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Super Mario Maker 2 came out just a few days
ago.
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This game lets you try your hand at level
design, by giving you the tools to make your
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own Mario stages.
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And then you can upload your courses to the
web, and see what randos online think of your
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design skills.
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The game gives you all the tools you need
to make auto-scrolling levels, boss battles,
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crazy puzzles, silly jokes, and more.
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But when you first open “make mode”, you’re
almost certainly going to be asking yourself
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the question: “uhh, where do I even begin?”
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So I thought I’d put together a tutorial
that can help you get your first level made
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and published.
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And it should hopefully be a legitimately
good, Mario-style level, and not just your
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name written in coins, a bunch of pipes that
shower you with cash, or twenty eight goombas
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on a seesaw.
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And then, once you’ve cleared that hurdle
and made your first stage, you’ll have a
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better understanding of what works and what
doesn’t, you’ll know more tricks you can
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employ, you’ll have tried most of the game’s
tools, and you’ll be well on your way to
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making an amazing stage, getting hired by
Nintendo, and looking for apartments in Kyoto
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by the end of the week.
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Sound good? Then let’s get started.
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Step One. Choose a main mechanic.
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One of the biggest mistakes you can make in
Mario Maker 2, is to just fill your level
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with every single object in the tool box.
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You know, put a giant spike column here, throw
in a few bumpers there, mix in a couple see
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saws, and finish off with a gauntlet of Banzai
bills.
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These levels are often completely unfocused
and, critically, they don’t have enough
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time to introduce each idea or explore it
to its full extent.
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So instead, look through the toolbox and find
just one mechanic that you can use as your
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central theme for the stage.
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Perhaps it’s a note block.
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Or a trampoline.
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Or on/off switches.
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Or the snake block.
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This doesn’t mean that you can’t use any
other items in your level: it just gives us
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a strong foundation to build on.
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For this stage I’m making, I’m going to
check out these swinging claws.
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They look like fun.
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Step Two. Consider every evolution.
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The next step is to think about how this one
mechanic could be made more interesting or difficult.
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So the most basic way to present this swinging
claw is to have one in the middle of a large
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gap: and then have Mario jump into the claw,
swing over, and jump out to the other side.
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But perhaps we could have multiple
claws in the gap.
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Maybe at different heights.
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Perhaps put a platform to jump over in the
middle of them.
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Or a floating enemy. And so on.
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We’re trying to find ways of saying “okay,
so you know how to deal with this mechanic:
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but how do you fare when I do this?”
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Some twists will be boring, some will be way
too hard.
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So make these different permutations in a
test bed yourself, and find out which ones
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provide the best experience.
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Step Three. Introduce the mechanic.
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Okay, so let’s get building the actual level.
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The first step should always be to introduce
the mechanic to the
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player in a safe and controlled manner.
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So while the stage will generally involve
swinging over perilous, insta-death, bottomless
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pits - for the very first instance of these
claws, we’re going to give Mario the chance
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to fall onto safe ground, and try again.
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But it’s important to make sure that the
player can’t just cheat their way across.
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They have to prove that they’ve used and
understood the mechanic before they can move on.
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So I’m going raise the wall, and raise the
claw, to force Mario into the claw’s grip.
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Step Four. Ramp up the challenge.
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Remember those evolutions we explored earlier?
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It’s now time to bring them in.
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Or, at least, the four or five best ones.
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So after mastering the mechanic in its most
basic form, the player will now have to
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contend with all sorts of extra challenges,
twists, and complexities.
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Ideally, the mechanics should ramp up in challenge
quite smoothly, with a gentle difficulty curve.
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It’s not always possible to get a perfect
hierarchy of challenge in these things, but
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something that definitely makes things harder
is when the obstacle extends beyond the camera.
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This means the player can’t get a good look
at what’s to come and plan their movement:
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and instead has to play reactively to whatever
dangers crop up.
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Leave those for the end of this section.
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Oh, and make sure you give the player time to rest.
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Don’t just jump from one challenge to another,
but create moments of downtime.
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This provides moments to take a rest, and
gives the level a modulated pace of tension
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and release that is way more fun to play than
just constant non-stop action.
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Step Five. Find combinatorial mechanics.
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Okay, so now the level has a main mechanic
and it ramps up neatly.
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Sweet. That’s the first half sorted.
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Chuck down a checkpoint, and let’s move
on.
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Now, the goal is to find other parts in the
toolbox that combine well with your primary mechanic.
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With the swinging claw, I found that you can
put it on one of these tracks.
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And from there, you can have the tracks fork
off into two lines - which is controlled by
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an on/off switch.
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You can also have the claw drop off the end
of a track, and then automatically latch onto
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a track that runs below.
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Swinging claws can also hold things other
than Mario, such as trampolines, enemies,
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and exploding bombs.
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Perhaps you could chuck a bomb into the claw
and have it blow through a wall, so Mario
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can make progress.
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What happens if a bullet bill fires into a
claw?
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Hm, interesting.
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This is all about experimentation and playing
around.
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Just like how Jonathan Blow made levels for
Braid by playing around with the game’s
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basic ruleset and hunting for interesting
consequences, you too are trying to find surprising
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outcomes of combining Mario Maker’s parts.
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Step Six. Create the second half.
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So now the player has shown that they have
mastered the basic mechanic, we can use these
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combinatorial set-ups to make the second half
of the stage even more interesting.
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The process is largely the same: we want to
start by giving the player a chance to explore
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this idea in a safe environment.
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And then ramp up in complexity throughout
the stage.
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So I’m gonna start with the claw on a simple
track.
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But then have multiple tracks at different
heights.
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And introduce ideas from there.
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Sometimes an idea just won’t come together.
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I had this mad plan to have it so a claw picked
up a bob-omb, and then you have to hit the
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on/off switch at the right time to make the
claw fall down to the track below and carry
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the bob-omb to a wall so it can blow a hole
through.
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But with the timing, the camera, the way the
claw drops stuff when Mario is underneath
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- it just didn’t quite work.
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Don’t be afraid to kill your best ideas
if they’re being uncooperative.
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Or change them substantially.
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The end goal is often a good chance to make
one final test.
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Most of the Mario Maker game styles have a
flagpole, or similar, which rewards the player
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with more points if they touch the top.
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So you can make a really difficult final platforming
puzzle to get to the top and reward your best
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players: while those who can’t hit those
highs can just touch the bottom of the goal.
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Another idea worth considering, is to go back
to the first half of the level and drop in
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small clues and hints of what’s to come.
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It makes the latter half feel more cohesive
to the level as a whole, and can also be used
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to avoid surprises.
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So in the first half, I introduce the on/off
block, which should help players know what
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to do when they come across the same block
at the end of the level.
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Step Seven. Add in enemies and items.
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A Mario level is never just an endless gauntlet
of platforming mechanics.
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There are also enemy encounters, which can
be used to ramp up complexity, or provide
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a change of pace.
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But, as with everything in game design: less is
more.
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Sprinkle in a few enemies, rather than filling
the screen with bullet bills and goombas and
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bob-ombs.
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And don’t forget items, like coins and 1-up
mushrooms, which can be used to show players
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the way to go.
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Items are a good way to reward the most skilled,
or reckless players.
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Make getting from the start to the finish
a relatively easy-going experience: but then
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add in extra coins and pick-ups in areas that
require more skill to reach.
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Step Eight. Playtest and bugfix
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Don’t wait until your level is available
to the world online, to get your stage in
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front of people.
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You know your level inside and out: you’ve
been working on it for hours, after all, and
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you know every single pixel, like the back
of your hand.
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But someone who plays the stage for the very
first time could easily be confused, lost,
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or find the stage way too demanding.
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So get your friends, your mum, your brother,
and their friends to try your stage first.
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Watch what they do, ask them for their feedback,
and make changes to your stage.
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You can also playtest your own level by purposefully
trying to break the game.
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If you can bypass a lot of your challenges
and ignore all of your hard-work, then you
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might need to add in some extra parts to block
access.
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Here are three things you always need to check:
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First: Make sure that Mario can’t simply
sail over your obstacles entirely, with his
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utterly massive jump.
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You might need to stretch out gaps and add
in blocks and slopes to stop this from happening.
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Second: While you, as a Mario expert, probably
always run at full speed through your levels
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- many newbie players won’t.
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So make sure your stage can be completed at
Mario’s normal speed, by forcing yourself
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to play through your stage without touching
the run button at all.
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Third: What happens if you don’t get something
right first time?
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Imagine a jump like this, where you bounce
on a Koopa to clear a gap.
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That’s cool if you make the gap, but what
if you don’t and end up killing the Koopa?
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The level is now impossible to finish.
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That’s just bad design.
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There are some easy ways to fix this, though,
such as having enemies, p-blocks, trampolines,
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and so on, infinitely pop out of pipes.
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Or just using indestructible stage elements
like, in this case, a note block.
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Step Nine. Do your research
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Now you’re in a level-making mood, this
is the perfect time to boot up your favourite
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Mario games and play through some stages.
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You’ll no longer just be a passive player:
but you’ll be actively looking for level-making
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tips and strategies.
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So look at how Nintendo introduces, evolves,
and twists its ideas across each level.
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Consider the placement of enemies and items.
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Look at how it paces each stage with moments
of action, and moments of rest.
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There’s no need to stop at Mario, mind you.
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As I’ve shown on Game Maker’s Toolkit,
there’s plenty to learn from games like
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Mega Man and Rayman, and games I’ve yet
to cover like Celeste and Shovel Knight.
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Mario will be the most useful because Mario
Maker, obviously, has the same mechanics and
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player physics, but good level design is good
level design, and is almost always universally
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applicable.
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So replay these games with a more analytical
eye, and see if theres anything you can learn
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to make your own course even better.
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Step Ten. Start again
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Okay, so now you’ve made your first stage
you’re ready to try new things.
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You could repeat this tutorial with a different
mechanic, or flex your creative muscles and
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see what else you can produce.
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Perhaps you want to be more like Donkey Kong
Country: Tropical Freeze, and explore multiple
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mechanics throughout your stage.
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Perhaps you want to try the weirdo twists
you get when you enter night mode, toy with
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the water levels in the forest and castle
theme, or change the clear condition.
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Or maybe you want to build a level around
a thematic concept, or a Mario skill, rather
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than strictly around a mechanic.
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It’s all up to you, now - but hopefully
these basic tips will prove useful no matter
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what you make.
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Introducing mechanics, proper pacing, adding
surprising twists, and rewarding skill - these
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are all things that every good level design
will include.
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So, make some cool stuff and leave your level
codes in the comments below.
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I’ll play as many stages as I can next week
- on July 10th at 7PM BST, on a livestream
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here on YouTube.
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You guys and gals can help me out by playing
levels in the comments and giving a thumbs
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up to the ones you like best.
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Thanks for watching and happy building!