How the Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom devs accidentally made the perfect build component 

The Portable Pot is one of the many items in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom that largely outgrew its intended use – evolving from a simple means of cooking food to an essential component of viral, player-created mech and vehicle builds. However, Nintendo’s GDC panel discussions have revealed that the Portable Pot’s versatility was a happy accident that resulted from the developers trying to come up with ways to prevent food from spilling out of it when tilted.  

During the “Tunes of the Kingdom: Evolving Physics and Sounds for ‘The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom” lecture at the 2024 GDC (reported on by Famitsu), senior director Takuhiro Dohta and physics programmer Takahiro Takayama talked about how the mysterious physics and game mechanics of Tears of the Kingdom came to be. The latest installment of the Zelda series was developed around the principle of “multiplicative gameplay,” i.e., gameplay born from countless combinations of actions and objects. To achieve their ideal form of multiplicative gameplay, the developers tackled two main points – making everything in the world physics-driven, and creating an environment where unique interactions can occur without dedicated implementation. 

One example of what the latter refers to is the fact that Tears of the Kingdom does not implement “vehicles” as such, but rather a system that allows you to create vehicles. Items such as Zonai Wheels, a Steering Stick and wooden boards can be used to build an object that functions like a vehicle, but there is no dedicated program for vehicles. To achieve this, Tears of the Kingdom’s developers put great care into designing the various components that trigger “unique interactions,” such as the Zonai Wheel. 

But one item in Tears of the Kingdom happened to trigger unique interactions that the development team never expected – the Portable Pot. This is a new Zonai Device that appeared for the first time in Tears of the Kingdom, and its basic function is to allow the player to cook one Recipe wherever they are. The developers realized that by making the Pot placeable almost anywhere, there would be a risk of food spilling over the top of the pot if placed on a sloped surface. An initial solution to this problem, suggested by an artist, was to give the Portable Pot expandable legs, but ultimately, the developers decided to go for a mechanism whereby a joint connects the top part of the pot to the bottom “stove” part. 

The developers’ decision to go with the latter solution is what led to the Portable Pot becoming a completely unexpected part of vehicle builds in Tears of the Kingdom. Furthermore, it took on the essential role of providing suspension, acting as a “ball joint socket” that allowed players to build bikes and cars that can traverse rocky and uneven terrain with ease. But why was this possible? The pot part and the stove part of the Portable Pot are neither completely attached nor completely separate. So when the Pot is impacted by something, it shifts out of place but does not detach from the stove. In the context of a vehicle, this phenomenon can provide shock absorption and increase the traction of the wheels. In other words, by trying to make a cooking pot that doesn’t spill when tilted, Tears of the Kingdom’s developers accidentally made the perfect vehicle suspension system. 

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is available for the Nintendo Switch.