Two more days to A Link Between Worlds!
Some new info on the game, courtesy of Zelda Informer:
Development was rough, as the dev team was split to work on Wii U projects
The project first was discussed after completion of Spirit Tracks
There were three people on the dev team for a whole year—this is when the idea for the wall-merge mechanic came up
The original idea wasn't to follow A Link to the Past
Miyamoto wasn't keen on the game idea at first. He said it felt like an idea that was 20 years old, but not as a compliment
Shikata came up with the wall-merge idea, and was extremely determined to include this idea in the game
The team then disbanded to work on Wii U games, with Shikata fearing the project would never see the light of day
Aonuma wanted to release a new 3DS Zelda by 2013's end to make fans happy
Aonuma quietly revived work on A Link Between Worlds without the core dev team
Nov. 2011 is when development really started, which was just after Skyward Sword's dev came to an end
Tominaga put together some ideas for a dungeon with the wall mechanic
He was so confident in the idea that he told Miyamoto he could make 50 more dungeons that used the mechanic
Miyamoto wasn't impressed again, but finally offered a hint to base the game off of A Link to the Past.
Aonuma also had the same suggestion
The team was skeptical of taking a remake approach with A Link to the Past
Aonuma decided to show what he meant by doing a prototype in three days
Miyamoto saw all these ideas together and finally gave the game the go-ahead
The top-down view took a lot of trial and error
Mouri wanted to do the game in 60fps and insisted on it
They decided at the true start of the project to do 60fps
The team believes this makes for much smoother music
The item touch screen management was something Aonuma wanted to do with Ocarina of Time 3D; the fact that that game was 30FPS meant they couldn't implement that idea
The team used ideas of height to factor in 3D visuals
The design of dungeons also allowed for more activity to take place outside dungeon walls
Iwata was originally unsure of the idea, but was convinced when he saw the E3 demo
The topic of how Link looked when merged with walls was a big topic of discussion
The team wanted to express that Link was being painted on walls, rather than entering them
Link could originally jump when wall-merged, but the team took that out to keep from confusing gamers
There was talk of naming the game The New Legend of Zelda. The team was afraid that the name would have people thinking the game was a remake
There are baseball and Cucco mini-games
Source: http://www.zeldainformer.com/news/iwata-asks-a-link-between-worlds-originally-called-the-new-legend-of-zelda