn't look flat like with cel-shaded animation, but a little airy and soft. As mentioned earlier about animations, the backgrounds were realistic and simple, soft characters were moving around in front of them, and it didn't feel off at all, so we thought, 'This might work!'](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreiebdsu3bclzgm7fx5li5q5ti6s3sndalfk7eqxiwwuxhbzd7rihhi)
![PEOPLE:
- Shigeru Miyamoto, age 45. Creator of Zelda & Mario.
QUOTE:
Miyamoto: When I was in elementary school I wanted to be a puppeteer. At the time the program “Hyokkori Hyotanjima” had just started airing on TV and I wanted to create my own puppets like that. Later on, in junior high school I also had aspirations of becoming a manga artist. …
I love the practical jokes of someone digging a hole and hiding inside it while someone passes by, or attaching a string to a 1000 Yen bill and pulling it away. After all, it’s the same thing as making a game right? I’m always curious to see how players interact and respond to my tricks. Apparently I’ve been doing the same thing ever since I was just a kid [laughs].](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreice5ekh6nbdfxzb3eihyecofdv55cxu4sx2t2yba6wlloxtr4srlq)
![PEOPLE:
- Eiji Aonuma, age 39. Director of The Wind Waker.
QUOTE:
Aonuma: When the person he’s closest to runs into trouble, his only thoughts are “I have to do something!” I was thinking of using an event like that to trigger the start of the story, so it was really Link himself that fueled the creation of Aryll [in The Wind Waker].
In past games, the curtain has opened on a variety of mysterious events, such as Link awakening to a strange voice, or suddenly discovering a crest on the back of his hand. This time, I decided to put an end to these strange circumstances and start off with a regular little boy doing his best to save his sister. I wanted to express the power of Link running reckless in order to achieve his goals.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreidtpjmufpeeq6vrdhlbseoacnfebodepsqzincx5gvcm6cnhtpcme)
![PEOPLE:
- Eiji Aonuma, age 53. Producer of Skyward Sword & Breath of the Wild.
QUOTE:
Q: What motivated the choice of such an open, systemic world [for Breath of the Wild]
Aonuma: The wish to create an open world game came shortly after Skyward Sword was finished. We realized that the way you flew from one area to another, with no opportunity to walk instead, had frustrated a lot of people who wanted to know what was hidden between the regions.
One of the greatest thrills of the Zelda series lies in exploring and looking for hidden things, so after a few preliminary tests, we reckoned that the Wii U had the power we needed to create a satisfying open world—one that would allow players to visit the entire world with no loading times. Everything stemmed from that intention.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreifhoftn3kiq44wnkhdh3ptyvlmmj62r6rhhadlaxnduvko4z7thdi)
![PEOPLE:
- Henk Rogers, age 59. Founder of The Tetris Company. Designer of Black Onyx, an RPG that influenced the first Zelda.
- Hiroshi Yamauchi, age 85. President of Nintendo from 1949-2002.
QUOTE:
Rogers: “I don’t need programmers,” I said [to Yamauchi]. “I need money.”
”How much?”
”30,000,000 yen,” I said, about $300,000. It was the biggest number I could think up on the spot. He reached across the table, shook my hand, and we had a deal. …
Yamauchi played the game [Microgo1, 1987] once. Or I should say that he told his underling, who was holding the controller, where he wanted to put his moves. Yamauchi had never held a Nintendo controller in his hands before.
He easily defeated the program, and said that it was not strong enough for Nintendo. No amount of explaining how it was a miracle that I got his 8-bit computer to play Go at all was going to change his mind.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreigpcnv2vhh7fq735xgptww4ce22pivea73uhhra2ec27ahz5ukht4)
![PEOPLE:
- Satoru Iwata, age 48. President of Nintendo.
- Shigeru Miyamoto, age 55. Creator of Zelda & Mario. General Manager of Nintendo EAD.
QUOTE:
Iwata: There are people who feel FPS games are too difficult. I think that quite a lot of Japanese people feel this way–why do you think this is?
Miyamoto: I really don’t know what the reason could be. …
If there is something simple which someone can find enjoyable, the same joy can be experienced by anyone on earth, I believe. … For example, when we were working on Wii Sports, people in America kept telling me that there was no way [it] would sell in the States.
When Wii Sports finally went on sale though, the games appeared to have even stronger appeal in the US. … You start to see that there really isn’t any difference in what east or the west find enjoyable.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreia3yjputkbpzad2ilumvdfavg2vx25724ernhcsksyqbkf2idtfyq)
![PEOPLE:
- Eiji Aonuma, age 53. Producer of Breath of the Wild.
QUOTE:
Aonuma: [Breath of the Wild’s simulation systems] took a lot of time for a simple reason: when you have a single physics engine to manage all the rules that will apply to a world, if you change even a tiny value at one place, anything can happen on the other side of the map.
For example, we had one dungeon designer who wanted to make a puzzle that made you move clay pots with wind, so he changed a slider value so that the wind could carry the pots. When I tested this build of the game, I went to another place where there were supposed to be pots and I couldn’t find them. They had actually been carried by natural gusts and got stuck at the base of a distant mountain.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreiafyfm3wltc2wotexirjhawcnzquywgkabklc736orrm7c5h5gjxa)
![PEOPLE:
- Shigeru Miyamoto, age 62. Creator of Zelda & Mario..
QUOTE:
Q: Time and again, Bowser kidnaps Peach. Why do Mario and Peach still race go-karts and play tennis with him?
Miyamoto: If you're familiar with things like Popeye and some of the old comic characters, you would oftentimes see this cast of characters that takes on different roles depending on the comic or cartoon. They might be businessman in one [cartoon] or a pirate in another. Depending on the story that was being told, they would change roles. So, to a certain degree, I look at our characters in a similar way and feel that they can take on different roles in different games. It's more like they're one big family, or maybe a troupe of actors.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreigmg5yk7fs2ue7vzzosm5olkduto6vjrp2237srk2xjhlyodb677i)
![PEOPLE:
- Kazunobu Shimizu, age 54. Artist on Adventure of Link. Director of Famicom Grand Prix: F-1 Race and F-Zero.
QUOTE:
Q: What kicked off development of F-Zero?
Shimizu: The inspiration was Famicom Grand Prix: F1 Race, a racing game from an overhead point of view. We made a sequel to that and showed it to staff at Nintendo of America, but they totally bashed it!
Q: You had put a lot of effort into it, but they didn't like it.
Shimizu: They were like, "This isn't a racing game! Racing cars should be cooler!" They even said it wouldn't sell, and that ticked me off!
Q: It awakened the fighter in you? [laughs]
Shimizu: Yeah. [laughs] I thought, "Well, if that's what you say, then I'll make something really cool!"](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreidgd52apb7zzrrdrh7xvlizhhce7frhu5qwvqq5bn5jbk6l3sr4vu)
![PEOPLE:
- Eiji Aonuma, age 53. Producer of Breath of the Wild.
QUOTE:
Q: On what criteria did you … scatter the key items, place the shrines and temples [in Breath of the Wild]?
Aonuma: … We chose an implementation that followed the building of the game, by wandering on the map and deciding when we should place an important element or a secret. If you want to hide areas, it’s even more complicated in 3D because the player doesn’t necessarily know what he’s looking for. So we made all those measures by walking in the game’s world, in order to have a good understanding of the travel times and the distances between all points of interest.
It’s not a well-known fact, but Mr. Miyamoto actually did the same thing in 2D to place the dungeons in the very first Zelda.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreidrgvefk75ekyujmf4kdcxkxptpc4sshztspaekqdfeb3mbn5mewq)
![PEOPLE:
- Eiji Aonuma, age 53. Producer of Breath of the Wild.
QUOTE:
Aonuma: [During Breath of the Wild development] I asked the team to create a tool displaying a map on which the movements of a hundred players would be drawn in real time, with a marking point every hour.
[If I saw] that many people were going to the same place at one time, I asked them why they had gone there. … Often, it was something I’d never thought about or seen in this angle during development, but sounded very funny. It also allowed us to detect locations no one was going to because it wasn’t very practical, in order to modify or add a path, change the topography, make a place more attractive… It was instructive to observe and allowed us to do statistics and make every portion of the world interesting.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreib3aq2sbtwpuhbyfbpskcibie4dislvyrowywzlkgosuhjapafafa)
![PEOPLE:
- Shigeru Miyamoto, age 43. Creator of Zelda & Mario. Producer of Nintendo EAD’s Software Development Department.
QUOTE:
Miyamoto: Do you remember that old Mac game where you'd shoot cannons at each other in a windy area? You'd adjust nothing but the launch angle and power to hit the enemy artillery hiding behind rocks. …
But you just can't make a game like that when you have to worry about justifying a 9,800 yen price tag [for N64 cartridge manufacturing]. People look at a casual game like that and assume it can be made on a low budget, or that a rookie can handle it, or that if it's that simple, it could just be distributed via the Satellaview. Everything gets manufactured based entirely on price. Instead of opening up a playground for people to try out new ideas, everything has just become a conversation about cost.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreiddx56dmshzxkijb76qwikdbjblrhmj4jxqelihdhf4xgiduwsdue)
![PEOPLE:
- Eiji Aonuma, age 53. Zelda Franchise Producer.
- Fumito Ueda, age 46. Director of Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, and The Last Guardian.
QUOTE:
Aonuma: It’s funny that you’re mentioning this game, because we are friends with Mr. Ueda and he’s always said that he wanted to make a game like Zelda—hence the similarities in Shadow of the Colossus.
Mr. Ueda was kind enough to send me a copy of The Last Guardian late last year and as I was playing it, I noticed the moments when you climb on Trico’s head to find a path, and jump to reach places that were inaccessible from the height you were at. Without seeing each other or talking about it, I realize we had the same idea. It’s amusing to see we had the same inspirations, the same gameplay [inclination] at different times.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreigrskqgqos3ju6wwbmtnfqcd2k5dudhu6pmkbwmigtptplyx2kbyq)
![PEOPLE:
- Shigeru Miyamoto, age 43. Creator of Zelda & Mario. Producer of Nintendo EAD’s Software Development Department.
QUOTE:
Miyamoto: Since my background is originally in industrial design, I view the Rubik's Cube as my eternal rival. There's a kind of product that's very important to me. It's not stuff made by veteran craftsmen who have spent years building computer games specifically for gamers, but rather things that make people realize, "Wow, computer games can do that...?!"
Making products that surprise non-gamers, that is our big challenge. That said, when people point out that we do nothing but make sequels, they're entirely right. [laughs] I want to hurry up and reach a point where we can leave the franchise titles to the younger staff, while the older folks just do whatever they feel like. [laughs]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreifbsfmqz6f23u4ls27xqktph64ipeorrywvnvb34du34iotyjungi)
