Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom 's biggest change since Breath of the Wild was to give players unlimited freedom in a " world free from self-destruction ."
“Every single thing” had to take into account the new systems of physics.
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The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom may use the same basic Hyrule layout as its predecessor, but last year's sequel still feels so radically different because every unit in the game was programmed to be physical. And despite breaking up Hyrule in ways Ganondorf could only dream of, lead physics programmer Takahiro Takayama says the change was "the right approach."
In a presentation at GDC about the game's physics and sound, Takayama described how the team began toying with new ideas like the much-loved Ultrahand, which allows players to glue several objects together to create anything. Vehicles, Korok torture devices, logging tractors, and more are all possible if players dream them up.
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Takayama says, through a translator, that putting Ultrahand in the game while using the static, non-physical objects we saw in Breath of the Wild caused “everyday problems,” but “the key to this solution lay in our experience from developing Breath of the Wild.” Takayama then cites the game’s giant wheels as an example, which wouldn’t be able to grind properly until they could transfer speed.
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“Every single thing, without exception, had to be constructed with dynamic, solid bodies and constraints,” Takayama added. “And that’s what allowed us to create a world in which players can freely translate their creativity and imagination into action without destroying the world.”
Takayama went on to explain that this physical magic had to be extended to the player's abilities, as seen in the video above, where objects can "play" and reach the stratosphere upon collision. "In the end, as with everything else, we also changed Recall to be physics-based," he continued. "As a result, no matter what the player does, we have a world free of self-destruction."
Source: gamesradar
