

If Mario Was Designed in 2010 - bjonathan
http://www.hiwiller.com/2010/04/29/if-mario-was-designed-in-2010/

======
dagheti
In an interview between Miyamoto and Iwata the genius of this first level is
discussed

<http://us.wii.com/iwata_asks/nsmb/vol1_page4.jsp>

"But if you avoid the first Goomba and then jump and hit a block above you, a
mushroom will spring out and you'll get a shock. But then you'll see that it's
going to the right so you'll think: "I'm safe! Something strange appeared but
I'm okay!" But of course when it goes against a pipe up ahead, the mushroom
will come back! (laughs)" ... "At that point, even if you panic and try to
jump out of the way, you'll hit the block above you. Then just at the instant
where you accept that you're done for, Mario will suddenly shake and grow
bigger!"

It turns out they panned it so you cannot avoid picking up that first mushroom
that makes you big. They expected the first players to see it as an enemy, so
they wanted to trap you into picking it up and then showing you that it made
you more powerful.

Barely anyone notices that this was forced, but now everyone takes it for
granted that the the mushrooms are good!

~~~
Sukotto

      the mushrooms are good
    

And they are easy to make: [http://www.annathered.com/2009/06/21/how-to-make-
a-radish-mu...](http://www.annathered.com/2009/06/21/how-to-make-a-radish-
mushroom)

~~~
sketerpot
Be careful if you try using actual mushrooms, though; the species that the
Mario mushrooms are based on is hallucinogenic and mildly poisonous. If you
want to eat it, parboil it first.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanita_muscaria>

------
scottjackson
The first few panels (World 1-1 in Super Mario Bros.) reminded me of this:
<http://www.auntiepixelante.com/?p=465>

I love having any excuse to share this link.

<quote>

 _the big question of level design - and i mean that every level design lesson
i ever write will be a response to this question - is: how do i teach the
player these rules? an unfortunate trend in contemporary games is to spell out
every detail in a hand-holding “tutorial” session at the outset of a game -
unfortunate because it shows both a great deal of contempt for the player’s
intuition and a lack of confidence in the designer’s own design. but more than
that, it’s a design failure because it tells the player the rules instead of
allowing her to learn them.

what if the first level of the game were laid out in such a way that the
player could learn the rules simply by playing through it, without needing to
be told them outright?_

</quote>

The article's a critique of World 1-1 being the perfect tutorial level for
Super Mario Bros. Go read it.

~~~
patio11
As wonderful as World 1-1 is for teaching Mario, I think that "Tell the player
what you want them to do, allow them to see it succeed, then let them apply
it" will _crush_ "Let the player explore the 'physics' of your world, hope
they proceed" in terms of task success. And these days, we can measure that
intuition.

Artistic intuitions of game designers have been measured in the crucible of
conversion rates and been found wanting.

Does anyone here sell applications? Play the first five minutes of WoW. Notice
how they guide you along by the nose and make it easy for you to succeed and
feel awesome doing it. All applications should do that.

~~~
fh
I think WoW has to do that because it's a very complicated interface with
roots in the text-based MUDs of old (for example the combat log). I don't
consider it an example of good UI/tutorial design.

Valve's Portal is how game tutorials should be done in my opinion. It
introduces an unfamiliar game element (the wormhole gun) gradually: first you
walk through pre-made wormholes, then you get to shoot one of the two wormhole
entrances, and only then both of them. Even when you have the full portal gun,
you get taught the various tricks (like accelerating by falling into a portal)
one at a time. None of this is explained by a wall of text, rather, the level
design itself suggests the only possible solution. This is all done so subtly
that it hardly feels like a tutorial at all. In fact, for the player, the
levels just get gradually harder and require you to combine more and more of
the skills and tricks you've figured out earlier.

It works brilliantly, and makes for a much stronger experience than any of the
text or voice based game tutorials I've seen so far.

~~~
Xurinos
_the text-based MUDs of old_

Hey now, text-based MUDs are not yet obsolete. There are quite a few folks out
there playing them. Most often, they are free, they do not put viruses or DRM
on your computer, and they work for the folks who are trying to play online
computer games out in the boonies with low bandwidth.

~~~
mkramlich
Speaking of text-vs-graphics game eras, reminds me of my first impressions of
Diablo:

"Oh, this is like NetHack-------++!"

------
lenni
Google Cache:
[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:c8WtNO6...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:c8WtNO6RCJUJ:www.hiwiller.com/2010/04/29/if-
mario-was-designed-in-2010/+if+mario+was+designed+in+2010&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk)

Don't get your hopes up though. Only mildy funny.

------
philk
This reminds me of the parts in Dragon Age: Origins where NPCs actively shill
premium content to you:

<http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/11/6/>

------
badave
He forgot the store where you can buy stuff at that all games are required to
have now. And how come you can't send mushrooms to your friends to help them
out?

~~~
Deestan
_May Mayhem_! Buy the Wario Hat _and_ 5 Extra Lives and get a 500 Nintendo
Points(tm) discount! Remember to enter "mayhem" in the Nintendo Store coupon
field. (Offer valid until the end of May.)

------
madssj
Coralized link: [http://www.hiwiller.com.nyud.net/2010/04/29/if-mario-was-
des...](http://www.hiwiller.com.nyud.net/2010/04/29/if-mario-was-designed-
in-2010/)

------
TheBranca18
It really is more like if Sony or Microsoft took Nintendo's original design
and added their APIs on top of it.

If Sony or Microsoft actually designed Mario the character would be overly
muscled and bald like Gears of War or Infamous.

------
dmn001
503 error. Move website to a reliable host?

------
pw0ncakes
::shudders::

Facebook and all of this "achievements" bullshit spell the ruin of game
design, which began its slouch toward infantilism in the big-budget 3-D era
("look, shiny!") and has been forced down our throats over the past few years
("Shove in the Time of Facebook").

Go is a game. Bridge is a game. Chess is a game. Poker is a game (despite the
embarrassing flood of idiots into Texas Hold 'em who play only that and have
no curiosity about other poker games). Ambition is a game. Settlers of Catan
is a game. Tigris and Euphrates is a game. Apples to Apples is a game. Chrono
Trigger is a game. Final Fantasy 6 is a game. World of Warcraft is a game.

"[Your roommate at bandcamp] Just Ate a Sandwich" is not a game.

Sloppy non-design. Blatant idiocy. Shitty ideas. Infantilism. Let the real
game designers do the work and let's ignore these "social [X]" charlatans, ok?

------
est
I hate to say this, but this for Hacker News? Really?

~~~
demallien
I'm not really sure what you find objectionable in this post? It deals with
tech, and it's a critique of trends in user-interface design (specifically in
games), even if it dos so in a rather 'fun' format. And not just any part of
the interface, but the all-critical "first impression". I rather suspect that
many of us here have had to think long and hard about conveying the rules of
the systems we are creating to the users in an unobtrusive yet effective
manner.

How _wouldn't_ it be considered Hacker News?

~~~
est
> It deals with tech, and it's a critique of trends in user-interface design
> (specifically in games), even if it dos so in a rather 'fun' format.

Yeah, the next submission should really about the Design Trends of Spam Sites
in 2010 or How to Design a Online Streaming Porn Site using H.264 and HTML5

~~~
unwind
Because ... what? Games are on the same level of "seriousity" as spam sites?

~~~
NickPollard
He was being sarcastic. His point was that people should stop being so narrow-
minded as to exactly what they expect to see on HN and get away from the
sometimes formulaic waves of articles about whatever the buzzword of the day
is.

Rather than backseat moderating against topics people think are uninteresting,
they should just focus on submitting good quality, interesting articles about
whatever could pique the curiosity of the readership.

------
badave
I can vouch for the accuracy of this. I'm an expert voucher, so you can trust
me.

