How the inventor of Mario designs a game
Transcript
This is Shigeru Miyamoto.
If you’ve played video games any time in the past 30 years, you’re probably familiar with his work.
Donkey Kong. Zelda. Star Fox.
And then, of course, this guy: It’s a me, Mario!
When Miyamoto makes games, he always tries to do things differently than other designers.
Here he is — back in 1998 — explaining why he wasn’t focused on online gaming.
And why he wasn’t adding small in-game purchases to Mario for iPhone in 2016.
Miyamoto has helped define a lot of what makes a game great.
So how does he do it?
In 1981, one of Miyamoto’s first assignments at Nintendo was to design a replacement for a game called Radar Scope.
It had performed poorly in the US, leaving the company with 2,000 unsold arcade units.
This is what he came up with: Miyamoto based the story on the love triangle in Popeye between a bad guy, a hero, and a damsel in distress.
But since Nintendo couldn’t secure the rights to use those characters, Miyamoto replaced them with a gorilla, a carpenter, and his girlfriend.
In later games, that carpenter became a plumber.
And his named changed, from Mr. Video, to Jumpman, and then to Mario, after this guy, the landlord of a Nintendo warehouse near Seattle.
This was one of the first times that a video game’s plot and characters were designed before the programming.
That change in approach came at a key time for video games.
When Donkey Kong was first released in 1981, the video game market in North America was on the verge of collapse.
It was saturated with a lot of different consoles, and the boom in home computers made a lot of people question why they’d want a separate device just to play games.
But the storytelling in games like Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda — which you could only play on Nintendo’s own hardware — helped set them apart as best-sellers.
A lot of Miyamoto’s genius can be seen in the first level of Super Mario Bros. — probably the most iconic level in video game history.
It’s designed to naturally teach you the game mechanics while you play.
If you look at a breakdown, there’s a lot of really subtle design work going on here.
Though Mario is usually at the center of the screen, in this first scene he starts at the far left.
All the empty space to the right of him gives you a sense of where to go.
This character’s look and movement suggest it’s harmful.
But don’t worry.
If you run into it, you’ll just start the game over without much of a penalty.
Next, you see gold blocks with question marks.
These are made to look intriguing — and once you hit one, you’re rewarded.
That then encourages you to hit the second block, which releases a mushroom.
Even if you’re now scared of mushrooms, the positioning of the first obstacle makes it just about guaranteed that you’re gonna run into this thing.
When you do, Mario gets bigger and stronger.
And just like that, you’ve learned all the basic rules in the game without having to read a single word.
Immersiveness in a video game has a lot to do with the controls — the more precisely you can move your character, the more you feel like you’re part of the story.
And Nintendo has always been a pioneer with controllers.
It was the first to have the classic setup of the directional pad on the left and buttons on the right, the first to have left and right shoulder buttons, the first to have a 360-degree thumbstick, and the first to bring motion control to the mass market.
But with 2016’s Super Mario Run, Nintendo, for the first time, made a game for a controller it didn’t design: the iPhone.
The Wii U flopped when it came out in 2012, and Nintendo 3DS sales are far below those of its predecessor.
But the number of American gamers playing on mobile phones has doubled to more than 164 million between 2011 and 2015.
You can think of Super Mario Run as a shift from immersiveness to accessibility.
And that’s kind of been Miyamoto’s design philosophy from the very start: make fun games that everybody can play.
The rest is in our hands.
“These controls direct the characters, the better your eye-hand coordination, the better you do.”
Vocabulary List
familiar
(adjective) well known to you; often seen or heard and therefore easy to recognize
assignment
(noun) a task or piece of work that is given to someone to do
unsold
(adjective) not yet sold
base on
(phrasal verb) to use an idea, a fact, a situation, etc. as the point from which something can be developed
secure
(verb) to obtain or achieve something
key
(adjective) very important or essential
set apart
(verb) to make something different from others
genius
(noun) unusually great intelligence, skill or artistic ability
subtle
(adjective) not obvious or easily noticed
run into
(verb) to meet someone by chance
intriguing
(adjective) interesting and exciting
immersiveness
(noun) the quality of being able to completely involve someone in an experience
directional
(adjective) relating to or indicating direction
flop
(verb) to fail to achieve success
predecessor
(noun) a thing, such as a machine, that has been followed or replaced by something else
Grammar Point
We will observe the various positions of adverbs in a sentence.
We use adverbs to modify (add additional information to):
– verbs
– adjectives
– other adverbs
verb + object + adverb
When Miyamoto makes games, he always tries to do things differently than other designers.
More examples:
I want to eat this cake slowly.
We need to finish this quickly.
She treated him patiently.
verb + adverb
It had performed poorly in the US, leaving the company with 2,000 unsold arcade units.
More examples:
He was talking loudly.
They are singing happily.
He shouted angrily.
adverb + verb
It’s designed to naturally teach you the game mechanics while you play.
More examples:
He quickly ran to the store.
She patiently waited for him.
I carefully read the instructions.
adverb + adjective
If you look at a breakdown, there’s a lot of really subtle design work going on here.
More examples:
He is very tall.
They were rather disappointed.
I am quite happy with the results.
verb be + adverb
Though Mario is usually at the center of the screen, in this first scene he starts at the far left.
I am extremely angry.
He is always late.
They are currently in the meeting.
far + comparative adjective
The Wii U flopped when it came out in 2012, and Nintendo 3DS sales are far below those of its predecessor.
‘Far’ can be an adjective and an adverb.
As an adverb, ‘far’ means very much; to a great degree and can be used to describe adjectives.
Examples:
That’s a far better idea.
The damage was far worse than I’d expected.
The drug gives a far greater chance of survival.
Common Expressions
a damsel in distress
This is what he came up with: Miyamoto based the story on the love triangle in Popeye between a bad guy, a hero, and a damsel in distress.
A damsel in distress is a female character in fiction who is in need of rescuing by a male hero. She is typically young, beautiful, and helpless, and she is often kidnapped or imprisoned by an evil villain. The hero must then use his strength, courage, and skills to save her.
on the verge
When Donkey Kong was first released in 1981, the video game market in North America was on the verge of collapse.
The phrase “on the verge” means “very close to happening or being the case.” It can be used in a variety of contexts, but it is most commonly used to describe something that is about to happen or that is very likely to happen. For example, you might say that a company is “on the verge of bankruptcy” if it is very close to going out of business. Or, you might say that a person is “on the verge of tears” if they are very close to crying.