How Nintendo Designed Ultrahand
Hello Patrons!
I am still working hard on Untitled Magnet Game. Mostly level design and playtesting as I move towards the final version. I'll have a new episode of Developing... at some point before Christmas.
In the mean time, here's another video I made back in September to keep the YouTube channel ticking along in my stead: a short look at the Ultrahand mechanic in Tears of the Kingdom, and how Nintendo made it.
You can watch it above, natively on Patreon, completely ad free. And it will be live on YouTube, Nebula, and Substack tomorrow (or right now, if you're not on the early access tier!)
Thanks for your support, you're the best,
Mark
Comments (5)
Thanks for digging up those interviews. I've heard, over and over again (maybe from the same rumor source), that this game was "ready" by other studios' standards but Nintendo spent at least a year polishing this experience. It shows. I haven't had a game-ruining physics bug in this game yet. I'm not *trying* to break it, mind you, but the rarity of that kind of bug in this kind of freeform creation game is pretty amazing from an engineering perspective.
https://twitter.com/GenePark/status/1660297060782952456 Washington Post reporter seems to be the original source, at a quick google.
The design choice to match real-world objects was really cool. Reminds me of Steve Jobs' "skeuomorphism" approach to designing early computer stuff in a way that would be intuitive to people in offices: it's all files inside folders, on your desktop, next to the trash can and the notepad.
Ugh, Patreon's video player is the worst. Keeps buffering and lagging a lot for me. Don't know if they simply have bad infrastructure here in Germany or what. But it seriously makes me reconsider downgrading, since Early Access to get a sub-par experience is pretty useless. :(
Ack, sorry to hear that! If you click the YouTube link it's available there also, as an unlisted video. I'll keep this feedback in mind - if others have a bad experience I won't bother with the Patreon player.