Highlights

  • Ultrahand caused chaos for the development team of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom due to broken game elements.
  • Developers reported objects flying frequently in the game, leading to daily challenges for the team.
  • Gates had to be re-developed as physics-driven objects to account for the use of Ultrahand in the game.

The Ultrahand ability caused a lot of problems for the development team of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, according to one team member at GDC 2024. Through several tweaks and adjustments in development, the team at Nintendo was able to make Ultrahand one of the most useful abilities of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom continues to be a very popular title in the Nintendo community, nearly one year after the game's May 2023 launch. The dedicated Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom player base often share their creations online and look for useful new tricks, which can sometimes defy the game's physics and lead to some memorable clips. Some players have even created submersible vehicles in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom to traverse great distances in a short amount of time.

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Reported by TheGamer at a GDC 2024 panel, Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom physics programmer Takehiro Takayama explained that the Ultrahand ability caused a lot of problems, as the development team worked on creating the game's world and features. Takayama knew that development would become "very, very difficult," since the ability was going to break a lot of game elements. Being able to freely use the Ultrahand ability in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom meant that "daily chaos" would ensue and the game's physics engine would require more work to mitigate glitches and other technical issues. Moreover, Takayama would often get reports from fellow development team members about objects flying or breaking in the game.

Ultrahand Caused Problems During the Development of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

  • Ultrahand would cause "daily chaos" for the team due to broken game elements.
  • Developers would report objects flying frequently.
  • Gates were re-developed to account for the use of Ultrahand.

According to Takayama, gates were another issue during early phases of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom's development. Originally, gates were meant to be objects that weren't affected by in-game physics, but the inclusion of the Ultrahand ability meant that Nintendo needed to recreate gates as physics-driven objects. Since Ultrahand can help players move objects over and under certain obstacles in the game, re-developing gates ensured that player freedom was an integral part of the gameplay experience once more.

Despite the development problems, Takayama was pleased with how Ultrahand turned out in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Players are able to combine objects and create contraptions that Takayama couldn't have envisioned during the game's development. At the GDC 2024 panel, Takayama demonstrated a player's Korok carousel, making it clear that the team is aware of the ways that players have tortured Koroks in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.