The Legend of Zelda

How Nintendo Solved the Biggest Problem in Breath of the Wild's Design

• Nintendo faced a challenge in creating an open-world game that allowed players to explore freely while advancing the story.
• The initial idea of using Sheikah Towers as waypoints to lead players around the map failed as players felt trapped on a linear path.
• Nintendo shifted to luring players towards a variety of landmarks like shrines, stables, and enemy camps, each with obvious benefits.
• The landmarks were made to stick out from a distance or a high-up vantage point to draw players towards them.
• Nintendo created the "triangle rule" to block overwhelming fields of things to do, guiding the player's eye to the tip of the triangle where points of interest were placed.
• The triangle rule created a constant source of surprise and curiosity as new locations were revealed while moving towards a landmark.
• Players followed a breadcrumb trail of interesting landmarks, eventually leading them to Breath of the Wild's most important locales.
• This approach was much more organic and player-driven than the previous system of following a specific line.
• Players naturally picked places to go based on their curiosity and current goal or mood.
• Nintendo could see on the heatmap that all players fell into their vision for the game, freely exploring various places but eventually getting to the key locations.
• The team used data from Google Maps to get a sense of scale and density and had to make all-new tools to allow for a large team to collaborate on a single map.
• Through clever design, Nintendo created an open-world game that beautifully balances guidance and exploration, offering a freeform adventure experience.