Cadence of Hyrule marks a fairly unprecedented step for Nintendo. While it’s fundamentally a mash-up of The Legend of Zelda and Crypt of the NecroDancer, the next Zelda game is still being made by a small, third-party indie developer, and is even being called a “Nindie” by Nintendo itself. As exciting as the announcement is, how the heck did that happen?

To find out, I spoke with Ryan Clark, founder of Crypt of the NecroDancer developer Brace Yourself Games, and Kirk Scott, Nintendo of America’s Manager of Publisher-Developer Relations and all-around Nindie guy. While Clark says they initially approached Nintendo to potentially use Zelda in some smaller way like DLC, the mutual interest in working together grew faster than they were expecting.

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“We were considering making a new Nintendo Switch project,” Clark explained to me “and we imagined how cool it would be to have Zelda characters appearing in NecroDancer; say as DLC.” But Nintendo’s interest apparently grew beyond a simple DLC. “To our surprise, Nintendo was extremely interested in the prospect, and before we knew it we were working on a completely new title, mashing up NecroDancer with The Legend of Zelda!”

“ When Cadence of Hyrule comes out this Spring it will be Brace Yourself’s second release ever.

On Nintendo’s side, Scott tells me that “developers are always reaching out to Nintendo to include IP in their games,” but clearly something was different this time around. “When you look at a case like Cadence of Hyrule, there’s special cases in some instances where our Japan team see content and see titles that they want to work with and [the interest is] a two-way street, really.”

Nintendo has, of course, used third-party developers for major series like Mario and Zelda in the past: Ubisoft made Mario + Rabbids and put Starfox in Starlink: Battle for Atlas, and Koei Tecmo worked on both Hyrule Warriors and Fire Emblem Warriors to name a few recent ones. Even more mainline Zelda games like Minish Cap and Oracle of Seasons and Ages were developed by Capcom.

But this is different. When Cadence of Hyrule comes out this Spring it will be Brace Yourself’s second release ever. The developers working on it have far more experience than just that, of course – and, credit where it’s due, Crypt of the NecroDancer totally rules – but it’s still a studio of less than two dozen people (according to its website) making an honest-to-goodness official Zelda game.

Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the Necrodancer Feat. The Legend of Zelda Nintendo Switch Screenshots 15 IMAGES

And yes, plenty of comments and Twitter replies have made it abundantly clear to me that some folk don’t see this as a “real” Zelda game. While it’s undoubtedly a spin-off that Clark tells me “is first and foremost a new entry in the NecroDancer universe,” he also said that they “took extensive care to ensure that it could be considered to be both” a Zelda game and a Necrodancer game. Scott similarly told me that “[Brace Yourself Games] worked directly with our Japan teams to get that [Zelda] content in there,” even if “ it doesn’t really fall in line with a Zelda-type title.”

“ Nintendo says 'this is one of the first independent developers to use Zelda content.'

Clark is also excited about a fundamental connection the two series have: Music. Clark explained that while NecroDancer is clearly built around music, “Zelda is well known for musical compositions among games,” and often contains instruments as a core mechanic of its own. He said “being able to mix these two together into an awesome musical mashup of gameplay is definitely one of the most exciting points!”

Scott told me he still considers Cadence of Hyrule a “Nindie” despite being part of one of the biggest gaming franchises around, but when I asked if that also makes it the first Zelda “indie” game ever he laughed and said “I wouldn’t go that far, but it is one of the first independent developers to use Zelda content.” Whatever you label it, it’s pretty amazing that it’s happening at all.

Tom Marks is IGN's Deputy Reviews Editor and resident pie maker, and he's excited for Cadence of Hyrule no matter how you label it. You can follow him on Twitter