In late 2009, following the completion of "" for the Nintendo DS, the majority of its development team were assigned to work on "" for the Wii. Three members of the "Spirit Tracks" team began working on a new handheld title in the "Zelda" series for the upcoming Nintendo 3DS console. Hiromasa Shikata and Shiro Mouri were two of the three members working on the new game. During this early phase, they had not considered developing a sequel to "The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past"; instead they were building a game around the theme of "communication". Around six months into the project, they presented their concept for the game to series creator Shigeru Miyamoto, who called the idea outdated. The three then decided to rethink the concept. Shikata proposed the idea of Link having the ability to enter and merge onto walls; this feature would eventually become one of the title's unique gameplay aspects. Within a day, Mouri had created an initial prototype to demonstrate the feature, and seeing it in action led to an influx of ideas. Link was able to transform from a 3D character to a 2D character by entering walls, and then move smoothly around corners to reach places he previously could not. This ability opened up possibilities for creating new puzzles and using new mechanics. At this stage in the project, they still considered the game an extension of the DS "Zelda" games and used the same viewpoint and design of Link from "Spirit Tracks". Around October 2010, the prototype was presented to Miyamoto, who approved of the new concept. However, within two weeks of entering production, core members of the development team were reassigned to work on launch games for Nintendo's Wii U console which was scheduled for release in 2012. With the team disbanded, development ceased. In November 2011, "Skyward Sword" released for the Wii, and "Zelda" series producer Eiji Aonuma began thinking about the next project in the series. While Nintendo had released a for the 3DS, demand for an original "Zelda" title to be released on the 3DS was growing. Aonuma chose to revisit the idea of Link entering walls. With Shikata and Mouri still engaged in the development of Wii U launch games, Aonuma decided to revive the project without its core members, 13 months after it was shelved. Kentaro Tominaga was brought onto the team to continue where Shikata had left off. He refined the system of entering walls and designed some small dungeons, which he presented to Miyamoto in May 2012.