While Western game development teams have been going through several layoffs in recent times, Japanese studios have largely been steady. In an interview with GameSpot, The Legend of Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma spoke about the subject, noting that Nintendo avoids layoffs in order to build up institutional knowledge that ends up paying off in the long term.
He also noted that, since developers at Nintendo tend to be quite experienced with the company’s processes, “every time you get to the next step, it’s easier to discuss how to proceed, or if you’re going to do something new.” Along with this, long-term-tenured staff members also help by mentoring new employees, which once again pays off in the long term.
“When you have new staff coming in, of course you want to make sure that you’re bringing everyone up with a lot of discussion, explaining how to do things, why you’re doing things certain ways, as well as the language that you’re using, but that takes some more time as well. So, you need a bit of a balance. You don’t want your new staff doing things by rote or without understanding the reasons, you have to invest there.”
Pointing to the team behind The Legend of Zelda that has seen plenty of changes over time, Aonuma also noted that it has continued to maintain “a continuity of core staff” between projects that has allowed the franchise to maintain its identity while also experimenting with new ideas every now and then. This, he says, is a broader trend at Nintendo, going all the way back to when Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto was more hands-on with projects.
“And so you do see the Zelda team change over time, but there is a continuity of core staff, certainly at least from one project to the next, so that we have that base that we can build from and bring up new staff within it. And this is something that I think Nintendo has done for a very long time, even since Miyamoto originally worked on projects like this. And it contributes to some of the sense of continuity that you do feel in games in the Zelda franchise, for example.”
Aonuma has been quite open in recent interviews thanks to the release of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Remake. In a recent one with Nintendo, he spoke about the infamous Water Temple of the original Ocarina of Time and apologized. He went on to call it “some overdue homework” that he had to take care of when it was time for Nintendo to work on the remake.
“I had some overdue homework: I wanted to do something about the Water Temple I created 28 years ago. (Laughs) Since it became well known for its difficulty in the original game, I had the team make some adjustments in this version. When I designed the Water Temple all those years ago, I wanted to create an experience where simply being underwater was fun.”
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Remake is available on Nintendo Switch 2.
