Breath Of The Wild's First Playtests Were A Disaster Because Nobody Explored
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was a huge hit, selling over 29 million copies while garnering glowing reviews from critics and players alike. It even became the highest-rated game on OpenCritic when it launched in 2017, now dethroned by Super Mario Odyssey and, as of writing, Tears of the Kingdom. However, initial playtests weren't so positive.
As reported by GamesRadar, there was a developer's conference in Japan a few years ago with a BOTW presentation. Nintendo gave an interview, which is a rare occurrence, but it was unfortunately never released online or translated out of Japanese. However, YouTube channel Game Maker's Toolkit has put together and translated the documents from the event, revealing why BOTW didn't go down well at first.
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Most players didn't break off the path to explore BOTW's world. They'd see a tower in the distance and rigidly follow the road there, meaning that they missed the core tenant of BOTW's design philosophy - go anywhere, do anything, and make your own story. Failing to do that, it became little more than a walk between platforming segments, so Nintendo put forward the 'triangle theory'.
The triangle theory in practice means that BOTW limits your line of sight with things like trees and mountains, inviting you to explore the surrounding area to find out what's lying beyond the barriers. This leads to shrines, villages, side quests, and other hidden nooks and crannies, rather than simply having a tower in the distance invite players to find it. It was a novel strategy and one that resulted in a much better response from playtesters.
Six years later and BOTW's influence can be felt across the industry,
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