Long time Zelda producer and director Eiji Aonuma recently spoke about Breath of the Wild, which he said was the most fun he’s had making a game. He is quoted saying the latest issue of GameInformer:
“It was really fun to develop – maybe the most fun I’ve ever had making a game. It was because of the staff. They took so much initiative, and were always looking at everything in the game with this eye to improve.”
He added that this initiative from the other developers was what gave him courage as a producer, seeing that their ideas might actually work.
“I could see it every day. As a producer, it gave me a lot of courage, and made me realize ‘Okay, this could actually work.'”
Every Zelda game has tried something different, but Breath of the Wild was very different: it was the first open-world Zelda game where players have much more freedom than ever before.
“We were doing challenging new things, but we always did them with a smile. I don’t think I’ve experienced that before. The development experience was so great, and the game that came out of it was great. That’s something I’m really proud of.”
Zelda: Breath of the Wild is one of the best rated games of all time according to Metacritic. The game has sold 5 million copies as of December 2017.
Now he’s at work on the next Zelda game.
