The Binding of Isaac postmortem - Creating magic and paying tribute to Zelda

The following is a small snippet from a Binding of Isaac postmortem, written by dev Edmund McMillen...

With Isaac, my goal was to create "magic." I wanted players to feel like the game was endless and alive, that the game had a mind of its own and was writing itself as they played. I remember the original Zelda having this feeling of magic and mystery. You weren't sure what things did until you experimented with them, and you had to brainstorm with your friends and put all your findings together in order to progress. I felt like since I was referencing Zelda so much in Isaac's core design, I should also complement it with the feeling of mystery I felt it had back in the day.