Smith, the ninth overall pick in last month's NBA Draft, joins the Mavericks as
a future face of the franchise, something made even more important due to Dirk Nowitzki's career drawing near an end.
- Link doesn't have much
of a character in this game - they wanted players to relate to Link and play as themselves - Link's
face doesn't have much expression in this game, and that was done on purpose - for Zelda games, the devs always try to make the player feel like Link - that was pushed even moreso for this entry - everytime a Zelda releases, Aonuma watches fan feedback and considers that for the
future - the items Link uses to solve are always going to be important - regardless
of the tech that Nintendo provides, exploration in the series is important - Link's growth through who he meets is also an important element
of the
franchise - Aonuma thought about Zelda freedom when considering Breath
of the Wild, and was brought back to the days
of the original Zelda - this was a big point
of inspiration for Breath
of the Wild - with Ocarina
of Time 3D, Nintendo wanted to really utilize the 3D and had a desire to let players enjoy Ocarina
of Time outside - the goal with A Link to the Past was creating more depth - Aonuma used to think that getting lost in a 3D world wasn't okay - this lead Aonuma to putting in tons
of hints and guiding players - he has since changed that idea and convinced himself that it's okay to get lost - the first two years
of development the devs created a game where just running around was fun - climbing is very important, because players can climb high and see destinations they want to visit - you can place your own markers to decide where you want to go - when the devs create a Zelda title, they consider not using the name Link - since they don't have anything else to go with, they choose Link - the name Link doesn't hold much value, since the player is the one creating the journey - when Nintendo first created Link, they wanted a character that is literally the link between people - that is why his name is Link - to think that the Zelda series has been around so long that there are all sorts
of urban legends and myths makes Miyamoto really happy
Interestingly, the Dark Souls
franchise is reported to have used HTN, which seems at odds with the rather predictable albeit demanding AI you
face in the game It is expected that this will continue into the
future, with more technologies lifted directly from the AI community being considered as the limitations
of hardware are slowly relaxed for the game development process.