INTRO
When
I first heard, that Nintendo is
about to release the Super Mario Maker
for 3DS [SMM for now on], I was instantly super hyped. The reason was, that
I’ve been lately playing all kinds of platformers on 3DS/2DS with my 4 year old
daughter, especially Mario games. This announcement sounded like a
golden opportunity to swat two flies with one strike – quality gaming time with
my kid and trying to learn the craft
of level design at the same time. For
this game I happen to have the perfect
audience right at my home AND the timing of the release just couldn’t be
better.
I
instantly started to think about how I could make enjoyable levels for a 4 year old, or for younger kids in general. While playing with my kid, I’ve noticed,
that many games, that aren’t so called “games for kids”, start with great
levels suitable for little players, BUT
the difficulty spike goes wildly up (for a little kid that is), usually after
the first world, at the latest after the second. This creates often a
situation, where a little player plays the same few levels over and over again,
but they still would like to see the game further.
I
wanted to start to study that part before
the spike – what makes some levels so well suitable for little kids, that
they want to play them all over again. And what better way to do that, than
actually get one’s own hands dirty. Of
course this quickly lead to an idea, that this could be a good opportunity to
make an article, which is not “only”
about analyzing (the work of others), but also actually DOING level design and present those results. Naturally it also
came as an opportunity to study how a young player learns the tricks and all
the things an adult level designer has added… or how those things are missed.
Without
further ado, let me present the notes of the process. I hope you, the reader,
will get something out of this: an inspiration, tips for what to do and not to
do, a food for thought etc.
