When we were watching the Nintendo digital event I don’t think of us were expecting a game called Mario Maker to show up, in reality there were a lot of unexpected games but Mario Maker was certainly the most unexpected of the lot. I don’t think anybody could have predicted that Nintedo would provide us with a game to create our own Mario levels but I think to some degree it works, it adheres to that level for creativity and challenge of creating a level that could be near enough unbeatable. It also ties in with the worlds fascination with level design in games so it really offers quite a bit. But how exactly did this game to exist well Nintendo’s Takashi Tezuka has given the details on this and you can find them below:
– Started out as a course-making tool for Nintendo’s internal teams
– The people on the tools team typically don’t design video game courses
– Instead, they only build the tools for Nintendo’s game designers to use
– In this particular instance, the tools team was working on a Mario course editing tool when they decided to pitch it to Tezuka as a standalone game“They brought the idea to me thinking it would be a great game idea because they had so much fun with [it].”
– Tezuka had been meaning to make a new Mario Paint game that uses the Wii U’s GamePad
– He saw an opportunity in Mario Maker to make a game that encourages players creativity in a similar way to Mario Paint“There are lots of drawing utilities in the world, but does everybody like drawing? Not necessarily. In order to make a [Mario] course, all you have to do is put different parts together. It’s not as difficult or out of reach as drawing is. Instead of creating another Mario Paint, when I saw this course editor, I was inspired to bring the fun of Mario Paint into this course editor to make something fun and creative for people to enjoy.”
– Tezuka expects people to be silly in their course designs and to create levels that are impossible to complete
– Mario Maker isn’t just about finishing courses
– It’s about enjoying the process of creating a course, no matter how silly or impractical it may be
– Ex: a team of Nintendo employees created a course that required Mario to run to the end of the course, then run back to the beginning, then run back to the end in order to complete it“We think this is a game that will showcase people’s sense of imagination. Seeing the courses made by [those folks] made us realize it had much more potential than even we imagined.”
I loved Mario Paint back in the day and I am glad Nintendo has tried to recapture the essence of the original game and I think it was a great idea to turn Mario Maker into an actual full game. The people at Nintendo are quite clever and I hope for similar ideas in the future, Mario Kart course editor anyone.
