Nintendo created a 2D prototype of Breath of the Wild modeled after the first Zelda game

[Shawn Knight]

With The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Nintendo is returning to its roots with a world in Hyrule that’s fosters player freedom and exploration.

In a sense, it’s much like the original that arrived 30 years earlier but the two games have much more in common than one might initially think.

During a recent GDC 2017 panel titled Change and Constant – Breaking Conventions with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, game director Hidemaro Fujibayashi revealed that his team created a 2D prototype game in the image of the first Zelda game in order to test gameplay philosophies and ideas for Breath of the Wild.

As IGN notes, Fujibayashi and his team specifically used the prototype to experiment with multiplicative gameplay – making the game so that objects react to the player’s actions and the objects themselves also influence each other.

Fujibayashi said with the new Zelda game, he wanted to create something where the player can truly experience freedom in an expansive playfield. Through exploring this field, Fujibayashi said he wanted the player to be able to experience a new sense of adventure again and again and be able to freely navigate through it as they see fit. It’s this line of thinking that led him back to the original game.

Surely I’m not the only one that thinks Nintendo should consider making a Legend of Zelda Maker-style game after seeing this?

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https://www.techspot.com/news/68369-nintendo-created-2d-prototype-breath-wild-modeled-after.html

 

[Lurker101]

A Legend of Zelda maker style game would be terrible. A better idea would be one where you play as the villain (Gannon for example), constructing elaborate dungeons and employing or enslaving monsters to both guard items that could potentially be your downfall and also to take the lives and money of lesser adventurers, which you could then use to fund the next dungeon, making it bigger and tougher. The dungeons would always need to be completable, in case you ever needed to retrieve the item for yourself (is the story based gameplay limitation) and there would always be a "one true unstoppable hero" to finally complete each dungeon and face you in the end.

I dunno, it seems like a better idea to me.

 

[amstech]

Breath of the Wild is looking to be a console seller, I am very happy for Nintendo.
I hope a new Metroid is soon to follow.

 

[Trillionsin]

A Legend of Zelda maker style game would be terrible. A better idea would be one where you play as the villain (Gannon for example), constructing elaborate dungeons and employing or enslaving monsters to both guard items that could potentially be your downfall and also to take the lives and money of lesser adventurers, which you could then use to fund the next dungeon, making it bigger and tougher. The dungeons would always need to be completable, in case you ever needed to retrieve the item for yourself (is the story based gameplay limitation) and there would always be a "one true unstoppable hero" to finally complete each dungeon and face you in the end.

I dunno, it seems like a better idea to me.

interesting concept. I find it hard to believe something like this wouldnt already exist. If it does, I'd be interested to know. If it doesnt... well, lets hope someone makes it!

 

[Lurker101]

That was just a brief outline of the idea I have, and it can be seriously expanded upon, but I've never heard of any game that currently does something like that. It's an idea that could be used to retell a story from the villains perspective which explains the progression in dungeon difficulty if applied right and could still feature Maker style "try my user created dungeon/level" options. It would have to be a 2D game to avoid over-complicating things and the Links Awakening visual design would work very well for this sort of game.