Monolith Soft, the creator of the Xenoblade series and co-development studio on The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, is hiring for a new Zelda project.

On a Zelda-themed recruitment page (as spotted by Japanese Nintendo), Monolith says it’s looking for technical artists, programmers, planners, designers, and a project manager.

No hint is given as to what the Zelda project would be, simply asking for staff who can help “create new surprises and emotions”.

Monolith previously contributed to Zelda: Skyward Sword, helping with artistic and graphical elements. However, its work on Breath of the Wild centred on level design for the open world, particularly with regard to topography. Over 100 Monolith staff were part of the Breath of the Wild development process.

That varying work makes it tough to guess at what kind of game it might be assisting with, although Monolith’s interest and expertise in open worlds is a possible pointer.

Late last year, Nintendo itself began hiring for a Zelda project. If Monolith is working with Nintendo in a similar capacity to previous projects, it could be a signal that this is the next mainline Zelda game.

While we begin the interminable wait for whatever that turns out to be, we at least have some other new Zelda goodness to dig into. This year we’ll see the release of a Link’s Awakening remake, and Cadence of Hyrule, a crossover game between the Zelda series and Crypt of the Necrodancer – which stands as the first ever indie-developed Zelda game.

There’s also the ongoing rumours as to a Legend of Zelda mobile game, but we’ve had no official word on that.

Joe Skrebels is IGN’s UK Deputy Editor, and this feels closer and closer to his wish for a Majora’s Mask-style engine re-use for BotW. Follow him on Twitter.