Developers from all over the world gathered this week at the Game Developers Conference 2024 to shed light on certain details of the video game industry with a professional and studio approach. Although there have been some announcements such as Ubisoft’s AI to create NPCs or the new Chrono Odyssey trailer, the American event focuses on the more technical and professional aspect of our medium. A celebration that, in addition, has left us one of the lists of awards to the best of the year most importantly with Tears of the Kingdom as the winner of Best Technology, and Baldur’s Gate 3 as Best Game of the Year.
As it could not be otherwise, the Belgian studio Larian Studios has once again left its mark on the industry, dominating the annual Game Developers Choice Awards ceremony with Baldur’s Gate 3. The night was a feast of successes for the studio, with the European RPG taking home four awards, including the coveted title of Game of the Year or that of Best Narrative.
Apart from this, other of the most desired awards It’s of Better Technology. With this vision provided by dozens of developers, engineers and other accredited professionals, the GDC has established itself as one of the benchmarks in terms of awards, and this award has gone to The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
Although Nintendo’s most recent magnum opus was criticized for his performance irregular, with drops in the image rate from 30 to 20 FPS depending on the areas; as well as an uneven use of resources with the use of the Ultramano or in the Kakariko Village, the Japanese open world has stood out over the competition because even with its launch problems, the game is a technical marvel.
Nintendo explains the difficulties faced in developing the game
At the same GDC, as part of Nintendo’s participation in the event’s official talks, the Japanese team has recounted the technical juggling that they had to do to carry out Tears of the Kingdom. The idea of ​​”letting the player do what they want with the game world and its objects” ran head-on with how static Breath of the Wild was compared to what they would achieve.
“When I first saw the prototype, I was excited to think it was going to be a great game, but it was going to be very, very difficult“, he mentioned Takahiro Takayama, game physics programmer. Physics, in this case, became one of the playable and creation pillars of the game. According to IGN of Takayama’s participation, “the freedom offered by Ultraman caused chaos in Hyrule during development.” Apparently, after including it and performing the relevant tests, it was constantly heard “It broke! It flew away!” within the development team.
The game’s director, Takuhiro Dohta, emphasized the importance of creating a physics system that did that fun things happened rather than just designing something fun. As he cited, in the end this is reflected in various aspects of the game, including customizable vehicles, where players were able to create our own vehicles using our simplest and most complex imagination.
Even the physical were capitals for him sound design from Tears of the Kingdom. Junya Osada, Nintendo audio programmer, tells how a system that uses information from voxels to create 3D terrain and determine how sounds interact in the game world. A clearly innovative, but risky, approach that has led the open world to win the Best Technology award.
