The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is a remarkable game that is praised for its ability to improve and iterate breath of the wild. In the weeks following the game’s release, there’s been all kinds of breathless praise for how Nintendo has crafted a game that seems to surpass the technical capabilities of the seven-year-old Switch hardware.
To the developers, the game looks like magic. But in a presentation at the 2024 Game Developers Conference, Nintendo said it’s not magic, but a unique, well-executed development strategy that nonetheless looks amazing.
In conversation, Technical Director Takuhiro Dohta tears of kingdomexplaining that the game has two main driving principles: “a vast and seamless Hyrule” and “multiplicative gameplay.”
The first one is relatively simple. “We want players to be able to see things in the distance and have players go there,” Dota said.This concept is inherited from breath of the wild, meet new challenges of seamlessly connecting the sky, the surface and the underground.We can see how this integration works tears of kingdom Link’s free fall pose as he descends from the sky to the surface, and then back down between the surface and underground. This action ties together the three different worlds of Hyrule.
However, Dota warns that creating a large, interconnected world doesn’t mean it will be inherently fun. The fun, he explains, comes from the second principle: multiplication gameplay.
Dohta defines multiplicative gameplay as a system by which players can combine actions and objects to create their own way of playing. Dota explained that the developers didn’t want to create fun through discretely designed real-time gameplay events, but instead wanted to create a system that “makes fun happen.”
The seeds for this “make fun happen” system first appeared in breath of the wild There’s also the Octopus Balloon, a monster piece that Link can attach to heavy objects to make them float in the air.for tears of kingdomThe developers later expanded on this idea by gluing various objects together, resulting in “fuse” and “overhand” abilities – abilities that let Link combine objects to build weapons, items, and structures.
But in order for the multiplication game to truly work, every interactive object in Hyrule must behave in a specific and predictable way. This requires Takahiro Takayama, tears of kingdomPhysics Programmer, described as “a world driven entirely by physics”.
One of the first issues that came up was what Gao Shan calls a conflict between physically driven objects and rigid body objects. A rigid object is an object for which each of its properties (mass, speed, weight, etc.) is specifically designed, regardless of its appearance.already tears of kingdomDuring development, Hyrule’s various gear mechanisms were rigid objects. At the same time, the properties of physics-based objects are controlled by physics; the large metal boxes scattered across the Sky Islands above Hyrule are one example.
Takayama explained that while rigid objects are easy to make, they can create all kinds of problems when they are mixed with physically driven objects. Just like matter and antimatter, when physically driven objects interact with rigid objects, the world falls apart. One example involves rigid body gears passing through a metal box inserted between them. The solution to this problem is simple. “Everything, without exception, is physics-driven and necessary to make the multiplication game a reality,” Takayama said.
Since everything is physics driven, every interactive object in Hyrule behaves the way players expect – metal boxes now prevent gears from turning.
Hyrule then becomes “a world where players can express their creativity without having to do anything.” [fear of] Collapse,” Gao Shan said. “This is a world where anything can happen, depending on the player’s imagination. “
Takayama said having everything driven by physics eliminates the need for what he calls a “dedicated implementation.” This will involve creating a program for each function and interaction. Without a physics-driven system, each of Link’s actions would require its own custom program to function. If developers wanted Link to drive a certain vehicle, they would need to create a dedicated program to manage the vehicle.
Although making every object in Hyrule physics-driven was technically challenging, it alleviated the need to create so many specialized programs during the development cycle.
“Instead of creating a vehicle program, we created a system that can build a vehicle,” Takayama explained.
The distinction may seem subtle, but that subtlety is where all the “magic” lies tears of kingdom layman.When developers panic tears of kingdomof bridge physics and wondering how they could program a bridge to function properly without malfunctioning, the fact is that they made systems that controlled every single component of the bridge: its slats, links, and even The various forces that interact with it, such as wheels. Even the game’s music uses this modular approach. Ohta Junya, tears of kingdom’s sound designer explained that the game’s carriage sounds did not come from his team going out to record carriage sounds.
“There was no sound of the carriage, just the sound of wheels and chains and creaking joints,” Osada said.
These systems facilitate a variety of emerging gameplay styles, allowing tears of kingdom Such a special game. Players will be able to use them in ways the developers themselves never thought of.
One example of these systems is the humble portable Pot Zonai device.exist breath of the wildPreviously, cooking was done in dedicated locations, but with the portable pot, Link can now cook anywhere. Because everything, including cooking ingredients, is physics-driven, the developers faced a problem: If Link decided to cook on the side of a mountain, all of his ingredients would slide out of the pot.
With a specialized implementation, it will simply cook rice no matter where the pot is placed, without the need for anything else. However, the multiplication game concept ensures that no matter where the pot is placed, the cooking surface will be oriented horizontally so your soup won’t overflow. This gives the pot a greater purpose beyond cooking, allowing it to be used as a ball joint, allowing for all kinds of wacky creations.
Nintendo’s tears of kingdom The team explains that the game’s success is based on the idea that players should have their own fun based on a powerful physics system that applies to every object in the game.But there was another, self-evident reason for this conversation. tears of kingdom Shortlisted for 2023 Game of the Year: Nintendo retains talent.
In an industry where the average career length is measured in the single digits, every speaker has worked at Nintendo for at least 10 years. This retention rate is a huge factor in Nintendo’s continued success. Institutional knowledge is preserved, teams are able to work together more easily, and disruption from turnover is limited. While Nintendo is by no means a perfect company, it seems to understand that the best way to get great games is to hire and retain great people.
“Working with game designers and artists who understand the vision,” Dota said, “is crucial to bringing this vast world to life.”