One of the biggest problems in the gaming space currently, on the development side, at least, is that numerous developers attempt to make large-scale AAA titles that will “appease gamers” but don’t fully test out those worlds or fill them with meaningful content. When a developer goes that extra mile to ensure that everything is quality, it shows. A title that did that in spades was The Legend of Zelda Tears Of The Kingdom. The game built upon everything that its predecessor did and then gave players multiple new areas to explore so they could truly see Hyrule in a new way.
Given how much was done within it, one might be curious as to how Nintendo pulled off the quality checking in a space so big. As noted by GameWatch, Nintendo was at a special developers’ conference in Japan, where they talked about how they set up a special kind of “social media” for its developers and testers so that they could make notes and interact with one another in real time. They created a kind of “Rupee Bulletin Board,” one to post notes on what they were seeing in the game and give the higher-ups the chance to see just what needed to be fixed.
The use of Rupees was to help assign importance, while also agreeing with the feedback that was being posted. The only caveat was that developers were told to not post “personal feelings” about what they were playing, but things that could be “backed up by evidence.”
That might sound like a simplistic way to handle such a large game, but sometimes, the simplest ways are the best ones. According to Nintendo, the board was a big hit, as it allowed for constant feedback while also ensuring that there weren’t a lot of “similar posts,” as everything was visible on the board. Plus, since they were posting in real time, they could simply upload their thoughts, leave them on the boar, and then go back to testing the massive game.
Considering that its predecessor had about 300+ people working on it, it’s fair to assume that Tears of the Kingdom had a similar or greater number. That would mean a bunch of posts on the bulletin board, yet that’s fine if it meant getting the game to the state it needed to be at.
Given that the Switch exclusive was one of the best-selling games of 2023 and won numerous rewards for its design and gameplay, we’ll say that this bulletin board was a success.
