Bill Trinen: How Zelda Team creates three games at the same time

It’s set to be a great couple of years for Zelda fans. Not only have we got The Wind Waker HD being released on the Wii U later this year, but we also have two original games on the 3DS and Wii U, the latter of which we will probably get a glimpse of at this year’s E3. It’s a lot of work for anyone to take on, even for Aonuma’s talented team of developers at Nintendo EAD. In a recent interview with Kotaku, Nintendo of America’s Bill Trinen shed some light on how the Zelda development team functions in such demanding times, revealing some fascinating info on the workings of how Zelda games are made. Hit the jump to find out more.

Trinen’s role as a translator means that he, more than anyone else at Nintendo of America, often gains some the most insightful views into how the Nintendo EAD works in Kyoto. His interview with Kotaku reveals the shuffling system employed by Nintendo to ensure that each of the individual development processes for the three Zelda games are kept fresh and all staff members can input thoughts and ideas.

“They kind of shuffle people in and out, so they’ll sort of have their core group, but then they’re bringing new people in and out, so that helps bring in fresh ideas. Each of the different games will have their main lead director, or maybe depending on the game, they may have two…Generally the way that the Zelda team operates is they may have one or two people who carry over or take the lead, but they do a lot of kind of jumping in and out in terms of moving from handheld to console, or vice-versa.”

It is certainly interesting to see the sort of system Nintendo uses to make Zelda games, especially when the same team are developing three games at once, which is a task which I imagine must be difficult to organise and keep in check even at the best of times. But what do you think? Do you perhaps think that Nintendo are biting off more than they can chew in terms of development? Does the quote maybe make you want to learn more about what goes on behind the scenes at Nintendo? Tell us in the comments below!

Source: Nintendo Everything