American makes dream of working at Nintendo come true a decade later; Credited in Breath of the Wild

Working at some of the biggest gaming companies is a very hard feat to accomplish. They have high standards so they can ship the highest quality games, it requires a great amount of talent and education, and it's stressful as the consumers expect a lot from some of these developers. One of, if not the biggest, developers in history is Nintendo. They have an incredible portfolio of games that have spawned some of the most iconic characters to ever exist. Working at Nintendo is a dream for many, but it's a hard dream to accomplish for many people due to the high standards, the language barrier, and much more.

One American managed to make his dream come true and is one of the only Americans credited in the critically acclaimed Wii U and Nintendo Switch game The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. In 2007, a young man by the name of Corey Bunnell reached out to some fellow internet users on a forum asking how he could possibly get a job at Nintendo.

“My dream is to live in Japan and work for Nintendo as a game designer. I realize this is a very large goal but it has been my dream since I first played Mario. I need help figuring out how to achieve this goal. I know I would need to go to a game design school of some sort, and also get my Japanese to a level where I can speak and write professionally.”

Three years after that post, Bunnell got into Japan's Ritsumeikan University where he began his first steps to making his dreams come true. He studied programming and got to learn from actual professionals that have real experience. Eventually, Bunnell got an internship at a studio where he later began working full time.

In 2014, after graduating from Ritsumeikan, Corey Bunnell's dream came true and he officially began working at Nintendo. In 2017, Bunnell helped ship The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and was credited under "Wildlife Programming" in the credits of the game.

Despite his background, Corey was able to break through the language and cultural barrier, master a very tough set of skills, and make his dreams come true. Clearly through determination and perseverance, one can achieve their dreams and maybe even create one of the highest rated games of all time! Congrats to Corey Bunnell on his great success!

[Kotaku]