The game developers have always tried to bring some new ideas to their latest games. They took advantages of new Nintendo system’s features to create innovative gameplay like using a stylus to control Link on the DS or experimenting real sword movement by swinging the Wiimote.

Constraints are very often seen as limitations to creativity, especially by young designers. Although working with hurdles will narrow the number of options you can consider in your project and help avoiding the white page syndrome. Meaning that you can spend more time exploring fewer approaches and thus creating stronger ideas.

Constraints can spur creativity and incite action, as long as you have the confidence to embrace them — Tom Kelley, IDEO

2. Fake it ’til you make it

Breath of the Wild’s team hosted a talk at Game Developers Conference 2017 in San Francisco. During this session, game director Hidemaro Fujibayashi showed a surprising version of the very first Zelda game, on NES.

Full video available here

It was actually a prototype, created to present the new game mechanisms conceived for Breath of the Wild. This method has allowed the designers to test and easily communicate their ideas with everybody in their team. It gave a small overview of the new features without involving a lot of tech resources.

This is exactly what recommends Google Venture’s Design Sprint methodology (which is a must-read by the way) . On days 4 and 5 of that one week sprint, you have to find the fastest and easiest way to prototype and test your assumptions.

Overview of a Design Sprint

I think it’s a great philosophy for many reasons: