The game was announced with a trailer during the February 13th, 2019 Nintendo Direct edition, for a prospective Nintendo Switch-exclusive release the same year. This was a surprise, since up until then, the game had not appeared on any list of games in production for the Switch.
In 2018, Nintendo released a change in their official Zelda Chronology, stating that Link's Awakening no longer takes place after The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages (2001) and The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons (2001), but before both games. Half a year later, this remake of Link's Awakening was announced. The change in the timeline now makes this remake a sequel to The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (1991).
Graphic director Yoshiki Haruhana said that the game's visual style was meant to evoke the simple pixel animation of the original The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (1993). The animation team also wanted to give the game the feeling of a diorama. According to Haruhana, the biggest challenge was finding a visual balance between these two ideas.
Link's Awakening features many references to the Super Mario games. Among them are the Yoshi Doll (modeled after the Mario character of the same name) and several enemies/characters in the game, including Goombas, Chain Chomps, Boo Buddies, Piranha Plants, Cheep Cheep fish, and Wart from Super Mario Bros. 2 (1988) (under his original Japanese name, Mamu). Not surprisingly, the Zelda and Mario games were both conceived by the same man, Shigeru Miyamoto.