How voxels enabled a juicy gameplay loop in Donkey Kong Bananza

Nintendo producer Kenta Motokura and programmer Tatsuya Kurihara presented at GDC 2026 on how voxel-based destructible environments in Donkey Kong Bananza enabled a new gameplay loop they call the 'chain of destruction.' Rather than treating combat and exploration as separate activities, the voxel tech allows enemies defeated in combat to smash through walls, revealing hidden areas and secrets. The talk also covers technical tradeoffs like using primitive collision shapes instead of voxel-to-voxel detection, and how the team decided which visual artifacts were acceptable based on whether they benefited or harmed the player experience.