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StarTopic Ask the Developer |ST| Latest interview: Pikmin 4

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LukasManak22 said:
I can't wait for Pikmin 4 interview.

So you started development on this in 2013, when there was no Nintendo Switch?

Miyamoto: That's right.

But you are releasing in 2023. I thought that the game was already almosted finished back in 2015 as you said Miyamoto-san.

Miyamoto: It has been rebooted.

And after the reboot, did the development flow smoothly?

Miyamoto: No. (laughts).
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this moment is slowly approaching and you know it
 
boodream said:
What I really like about the current management of EPD is that Takahashi and Koizumi, who are both great talents, are perfectly complementary. Everyone is exactly in the right place.
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If Takahashi were to ever be promoted out of EPD, Koizumi would likely be his successor. I wouldn't mind that, given that he outlined the overall software strategy for Nintendo Switch being its General Producer.
 
MagiCarbo said:
If Takahashi were to ever be promoted out of EPD, Koizumi would likely be his successor. I wouldn't mind that, given that he outlined the overall software strategy for Nintendo Switch being its General Producer.
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Koizumi, while a good pick, feels like he already has too much hands already. With him being Switch general producer, one of veteran 3D Mario developer, Nintendo Direct host, and recently company director at Nintendo Pictures.

If he were to become the next head of EPD, he would've cut some role out. Mainly Nintendo Pictures director, but given his degrees in motion pictures. I doubt he want to cut tie from visual productions entirely.
 
P.Scoop said:
Koizumi, while a good pick, feels like he already has too much hands already. With him being Switch general producer, one of veteran 3D Mario developer, Nintendo Direct host, and recently company director at Nintendo Pictures.

If he were to become the next head of EPD, he would've cut some role out. Mainly Nintendo Pictures director, but given his degrees in motion pictures. I doubt he want to cut tie from visual productions entirely.
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I think there's some other candidates as well.

Hisashi Nogami - When he took over Group 2 at EAD from Katsuya Eguchi, he led the teams' jump into a completely new IP with Splatoon, rather than just more Animal Crossing or Wii Sports. I think he'd do a good job supporting the teams to take big creative risks.

Kouichi Kawamoto - The head of Production Group No. 4 at EPD, Kawamoto is the Switch's hardware director and runs perhaps EPD's most productive internal team, developing at least 1-2 games a year. He'd probably be able to get the most out of the other EPD groups as well as its subsidiaries and partners.

Toyokazu Nonoka - Seemingly has taken over external development at EPD from vets like Yamagami and Tanabe. He's been the overall producer on everything from Fire Emblem, to Mario Kart Live, to DC Superhero Girls as the head of Group 2. He has experience working with outside partners and international studios, so he could probably turn EPD into more of a global operation by setting up departments within NoA or NoE.

Katsuya Eguchi - Creator of one of Nintendo's most important IP, recent producer on external EPD projects like Xenoblade and Kirby, EPD's representative at SRD, seems to understand what makes each game unique.
 
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All of the people mentioned are very talented, but a very large portion of them (as well as Koizumi, by the way) are not much younger than Takahashi, so I don't think it fits in with the idea of preparing the future direction of EPD. And among the younger producers that are emerging, I don't see anyone who has the overall stature and importance that Egushi and Koizumi had when they were named EPD's deputy managers.

It will be very interesting to see if, in the coming years, people like Kosuke Yabuki or Aya Kyogoku will have more in the company. Hidemaro Fujibayashi seems to be the obvious successor to Aonuma, but he is already 50 years old.

In general, the emergence of new generations at Nintendo is probably one of the most exciting topics to discuss.
 
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Ask The Developer Vol. 9, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom will likely come out on May 9th, 4 chapters for this one.

Some predictions who will be there, but at this point this aren't even predictions as it will likely be the same PR as with BOTW.

Eiji Aonuma, Producer, Deputy General Manager Entertainment Planning & Development Department, Production Group No. 3

Hidemaro Fujibayashi, Director, Entertainment Planning & Development Department, General Manager Production Group No. 3

Satoru Takizawa, Art Director, Entertainment Planning & Development Department, Production Group No. 3

Takuhiro Dohta, Technical Director, Entertainment Planning & Development Department, Production Group No. 3

Hajime Wakai, Sound Director, Entertainment Planning & Development Department, Production Group No. 3

There will likely be the making of videos as with BOTW in coming weeks.
 
www.zelda.com

The Legend of Zelda™️️: Tears of the Kingdom for Nintendo Switch™️️ – News

Read the latest news articles about The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom for the Nintendo Switch™ system.
www.zelda.com www.zelda.com

2250x1266_ATD-TOTK-WN
 
The Legend of Zelda series seems to be one of those franchises where the visual style and game mechanics often change drastically for each entry. Was there ever a discussion about creating a new game with a completely new world, rather than a sequel?

Aonuma: No, not really. Although the previous title, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, has its own conclusion, we started to come up with new ideas that we wanted to bring to life in this already realized version of Hyrule, so our direction in making a sequel did not change.

Fujibayashi: Just like somewhere you know inside and out, we understand where everything is in Hyrule from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and because of that, we believed it was possible to create new gameplay. For this reason, in the initial proposal, we clearly stated "the setting will not change" as an important concept. Even when I shared this with the team members here, there were no objections, and we were all aligned on that idea from that point onward.

Dohta: When I was working on the programming for Wuhu Island during Wii Sports Resort's development (6), I remembered Miyamoto-san saying that he wanted to “turn the actual stages of games into characters.” What he meant by that was to create one island and use that as a base to add various kinds of gameplay in different games. The idea of having new discoveries in the same setting was striking to me. I'd been wanting to try this idea with other titles, and I supposed this game would leverage that kind of approach.
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Judging by TotK and the way BotW turned out in some respects there must be a ton that was left on the cutting room floor but I suspect that even if they keep this incarnation Link and Zelda for the next one we're going to leave Hyrule behind.
 
This AskTheDev seems to be a lot shorter than the other ones, likely for gameplay/ story spoilers. I can bet that they will do making of videos just like BOTW.

EDIT: Nintendo deleted both parts lol, it was supposed to be coming later today at usual 11PM JST slot, this timing was weird.
 
I got the whole Part 2 still open on the tab, if everyone is interested reading that before it goes official later today. On the website they say that part 3 will be available on May 10th (likely with part 4). So these first 2 parts will be coming in roughly 6.5 hours from now (11PM JST).

Part 2: Linking hands​

Now let’s move on to the things that have changed from the previous game. Speaking of which, I immediately noticed that Link looks a little different in this title, doesn’t he

Aonuma: Yes, his right arm. We wanted an iconic feature that would make it obvious at first glance that it's the Link from this game. Speaking of Link's arm, “hands” is a major theme in this title.

InsertedImage_03_EN

“Hands”? Can you elaborate on this?

Fujibayashi: Titles in the Legend of Zelda series intertwine all the elements of gameplay, mechanics, and story, and combine them all into a single game. For this title, we chose “hands” as the key theme to bring them all together. For example, abilities that Link uses to solve puzzles are all released from his hand and arm. We even included this symbolically in the game's mechanics, such as having scenes that use hands when opening special doors. This "hands" theme also crops up here and there as a key element as the story develops.

Dohta: The previous game was a relatively lonesome game, or rather an endurance game where you made full use of Link's body and strength alone to traverse the vast world. What's unique this time is joining hands and cooperating with various characters, and at times, creating items with Link's own hands and utilizing them as you progress.

Takizawa: We were intentional about making this “hands” theme show through in the visuals as well as in the story direction. If you watch the trailers that we've released so far, I think you may be able to get a sense of this atmosphere.

Wakai: We also expressed the “hands” theme by implementing handclaps and such in the game's music.

Aonuma: Well, simply put, "hands" expresses the idea of "connecting." This applies to the story too, which connects to Hyrule's past. It also talks about a major struggle called "The Imprisoning War," which until now was considered a myth even in Hyrule.

Fujibayashi: And the protagonist's name is "Link" after all.

Aonuma: Oh... I just got the connection... (Laughs)

Everyone: (Laughs)

Aonuma: It’s funny how these things work out, isn’t it? You don’t notice these things when you’re developing the game. But then after you’re done, you see that all sorts of things were actually connected. And you realize, “Oh, so that’s what we were doing...” you know?

So there are certain fundamental things that you wouldn't change because it's a sequel, and it becomes a matter of creating something new within those existing boundaries. It all sounds pretty challenging.

Aonuma: We set those boundaries ourselves, but new gameplay elements are born when we break through them. So we were "breaking boundaries."

Takizawa: “Breaking boundaries." That’s a good phrase!

Aonuma: Turns out that a lot of the boundaries were pretty durable. (Laughs)

Everyone: (Laughs)

Takizawa: On the other hand, the sound maintained just the right number of similarities with the previous title so that it feels like an adventure in the same world.

Wakai: Exactly. We intended to keep iconic sounds from the previous title, such as the sounds that play when you obtain an item or solve a puzzle.

Aonuma: Breaking boundaries doesn't mean you can just destroy whatever you like, though. Those boundaries give you the basis to feel safe about taking risks elsewhere.

No matter how everything else changes, when you hear those sounds, you'll think, "Oh, that's a Legend of Zelda game!" right?

Aonuma: That reminds me of how the word “déjà vu” cropped up many times during development. We were supposed to be making something different, but the various things we made gave off a similar impression to what we'd done previously. But as development went on, we'd look at the game as a whole and sometimes discover that those things suddenly took a different shape because of the new elements we'd added. Until then, we were anxiously trying to change things up, but at some point, we realized that some of them were already as they should be.

So there was one approach to make changes to remove that "déjà vu" feeling. And there was another to keep things the same because that's the way they should be. Was everyone on the development team on the same page from early on about those two approaches?

Fujibayashi: Not in the slightest. There were many instances, even later on in development, where we struggled to differentiate the two. It was a constant and difficult process where we and the development team continued to mull over and discuss until we all came to an agreement.

Takizawa: We often experienced strong déjà vu, particularly in the early stages, and we thought it was imperative to transform how the game felt as much as we could. We worked hard with that thought in mind, but once we got to a certain point in development, we were able to identify areas that would lose their appeal if we changed them.

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Fujibayashi: We started to think positively by calling what we decided not to change "the Great Mundanity." (Laughs)

Takizawa: By the end, the definition of this “Great Mundanity” became clear, so even if a team member approached us about a déjà vu feeling, we felt more comfortable asking them to intentionally keep something unchanged.

I suppose it’s like when a sense of values that isn't shared by everybody eventually clicks into place through trial and error.

Aonuma: Video game development is always like that. When various pieces come together and things start clicking into place, there's a moment when "This is fine..." becomes "This is it!"
 
LukasManak22 said:
Aonuma: Well, simply put, "hands" expresses the idea of "connecting." This applies to the story too, which connects to Hyrule's past. It also talks about a major struggle called "The Imprisoning War," which until now was considered a myth even in Hyrule.
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This is an incredible detail to just reveal like this lmao
 
Yeah, part 2 just further confirms what a difficult undertaking this must have been to take a world that many, including the development team, are intimately familiar with and to try to transform it into something new. I hope they nailed it but I can definitely see it not work for everyone.
 
Dardan Sandiego said:
Judging by TotK and the way BotW turned out in some respects there must be a ton that was left on the cutting room floor but I suspect that even if they keep this incarnation Link and Zelda for the next one we're going to leave Hyrule behind.
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So, Miyamoto and Wii Sports Resort were to blame all along! Pssh
 
Actually really like the tidbit that one of Miyamoto's aims from the Wii era comes around again on Switch and gets applied to Zelda in a really interesting and challenging way.
 
Imprisoning war u say....
They really went all in on the lore, and here I was thinking Breath of the Wild was going to be a clean break lollol

Also isn't it said that the imprisoning war only really happened in the Downfall Timeline because the events of Ocarina of Time depict Ganon being sealed without that war or something?
Aonuma just causally confirming the timeline placement would be very funny
 
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That “Great Mundanity” quote is going to be used endlessly by people who feel the changes are not significant enough
 
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www.nintendo.com

Ask the Developer Vol. 9, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom—Part 1 - News - Nintendo Official Site

This article has been translated from the original Japanese content. The images shown in this interview were created during development. In this ninth volume of Ask the Developer, an interview series in which Nintendo developers convey in their own …
www.nintendo.com www.nintendo.com

www.nintendo.com

Ask the Developer Vol. 9, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom—Part 2 - News - Nintendo Official Site

This article has been translated from the original Japanese content. The images shown in this interview were created during development. Check out the rest of the interview: Part 1 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 2: Linking hands Now let’s move on to the …
www.nintendo.com www.nintendo.com
 
LukasManak22 said:
Like a clockwork, thank you.

www.nintendo.co.jp

開発者に訊きました : ゼルダの伝説　ティアーズ オブ ザ キングダム｜任天堂

『ゼルダの伝説　ティアーズ オブ ザ キングダム』の開発者に話を訊いてみました。
www.nintendo.co.jp www.nintendo.co.jp
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Machine translation is great as always
Set in the Hailal Kingdom, which was dedicated to the power of God、The main character, Link, which is the alter ego of the player、
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They say that Part 3 is releasing tomorrow, but I am here already leaking it for you right here, you're welcome:

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And while we are at it, here are pictures from Part 4, coming May 11th:

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maybe spoilers (but this will be shown in Part 3-4)
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Great insight into the decision to reuse Hyrule. Makes sense that the devs wanted to see what they could do with an existing world, it's not something they've done before and it seems they appreciated the challenge
 
In tomorrow's interview they are literally showing TotK prototype running on Wii U. Imao. All these jokes about "where is TotK for Wii U?" It's pretty common for Nintendo to do prototypes on older hardware, just like ARMS was running on Wii U.
 
Huh, I was not expecting a timeline confirmation from this, but if the Imprisoning War is involved, then I guess it has to be the Downfall Timeline… So I was wrong about the Child Timeline this whole time. Well, I hope they actually attempt to explain why/how BotW/TotK can take place in the Downfall Timeline in this game, particularly when it comes to Ganondorf and the Gerudo. It’s also weird that all the OoT-era races are back (plus Rito) at the end of the Downfall Timeline when the implication has been that they’ve mostly died out towards the end of that timeline (further strengthened by how ALBW handled the races).
 
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The "hands are a big theme" thing is something I called from the start: There is a lot of subtle focus on hands in the very first 2019 trailer if you look hard enough. Very interesting choice of big theme - can't wait to see how it translates into the full game.
 
LukasManak22 said:
In tomorrow's interview they are literally showing TotK prototype running on Wii U. Imao. All these jokes about "where is TotK for Wii U?" It's pretty common for Nintendo to do prototypes on older hardware, just like ARMS was running on Wii U.
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Projects starting there and moving over made sense, like Luigi's Mansion 3. Games take a long time to develop, lots of early Switch games probably started life targeting the Wii U.

The direct sequel to a game that was ported to Switch during the development period getting a Wii U prototype is more interesting, and I'm curious if we'll find out why that was done. They seemed to know they were done releasing new Wii U titles at that point, and they had final Switch hardware to work with, so... what gives?
 
Jersh said:
Projects starting there and moving over made sense, like Luigi's Mansion 3. Games take a long time to develop, lots of early Switch games probably started life targeting the Wii U.

The direct sequel to a game that was ported to Switch during the development period getting a Wii U prototype is more interesting, and I'm curious if we'll find out why that was done. They seemed to know they were done releasing new Wii U titles at that point, and they had final Switch hardware to work with, so... what gives?
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Looking at the footage it seems like it's just base BOTW game running on the Wii U with just testing some stuff. Hard to tell without the context yet. Of course TotK is Switch title first and foremost. Might be pretty simple explanation for this but am not a game developer.

 
slide's said:
I love the comparison/inspiration from Wuhu Island for recontextualizing the same world across games
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Wuhu island getting a shoutout gives me hope

(I’ll take pilot wings, switch sports 2, or anything)
 
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LukasManak22 said:
Looking at the footage it seems like it's just base BOTW game running on the Wii U with just testing some stuff. Hard to tell without the context yet. Of course TotK is Switch title first and foremost. Might be pretty simple explanation for this but am not a game developer.

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Could just be that they were still more comfortable with the Wii U base, but... I dunno, seems weird.

Leo said:
Reading the bit about how realistic they made the sound, I think I'm gonna play with headphones.
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It's really tempting me to go back to a 5.1 setup sooner than planned (just moved, couldn't take the old one with me)
 
Pretty interesting read. The mention of the imprisoning war was hype inducing. But there is not that much new information about the game they seem to digress too much in this one for my liking, so in general it’s a bit dull, they don’t really want to spoil anything Indeed!
 
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