Inafune:‘If a Creator Hasn’t Played Mario, They’re Probably not a good Creator’

[impertinence]

Wow! It's pretty interesting to see the different mindsets of people at play when discussing this topic. Someone even reduced the game mechanics of Mario to "move left or right and jump". Of course, when you look at Mario and see nothing more than that, I understand why some people get attracted to shiny things. It's an interesting experience to see these different mindsets at play for sure.

Also interesting to note to me is how a discussion like this really highlights the sheer genius of Miyamoto. I mean, there are several people in this thread who discount everything that is fundamental of the Mario series because it's so well ingrained in video games that they take it for granted. There's been many people pointing out the amazing level designs of the Mario games, and how they are expertly put together to teach the game mechanics without you even realizing. I won't point it out again, if you won't see it, you are missing the genius of it.

Some people don't understand that there is no reason why people should understand how to play Mario, they have to be taught how to do it. Everyone has been taught how to do it. Today people take this for granted, it's so basic to a videogame that they don't even consider it, but the concept of how a game plays is not natural law. It was perfected by a genius mind.

So, when a creator plays Mario, there's no point in him approaching the game as how do I run left and right and jump. That is the mindset of noncreators. A creator will look at how the mechanics are explained to the player. How is the use of a new ability explained in the game? How do you show the players where they need to go and what they need to do and still make it fun and challenging? How to you structure the whole game so that the skills you learn through the game maintain a consistent difficulty curve? How do you put together a level so that it is playable and enjoyable for both a brand new player, and one who has played the game 100 times?

When you look at a speed run of any Mario level really, you should realize what insane craftsmanship goes into creating these games. The same level that a new player will meander through and still find enjoyable will provide a completely different set of challenges for the expert level gamer. The placement of obstacles, enemies , power-ups and just regular level features is no longer arbitrary. They all need to be in exactly the spot they are to allow for the pixel precision needed for a flawless speed run.

These things don't happen on accident, it takes insane skill and dedication to design games that scale as well as that. I can't think of any other game that so expertly showcases these elements as the Mario series. It's all there for you to see if you want to look for it. And it should be quite obvious why the principles of excellent game design are applicable not only to any video game, but to any piece of interactive media as well.