Ocarina of Time 3D
Miyamoto immediately wanted to recreate the vast field of Ocarina the first time he saw the 3DS screen.
Steel Diver
Development is moving along nicely; it’s almost complete at this point. Been in development for six years, haha.
When Nintendo DS was first shown, this game was shown as a tech demo (submarine). It was very well suited to the touch screen because of its mechanics. It was gradually developed over the years into the product which is now has become.
Miyamoto is the type of gamer that quickly gets frustrated and resorts to mashing buttons (a factor of his age, he says), so it’s nice to occasionally get something which is easy to digest and slow-moving.
He really wanted to see this game in 3D. “It’s almost like you have a little submarine pet in your aquarium at home.”
Star Fox!
The Arwing you witnessed in the video… it’s much easier to tell where you are firing and how far in the distance your enemies lie. That makes Star Fox well suited to the 3D displays. The top screen also allows for communication transmissions without interfering with the flow of the gameplay on the bottom screen.
Of course, they’re much more than simply ports. They have been talking with the teams to find ways to improve the games and add things which were not available in the originals. They’re having a lot of fun with the development of these games.
It’s much easier in general to hit items in 3D space thanks to the 3DS. Miyamoto and gang are having a lot of fun discovering what they can do in 3D space now that the new dimension of presentation is available to them.
Since it’s all in one portable system, everyone who purchases it has the same capabilities, regardless of all other circumstances. So the hardware consistency is a major plus; there is no need to develop the games with concern for that factor.
It was very important to have one person as the overseer of the entire 3DS project; Hideki Konno oversees the hardware, software, etc. Of course, he worked on Mario Kart series and Nintendogs; now, he oversees all of the 3DS hardware and software details.
(Konno):
The work on 3DS has been a very good experience for him.
Now he has a better understanding of how difficult this type of work can be.
Nintendogs + Cats
Thought he would be fooling us into thinking they were developing Nintencats, not
Cats are interesting. They’re kind of like girls; if they come and talk to you, it’s great. But when you go and talk to them, it may not go so well. They’re pets and all, but you can’t teach them any tricks. They sort of do their own thing.
They originally put the cats into the Nintendogs model but it was weird having them sit and wag their tails in dog form, so they, of course, adjusted for the cat factor and simply included them as an extra. It is interesting to watch dogs and cats interact with each other, so this is one of the reasons Mr. Miyamoto wanted to have them included.
Mr. Miyamoto got a kitten and enjoyed the interactions between them, and so they decided to implement this into the development plan.
With Nintendo 3DS they are able to bring out the different fur types and it’s really great, what with the increased graphical horsepower.
They also worked on increasing the variation of dogs and so forth. Plus, they wanted to add a new form of communication with the dogs. So they utilize the inner camera to recognize the player’s face… so if you look at the screen and tilt your head from side to side, the dog will match your movements. If you put your face close to the screen, the dog will jump up and lick your face.
Also, if the dog does not recognize you, it may run and hide in the distance until it grows accustomed to your company.
General 3DS
All communication takes place automatically on many games (Animal Crossing, so forth) while the 3DS is closed.
Tag mode data with DS has always been a huge hit in Japan. Most recently, DQ9, with its map trading functionality et al has been very popular in many of the electric communities of Japan (Akihabara for instance). Nintendogs has always been popular in this realm as well.
(Aonuma takes the stage)
(Eric from the NOA Treehouse is playing)
Aonuma:
Sorry to beat a dead horse, but please do turn off your cell phones and other wireless devices to prevent what happened this morning [at the media briefing] from taking place again here.
Development began with gameplay as the focus. Obviously with Wii MotionPlus the ability to control your sword and shield as such is something they have wanted to leverage for a long time.
It is harder to get lost in the game; the map is easier to follow.
One of the objectives is that — one of the reasons people continue to come back to the gameplay is that, while the core gameplay is something they keep consistent, people focus so commonly on the number of dungeons, etc, that Miyamoto and team want to bring the game back to the original focus on the core gameplay.
Oftentimes there can be a major lag between when a game is shown and when development is actually complete. So instead, Nintendo this time only had a single piece of art to show at E3 last year… but the game was actually very far along at this point. Now, with what is being shown, the gameplay is very complete and you are beginning to see where the visual style is going to end up. There are still a few more dungeons to complete and they are looking at including at some more challenging bosses.
They will try to have the game ready as soon as possible next year, just to be safe. Since this game is atypical of the usual Zelda development process, they wanted to play it safe and give it a 2011 release date as they were not confident that they’d have it finished in time for this year.
STORY:
Cut scene where Link dives off into the clouds. A very impacting scene; and it’s a very important point in the storyline this time around. Link is a young man who was born and raised in the floating land above the clouds called Skyloft. Link thinks this to be completely normal as it’s where he grew up. However, one day it is revealed to him that another land exists beneath the clouds. The land beneath the clouds is ruled be evil forces and is very dangerous. However, thanks to this incident where it was revealed to him, he is forced to go into that world and fight the evil. He must travel back and forth between Skyloft and this other land. What has led him to the other land and taken him on this adventure is, in fact, the Skyward Sword.
And you can see the mysterious figure behind Link in the artwork from last year. When it is leading him, the sword will take on this form. The sword is also, in fact, the Master Sword. What exactly is the Skyward Sword? Hopefully you can imagine that for yourselves. Actually, he’ll just tell us that the Skyward Sword becomes the Master Sword.
That’s the basic storyline behind the title. Skies are also very important to the game. One of the reasons the graphical style is the way it is is that they wanted to emphasize the types of skyward environments that are included.
Drawn some inspiration from impressionism.
Also, because of the Wii MotionPlus sword controls, you have to pay close attention to your enemies’ movements to identify their weaknesses. They demonstrate this to the player with over-exaggerated look of the enemies. The art style allows for this without it looking too strange.
If they had used the same graphics as TP the game would already be finished.
They think there is a great marriage between the gameplay and the graphic style. They are expecting a very good balance between all of those items in the finished product.
Looking to change the structure of a Zelda game. A lot of attention is being paid to how to bring these worlds together.
Mr. Aonuma was yanked out of another team to work as director on Ocarina of Time; this was his first. He does have one horrible memory from that time which has lasted since that time which he wishes to make amends for.
Aonuma regrets the difficulty and tedium of the Water Temple. So he wishes to lay the evil shame of having to wear, remove, wear, remove the Iron Boots to rest via the touch screen of the Nintendo 3DS.
They have been investigating the way to make the transition between gameplay and switching items much more seamless; same applies to Skyward Sword.
Slightly different play pattern from what you are probably used to. B to Select, A to Use is a wonderfully streamlined way of dealing with on-the-fly item selection, and you will appreciate it after you get used to it.
Sometimes when switching to the pointer controls it can be difficult to find the pointer, hence the Wii MotionPlus implementation, where it acts sort of like a mouse in 3D space. There is no need to center on anything in particular; movements are relative to whenever you begin the action with this new approach. Even using pointer controls on the show floor can be problematic, so pointer functionality has been turned off in the E3 version. The final version will take advantage of both Wii MotionPlus AND pointer control, so it will be a very smooth experience in terms of control accuracy.
Q&A
Chris asks about the HUD on the side of the screen displaying the Wiimote controls: it takes up a lot of space–is it final?
This was designed and implemented for E3, so we haven’t determined yet, but you may be able to turn that on/off as development progresses. Aonuma cuts in that yes, in fact, they WILL have that option.
Miyamoto adds that, of course, in Zelda you gradually get items as you work through the game. But since many different items are thrown at you all at once at E3 it was important for them to help the player with this.
Orchestrated soundtrack for Zelda?
He doesn’t feel they can do what they did with Mario and then NOT do it with Zelda. As the staff has grown, they can do more.
Pikmin for Wii? Asks Chris from Wired
Miyamoto mentioned this news when accepting a BAFTA award in the UK. He was disappointed that the news spread so quickly, he jokes.
One of his concerns coming into the show this year is that showing Pikmin might get it overlooked. Please rest assured that it is in development.
Heidi asks about the 3D screen affecting the system’s battery life…
They will attempt to match the battery life of Dsi
Jay asks about taking a potion on the run…
They didn’t want to interrupt the game flow during potion drinking as with previous games. It’s yet another aspect of the attempt to keep the flow going.
Roger asks about Zelda:
Having just beaten Spirit Tracks, he noticed the inclusion of the whip item in Skyward Sword.
The same person who implemented it in Skyward Sword is the same person responsible for it in Spirit Tracks. The impetus again was the benefit of Wii MotionPlus, of course.
Most Spirit Tracks creators are working on SS now, then they will finish Pikmin.
Is the team concerned that the sword controls may become tiring after long gaming sessions?
Yes, it can be a little bit tiring, says Miyamoto. He gets pretty into it even while playing at his desk. You have a tendency to gauge your influence on the swings in terms of how hard you swing in real life. With the E3 version they wanted people to enjoy the swordplay, so you’re in a pretty limited space with a lot of enemies coming at you. This is not how the final version will be.
You can, of course, play with smaller movements, says Miyamoto, eliciting laughter from the audience.
Dean from Nsider: In the trailer for Zelda, the evolution of the series is shown. Does this bear any impact on the storyline?
Not really; they just wanted to represent other titles in the series. Sorry for the disappointment.
