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Kasz216 on 09 October 2013
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HoloDust said:
happydolphin said:
HoloDust said:
That's really silly statement - game genres are not like movies genres, so that they build, more or less, upon common ancestry. What's P&C Adventures, Turned-based military strategies or Flight simulators, to name just few (and there are A LOT others), got to do in common with Mario games?

Why is this concept so complex for some of you? There is more to a game than its genre, there is more to a game than its gameplay, there is the idea behind this or that innovation, there is music, there are themes.

In the case of Mario, just the idea of hidden blocks or warp zones through plumber pipes is a concept, the spirit of which can be adopted in an FPS, for example what was done in portal (never played it but I can imagine).

Why is the concept of Mario not being Holy Grail of all game design so complex for some of you? Nobody is saying that there's nothing to learn from them, but I would really love to hear what game designer that creates tactical war games, or submarine sims, or tactical shooters, or P&C adventures, or construction and managment simulations, or.....I could go on.....has to learn from Mario games?

Seems that some people are either too young, too fanboyish, or simply don't know much about history of computer games (vs console games) to realize that Mario, while having big influence on video games industry (specially its console part), is nowhere near as important or influential for game design in overall as people like to believe.


Oh... a whole whole lot.  Most developers wouldn't find Infune's comments scandolous.  Maybe a little bit heavy on the praise... but in general, there is a reason why when you poll best game developer, among developers, the answer is a lot more uniform then you'd expect.  Seriously, tweet a game developer the article asking their thoughts.

As for literally every single game you listed?  To start with.  Tutorial design.  Mario Brothers is known for having one of the best tutorials in the history of games.  Largely because you don't realize it's there.

 

For example, the very first Goomba in the very first stage is perfectly positoned, so that the average person playing it for the first time will hit the ? Block forcing the Mushroom to come out of it.

There is a very good book on this, on game design that more or less explains the whole thing, but for the life of me, I can't remember the book title. (and it's god damn hard to find thanks to all the mario stuff that's sold everywhere.)

 

if you study game design... you'll find his statement really standard and widely accepted.  Game design ISN'T widely different.  You may think it is, but that's because you aren't looking at it from the very core basic levels... and instead are looking at it from the mechanics.  Which aren't actually the bottom level of design.

Tweet your favorite designer... chances are they'll agree with Infune.