Monolith Soft, the co-developers behind Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, have created a fascinating recruitment portal on their website. Several interviews with the development staff are published there that cover various topics about how they created the character designs, story, sound, and more in Tears of the Kingdom. All the interviews are posted in the native Japanese language, and they seem to be part of a recruitment campaign for a new game.
One of the interviews covered specifics on how the designs for Ganondorf and various enemies were made. “We constantly refined details of what kind of models to create and how to express the character’s personalities, following design guidelines decided by Nintendo’s design leader,” said a Monolith Soft lead modeler known as H.O. “Ganondorf is the character that stands out to me. We discussed how to create a character that wasn’t just strong or evil, but also possess a mysterious charm. In particular, the way the muscles were formed and the shading on the face were points we focused on until the very end to express the desired characteristic of the model.”
“Even at this stage, the direction was quite detailed,” confirms another Monolith Soft lead modeler who specialized in the weapons, known simply as A.O. “However, we didn’t just faithfully translate the idea into a 3D model. We also prioritized adjustments to match how it would look in the game, such as how it would blend in with the background and the sense of size when viewed from behind Link.”
Not surprisingly, Monolith Soft staff worked closely with Nintendo’s Zelda department on even the smallest of details. “Within that process, we would naturally finalize the words to describe the characters,” says A.O. “There is also a culture that boosts the motivation of individuals to grow. At the beginning, I said that I was in charge of the tools used in Monolith, but in fact, the programming language used there is a skill I acquired after joining Monolith Software. I was able to make time to learn, and technical artists also cooperated with me.”
“Through the development of Tears, people with various backgrounds and skills gathered, and the atmosphere of stimulating each other increased even more,” says H.O. “I think it’s a place where you can feel the fun of game development.”
You can find everything in the interview as well as Monolith Soft’s recruitment page in Japanese here.
