Aonuma joined the Ocarina of Time team late in development
This information comes from the latest Iwata Asks…
Iwata: Today, your name is always mentioned in the same breath as The Legend of Zelda, but before then, you did a variety of work.
Aonuma: Yes.
Iwata: About the time you had just joined the company, we worked together.
Aonuma: That’s right! (laughs) Unfortunately, though, the game we made together never made it out into the world. I spent a lot of time developing games with external companies. But I really wanted to develop inside Nintendo. I pestered Miyamoto-san about it and he said, “We don’t have enough people for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, so come on in for a spell.” Of those of us here today, I joined the project last.
Iwata: You didn’t participate early on in development?
Aonuma: No. When I joined, the script was somewhat established, and they were rapidly turning out the content. I designed a total of six early and mid-stage dungeons, most of the enemy characters, and enemy and boss battles.
Kawagoe: You also drew storyboards.
Aonuma: Oh, that’s right. Back then, anyone who could draw storyboards was drawing them.
Osawa: Me, too! (laughs)
Iwata: The boundaries between different jobs were vague back then. Most of the time, if you noticed something that needed to be done, you did it yourself.
Aonuma: That’s right. I doubt many on the staff who were involved with The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time—not just those of us here today—could say clearly where their work began and where it ended.
Even though Aonuma didn’t participate in the game’s early development, it seems as though he contributed quite a bit to the project!
