Instead, it began as an experimental prototype within Nintendo’s tools team, who were trying to make it easier and faster for designers to put together 2D Mario levels. Photo by Bob Riha, Jr./Nintendo via Getty Imagesĭespite its current status as the Switch’s big summer release, Super Mario Maker didn’t actually start life as a commercial product. Takashi Tezuka (in red, to the left of Mario) at E3 in 2014. “I’m always thinking about that,” he says with a laugh. It’s the kind of tool that Tezuka would’ve killed for when he was designing games in the early 1980s. Players can create obstacles and then test them out in seconds, and it’s all done via the Switch’s touchscreen. Like its predecessor, it’s more of a tool than a game, an intuitive and playful way for players to craft their own 2D Super Mario levels and share them with others online. It’s a far cry from his most recent project where Tezuka served as producer on Super Mario Maker 2 for the Nintendo Switch, which launches today. “That cycle really took a long time,” Tezuka explains. This process would happen multiple times, as the team adjusted each stage to get them just right. Then they would bring the drawing to a programmer, who would try to translate it into the actual game. First, a designer would sketch out their vision for a level on graph paper. for the NES, creating levels was a laborious, time-consuming process.

When Takashi Tezuka served as assistant director on the very first Super Mario Bros.

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