The Legend of Zelda is an action-adventure game franchise created by the Japanese game designers Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka. It is primarily developed and published by Nintendo, although some portable installments and re-releases have been outsourced to Flagship, Vanpool, and Grezzo. The gameplay incorporates action-adventure and elements of action RPG games.
Shigeru Miyamoto, series creator, was inspired by the hillsides, forests, and caves surrounding his childhood home in Sonobe, Japan.
Koji Kondo, the series's original composer
Ocarina of Time, released in 1998 for the Nintendo 64, was the first 3D game in the series.
The Wind Waker, released in 2002 for the GameCube, was the first game in the series featuring cel shading.
Shigeru Miyamoto is a Japanese video game designer, producer and game director at Nintendo, where he serves as one of its representative directors as an executive since 2002. Widely regarded as one of the most accomplished and influential designers in video games, he is the creator of some of the most acclaimed and best-selling game franchises of all time, including Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Donkey Kong, Star Fox and Pikmin. More than 1 billion copies of games featuring franchises created by Miyamoto have been sold.
Miyamoto in 2015
Miyamoto graduated from Kanazawa College of Art in Ishikawa Prefecture.
Miyamoto's Super Mario Bros. was bundled with the NES in America. The game and the system are credited with helping to bring North America out of the slump of the 1983 game industry crash.
Miyamoto was responsible for the controller design of the Super Famicom/Nintendo. Its L/R buttons were an industry first and have since become commonplace.