Super Mario's Invisible Difficulty Settings
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- čas přidán 4. 05. 2024
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From Super Mario Bros. to Mario Wonder, Nintendo has explored and experimented with a genius way to let players dictate their own level of difficulty.
=== Sources and Resources ===
- Sources
[1] New Super Mario Bros: Volume 1 | Iwata Asks
iwataasks.nintendo.com/interv...
[2] Super Mario World - 1990 Developer Interview | Shmuplations
shmuplations.com/supermariowo...
[3] New Super Mario Bros: Volume 3 | Iwata Asks
iwataasks.nintendo.com/interv...
[4] Interview with Shigeru Miyamoto | Nintendo Channel
themushroomkingdom.net/interv...
[5] New Super Mario Bros: Volume 2 | Iwata Asks
iwataasks.nintendo.com/interv...
[6] 9 Things Shigeru Miyamoto Told Us About the New Star Fox | TIME
time.com/4245215/starfox-wii-u/
[7] Super Mario Bros. Any% Speedrun in 4:54.631 WR | Niftski
• Super Mario Bros. Any%...
[8] Is it Possible to Beat New Super Mario Bros. U Without Touching a Single Coin? | Ceave Gaming
• Is it Possible to Beat...
[9] Super Mario Odyssey Nipple% Speedrun in 7:23.650 | Tyron18
• [WR] Super Mario Odyss...
[10] SM64 - Watch for Rolling Rocks - 0.5x A Presses | pannenkoek2012
• SM64 - Watch for Rolli...
[11] Ask the Developer Vol. 11, Super Mario Bros. Wonder | Nintendo
www.nintendo.co.uk/News/2023/...
- Additional resources
Miyamoto and Tezuka on the struggle of balancing games for advanced players and beginners | Nintendo Everything
nintendoeverything.com/miyamo...
Shigeru Miyamoto talks Game Design (1998) | Shmuplations
shmuplations.com/miyamotodesign/
=== Chapters ===
00:00 - Intro
02:34 - The Three Pipes
04:11 - Making the Game More Difficult
11:29 - Making the Game Easier
17:19 - Seamless Shifting
19:06 - Encouraging Players to Try
23:02 - Case Study: Super Mario Bros. Wonder
27:06 - Outro
=== Games Shown ===
Super Mario 3D All-Stars | 2020
Super Mario Bros. | 1985
Super Mario World | 1990
Super Mario 64 | 1996
Super Mario Odyssey | 2017
Super Mario Bros. Wonder | 2023
Doom Eternal | 2020
Final Fantasy XV | 2016
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown | 2024
New Super Mario Bros. | 2012
Super Mario Land 2: The Six Golden Coins | 1992
Super Mario Galaxy | 2007
Super Mario 3D World | 2013
New Super Mario Bros. Wii | 2009
Super Mario Maker for Nintendo 3DS | 2016
New Super Mario Bros. 2 | 2012
New Super Mario Bros | 2006
Super Mario Galaxy 2 | 2010
Super Mario 3D Land | 2011
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island | 1995
Donkey Kong | 1981
Super Mario Bros. Deluxe | 1999
Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels | 1986
New Super Luigi U | 2013
Super Mario Maker 2 | 2019
Super Mario Sunshine | 2002
Super Mario Bros. 3 | 1988
New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe | 2019
Super Mario Bros. 2 | 1988
Dead Space | 2023
Fire Emblem: Three Houses | 2019
Star Fox Zero | 2016
Super Mario Run | 2016
=== Credits ===
Music provided by Epidemic Sound - www.epidemicsound.com/referra... (Referral Link)
Music from Super Mario Bros. Wonder, Super Mario Odyssey, New Super Mario Bros. U
=== Subtitles ===
Contribute translated subtitles - amara.org/videos/5WwvofSn9p7U/ - Hry
I think we can all agree that the best difficulty setting in a Mario game is “You can now play as Luigi.”
Clearly, that’s the same as saying “Ultra baby easy mode has been unlocked”. Luigi is almighty.
@@EmceeJoseph Yeah, Luigi U was way harder. I was just joking lmao.
I really like that they made Luigi able to run faster and jump higher, but is "slidier" and takes a bit longer to stop, as it makes him easier in some levels but harder in others.
and then turning off the gameboy every time i die on my final life
@@memorableman3709I got Luigi U as a gift once and I feel bad because I *cannot* play it. They meant well but Luigi is a nightmare to control, and the games are hard enough for me already with Mario
I just like how by adding the Luigi guide to those games, Nintendo codified "have your brother beat it for you" as a strategy to their games.
I really like that method. When I was about 5, I would have my brother beat all the ghost houses for me in NSMB. In the Mario and Luigi series, I would beat the harder bosses for my little brother. Lots of give and take (mostly take for my little brother until a few years ago).
The idea of a brother beating parts of the game for you fills me with nostalgia
@@pinochet3698 Same! Except it was my dad on Super Mario World, and I was mostly having him help because re-clearing the ghost houses was the only repeatable way to save the game. I wonder at what point game developers realized "wait, why are we making them wait to save? It's not like they put another coin in their console to continue playing...".
I did however consistently need his help to clear the third castle, the one in Vanilla Dome, because the room with the magikoopa at the start was just a bit too confusing for me.
someone in the design team for sure said "you know how youre older brother always helps you beat the level when you cant do it..."
It proves luigi > mario
8:38
I love how without any further explanation, this makes it sound like being Luigi is just inherently harder than being Mario.
I mean, that's not an incorrect assessment
Mario 2 has Princess Toadstool as the easy option, implying she’s just better than Mario.
its not easy being green
Have you ever played as Luigi? In a platformer the last thing you want is a slippery mf like Luigi, he is without a doubt harder, and requires more skill in every game you can play him in
At the same time, it seems like Luigi is the one clearing more of the harder levels. He's maybe can't do as much as Mario, but he's more persistent!
Jan Misali just off screen having a stroke when GMTK declares he's played "every mainline Super Mario game"
this comment is golden
I was about to comment the same thing lmao
yeah we had the same thought lol
LMAO i didn't think anybody would have the same thought as me there
"more than thirty mainline super mario games", eh mr brown ? WHICH ONES ARE THEY ?
Now that I have kids, I discovered this about Mario and Minecraft. Allow me to talk about Minecraft for a moment: it has the best invisible difficulty settings I've ever known. Just like with lego, my kids naturally reach for the pieces that they understand. When my oldest was 3, he would make dirt houses. Then he started adding windows. Then he made a basement with a ladder. Then some tunnels. Then added switches and buttons. Then added rail cars. Then began crafting things. Then discovered redstone, etc. He's had this close relationship iwth minecraft for years and it's never felt like he was too young or twoo old for it. And none of this required me deciding "you're ready for the next bit so I'll enable it, or get you to the next area, or buy the DLC." From the very start the game enabled ALL of this, but never skill checked with, "you MUST learn to use x, y, and z, to keep playing." This meant my son could advance to the "next level" whenever he was ready, while never feeling like the game was telling him he wasn't yet good enough. Every other game he plays for a while then walks away from suffers from the same issue: he gets to a point where he can't continue, so he loses interest.
As a kid I would play games I couldn’t play well, so I’d just stay in the beginning areas.
Wind Waker, I spent SO long running around Outset Island because the Forsaken Fortress was too scary for me back then. I still remember it as “Forbidden Fortress” 😂
cool :D
Hm. That's an interesting take on minecraft I haven't seen before. I guess that would be an invisible difficulty setting. However, I find it likely unintentional and more of a side effect of the game being an open sandbox with a lot of things to do and very little actual progression. Still, very cool, though.
@Mackinstyle out of curiosity, did you play on Peaceful/ Creative with him? My daughter loves the building but hates the monsters, so every world she makes is a peaceful/ creative mode so she doesn't have zombies and can build all the crazy stuff she wants.
There’s something so awesome and satisfying about watching a younger family member (my 4yo nephew in my case) actively work through an obstacle in a video game themselves. I always try to nudge him in the right direction instead of just doing it for him myself as I didn’t really get that when I was a kid. Growing up I would constantly underestimate my gaming and general problem solving ability so I avoided even attempting challenges I considered insurmountable or beyond my current ability, something I didn’t really get over until I was already a grown adult.
It was such a game changer for me the moment I realized I was actually good enough to play, enjoy and complete games I previously thought were “too hard” for me. I don’t want my nephew or anyone else to ever feel like he doesn’t have all of the tools necessary to work through any challenge, virtual or in the real world.
Great comment btw
14:55 "slightly unsettling" is putting it mildly - I remember being at 110 stars or something before seeing Cosmic Rosalina for the first time and it seriously scared me until I realized why she appeared. At that point, I was at the home stretch, super comfortable with the game and just cleaning up (not aware that there were 120 green stars in the postgame), so this character caught me completely by surprise at a point where I wasn't expecting new characters.
Holy smokes it’s Ocellus!
Same thing happened to me in 3D world. I had no clue that the invincible super tanooki suit existed until I had already completed the main game and started trying to master more complicated tricks.
@@archmagusofevil This was my journey:
"How nice of Nintendo to give you an invincibility power up if you can't beat the final boss"
*plays some postgame*
"Oh".
The final boss being 2 stages and the flying wing only skipping one was harsh (but I really loved it)
She showed up for the first time... when I was doing Melty Monster Galaxy star 2 (the rock)
I died so many times....
@@laytonjr6601 That's not nice. It's insulting. Giving an invincibility power up is more proof these games are just for kids. Hell, if I was a kid I would be pissed off - if I'm going to beat a boss I'm going to do it properly, what's the point in cheating? Where's the fun? They're making games too easy for kids now, they're never going to learn to get good if they do things like that.
I think the switch palaces in SMW were not just about making the game easier, there's a few places where they're part of the expected route, and some secrets require glitches to access without them.
I think the game developers intended them to be more of a reward than a crutch.
This is also evident that a few levels featuring them need to be beaten to unlock the relevant switch palace, if they were just to make the game easier they wouldn't be useful in a level you need to beat to unlock the palace, you're clearly already able to beat that level. But giving a cape power up before a secret exit that requires flying under the exit is a pretty good reward for exploring.
You can’t say smw anymore with wonder around
@@orangemonks894nuh uh. wonder is smbw, world is smw, and wii is nsmbw
Yeah, I think the video sort of acknowledges it. Like, as a player, we want to hit the switches because its part of being a completionist. But it comes with the unfortunate side effect of making the rest of the game easier as a result. What you say is true, that it was meant to be a reward. But that reward does mean making some levels significantly easier with no way to undo it. So when purely talking about difficulty modes, I think it's accurate to point this 'flaw' out (and how it was addressed in a later game.)
Waaaaaaaa 😢
@@orangemonks894My man, this makes no sense.
Something I noticed about Odyssey when watching differently skilled players is that the same level can have multiple "main paths".
If a level presents a goal with a large gap between you and the goal, a skilled player will work out that they can combine all of the different jumps with precise timing to get over the gap and get to the goal in record time. A less skilled player might not realise and explore around the level and find a much easier route to the goal. The same puzzle has multiple difficulty levels in disguise that invisibly gets tailoured to how familiar you are with the game.
I appreciated that about it! For the life of me I cannot do all the fancy jump combos I see people do online. I can do enough to get around though. Thankfully the game does not force you to git gud or go home
Yes! This philosophy is even applied to the bosses. Each one has faster starts, like throwing bombs back at Harriette or jumping on the hats of the other bunnies when they are in them.
It really lets better players use their skills and gives them something to do instead of simply waiting for the boss to be vulnerable again.
It also solves the problem that the beginning of the game is way too easy for some players by letting them choose the difficulty of each challenge, like by attempting difficult jumps with Cappy to skip a part of the level. I love this game so much!
Yeah I think thats one of the best examples why Odyssey works for just like everyone. I played Mario since the early 90's and a lot of later mario games - especially 2D games - didnt catch me anymore. Odyssey on the other hand ist probably close to perfect in giving everyone a lot to enjoy.
Pikmin 4 took a similar approach, with multiple answers to the same problem.
This reminds me a lot of Sonic's high-middle-low paths, where getting to and staying on the high path requires more skill/memorization & finishes the level more quickly while maintaining "flow".
Personally, my favorite part about super mario wonder was that, despite the game being really easy, you can completely break the game apart if you have the skills for it. Infinite wall jumps with the floaty jump badge and bubble flower flight can allow you to basically go wherever you want if you can pull them off consistently, and while it isn't always useful by being faster or letting you get to unintended areas it's rewarding simply by allowing you to test yourself. I have the theory that these things were left in intentionally, despite nintendo being known for patching out skill-based exploits like one sided wall jumps or midair shell jumps, which is a huge step in the right direction for them
it's definitely intentional, there are some places where you can only get to with badges and they just put a few coins as a nod to the player.
There was one flaw in the Mario 3D Land assist system that bugged me a lot. The star sparkle (or I think it was an extra star that didn't show up on the screen; either way) punishment didn't apply when you used the assist mode, but when it showed up. Since I liked to fully complete a level before finishing it, I would often deliberately jump in a pit if I missed a coin and couldn't go back to it, and some times, I had to retry often enough that the assist box showed up. So by trying to show a certain sort of expertise (100%ing levels in the first go through), I was punished as though I needed assistance.
I had the exact same thing happen to me. I assumed that if I didn't touch the power up, it wouldn't matter. Nope. Just being offered the power up is enough to permanently alter the save file, and you have no way of knowing this until after you've cleared the level, by which point the damage is done. If there had been a way to go back and play a level again to clear it "properly", that would be one thing, but there wasn't, and five deaths in a level can make the shiny stars at the end dim forever with no warning. Fortunately, this punishment got removed from later games.
This flaw existed since its inception in NSMB Wii, IIRC- the second that Super Block appears, you’re permalocked out of an “achievement” even if you opt not to call upon Luigi…
I ran into this too and it annoyed me to no end. The game is pretty damn easy except for a few levels so it felt unfair I lost out on the sparkling stars just because they OFFERED assistance.
Not to mention that if you even *see* the assist block you lose the sparkling stars. Not only are you basically punished for being bad at a particular section of the game, the game doesn't have the courtesy to tell you. I ended up 100%ing 3D Land a second time to get my deserved 5 sparkly stars.
What I like about most of these "difficulty settings" is that by using different levels, bonuses or whatever, you don't feel bad, instead it makes the game more fun and easier to explore.
The game doesn't slap you in the face for being terrible, but instead rewards you for playing.
No, some of the games still - in their own way - shame you for playing on easy mode. Those bronze stars and level skips sit there to remind you that you didn't REALLY beat the level and thus don't get full credit.
Very much disagree. Just let me pick and pay on easy without all the badgering.
Special world.
Gotta love the deep dives whenever you cover Nintendo’s mastery in the craft. We have been quite fortunate to enjoy that consistent quality out of such a developer in our time
Here's hoping the archaic business side of the company doesn't destroy them in the future
@@Avendesora Here’s hoping they manage to improve on those aspects, without compromising their core stance on fun, quality, gameplay-focused experiences
@@Avendesora Yeah they are terrible company for trying to make profit and protecting their ips so that they can stay in the business and keep making games.
@@hododod246How did you fit that big ass boot in your Throat?
I've heard the work conditions at Nintendo are relatively great, and very few people leave the jobs/get fired.
However this doesn't apply to people developing pokemon at Game Freak
Note that you can't 100% New Super Mario Bros Wii nor Super Mario 3D Land if you ever see (not even use) a Super Guide Block for the former or an Assist Block for the latter. You'll still be able to have five stars on your save file but they won't be sparkling.
New Super Mario Bros 2 and U aren't as punishing. In the former you can restore the sparkles by beating a level you triggered the assist in by yourself, and in the latter by simply not using it (which means that you don't have to reset your game if you trigger it).
That explains way too many hours I put into 3D Land trying to 100% it...
that's crazy that they even do that. "yeah dude. you sucked too much. you're not a REAL gamer."
What's annoying is that in 3D Land you can get the skip from the Mystery Houses. I got one, and used it not knowing it would remove the sparkling stars.
in NSMB2, if a Invicibility Super Leaf block spawns, the sparking stars won't appear too, even if you don't grab the Leaf
~2:00. Kirby. Give it to your kid or little sibling and they can float through the levels no problem. Give it to an experienced gamer and suddenly there's a bunch of secret paths, harder alternate routes. And there's never any real reward for it other that a stamp on the level select or a percentage going up. It all just exists to make an easy game for kids into something everyone can enjoy.
Kirby is an excellent series. Actually has badass threatening antagonists so they're "everyone" games. Mario is really just for kids because there is absolutely nothing to be taken seriously or threatened by in ANY of the games. The main threat is a turtle that goes "gwahaha!" since the mid 80's... the games are for 6 year olds.
@@Vaquix000 I'm not an edgy loser so hard disagree lmao
Bowser does have his insane moments sometimes.@@Vaquix000
@@Vaquix000I’m a Kirby fan, but you being toxic is a massive L
I'm pretty sure the reward is the *_carnage_* of tearing through everything in your path rather than just going around.
Oh ya, and then there's post-game. The abridged versions of the story are usually slightly harder than the main story, and then the Arena... Star Allies replaced the Arena with the Ultimate Choice, which has both an explicit difficulty slider (which changes _much_ more than just stats), _and_ an implicit difficulty slider based on the party composition. Want easy mode? Use 4 of the incredibly broken Dream Friends. Masochist mode? Plain Kirby; no allies.
Mark Rosewater had an article about a similar thing for magic the gathering, he used the term lenticular game design. Since depending on the way you were viewing a card, at a beginner or advanced level, changed your understanding of the card. But the key is to still understand the card in either case, or to grok it. So what you do is make a card with a simple to understand first reading, but the way it interacts with the system includes things that an advanced play can opt in to. Like imagine a spell that make one of your minions disappear for a turn, and the next turn it comes back plus a card from your graveyard. A new player can go "Oh, it goes down to the underworld and saves them, nice!" and an advanced player can go, "This could be really good with cards that have effects trigger when they enter play." Basically, the card's effect scales with how much information you know about the game and its applications.
Thou Mark still won't allow for viable reprints for standard or modern mtg
@@silent_reaper999What on earth are you talking about? Reprints for standard? Those sets are already still in print. Or are you demanding Tarmogoyf and other overpowered cards in standard? Cause game balance is a thing. Weird complaint.
I was seeing Ben brode talk about something kinda similar for marvel snap
Why snap in particular 😅@@paulakroy2635
The Grumps recently referred to Yoshi and Nabbit in Wonder as "little brother mode." Which is both a perfect way to describe that and incredibly amusing to me because I'M the one who needs the help. My little brother is the one who has beaten the game while I tag along trying not to die
It sucks that those two are my favorite characters 😅
I wanna play the “real” way but I love Yoshi and Nabbit
@@DeathnoteBBSame! Yoshi is my favourite and I didn't get to play as him once.
The thing that's kind of annoying is that the back of the box says it has co-op whether it has actual co-op or just kind of a little brother mode to keep a kid busy. They're definitely not the same thing.
@@ArchibaldClumpy it seems to have actual co-op mode though. There are other characters to choose from that take damage just as Mario does. You don't have to pick the "little-bro" character if you don't want.
@@ArchibaldClumpyMario Wonder does have a proper co-op mode.
Either player can pick any character they want. Having played with my 5 year old son recently, he could choose Yoshi or Nabbit for invincibility and once he found his feet or got confident he was happy being Luigi or Toad.
Congrats on turning 200!
Right around 22 minutes you mention something that's a **real** problem in video game design: Game rewards (particularly character leveling) intrinsically makes the game *easier* to play as you progress, inverting the desired difficulty curve. It's a huge problem in RPGs and strategy games, where the longer you play the more powerful items and skills and abilities you collect that make the game easier to play. This ends up requiring the game designers to implement artificial difficulty to try and keep the games balanced.
I play a lot of MechWarrior 5 and one of the best mods for the game (YAML) has introduced an "upgrades" feature. This feature locks you out of being able to drop heavier battlemechs until you buy the mech bay upgrades. You can't repair or refit certain items until you buy the repair bay upgrades. Other upgrades reduce the cost of repairs or reduce travel time. These upgrades end up having a positive feedback loop where the more upgrades you have the easier it is to play the game and get more upgrades until the game has become so easy that it's boring.
I love the mod and the upgrades feature, but it inverts the difficulty curve - making the game far more difficult to play for new players or new games, but so easy that it becomes banal for late game experienced players. (MW5 can be pretty flexible with this because of its open world difficulty zone design, and because mods can increase late game difficulty to improve late game balance.)
Dealing with that inverted difficulty curve requires very careful game design to ensure that each of those "upgrades" (or character levels or higher level items or spells or abilities) also opens up higher difficulty gameplay, while also keeping the escalating power levels from turning into an WoW-meme mess of stupendous nonsense.
This inverted difficulty curve problem is especially prominent in games (such as Oblivion or Skyrim) that deal with it by leveling opponents alongside the player. Leveling up doesn't feel very meaningful because all of the same enemies have also leveled up with you.
This inverted difficulty curve problem is worth its own video and I'd love to see you examine it in depth!
Sounds like you play a lot of trash RPGs if leveling up makes you overpowered. They literally solved this with the NES with increasingly leveled enemies that only get overpowered if YOU decide to waste your time and grind
@@dissraps Wow... um... Okay? So you didn't read what I wrote, did you? Because you literally just described exactly one of the methods I pointed out for how developers deal with the inverted difficulty curve caused by in-game reward systems. I also already mentioned why that method is problematic. So... thanks? I guess? For boosting my comment?
Oh, I know what it is. You're probably a Final Fantasy fan, aren't you? That would explain it. The concept of "outlandishly ridiculous power level escalation" wouldn't have any meaning for you because you're used to every game having 20 bosses each of which are "World ending monsters" that immediately turn into casual random encounters once you've beaten them the first time.
Oh! Or you just have never actually done any game dev! That's it! I get it now. Because you've never had to balance gameplay yourself. So you just assume that there's a difficulty curve template out there that "the NES" got right and everyone else just imports into their engine of choice and **poof** the game's magically balanced! God I wish that's how it worked.
I dare you to GM a D&D campaign just for one night. Use a premade adventure path, even, that's already tuned and balanced for you. Try it :) it'll be fun! Then come back and tell us all how easy it is to balance the difficulty curve.
This video is made infinitely worse by the narrator showing his face on screen.
The worst possible inverted difficulty balance is what Diablo took from 3 to immortal. You begin underleveled, start getting equipment, become stronger and wreck through hordes of enemies while you sleep until you can change difficulty mode from hard1 to hard2 and now you have the same equipment, but you can’t damage your enemies because they are now stronger and then you have to replay the game until you get overheated again. The problem is when you have to not only grind the game, but once you have grinded enough, you have to start over and grind again… it’s lame
I could never beat Oblivion as a kid because of the level scaling system, because I would focus on non-combat skills like alchemy and all the enemies would end up way too strong for me to fight. It was a really nasty feedback loop
I loved that you included the section about encouraging players to attempt the more difficult routes. It would have been sufficient to just explain how the harder and easier "pipes" work, but you and the developers of Mario went above and beyond to show us why the difficult pipes matter and how they can provide more value to a player. The Miyamoto quote at the beginning of that section really spoke to my soul.
I agree. Just as it's important not to baby the player, to provide other levels of challenge, it's also important not to let the player baby themselves, to give them aa reason to give it a shoot even if they're not sure
- i love that Iwata quote when you contrast it with Mario Maker's Luigi assist showing up 2 deaths in, Luigi I'm thankful but I'm nowhere near stuck yet, chill Lil' bro
- also the Easy mode characters are a great idea, except in Mario U deluxe the 4th player was forced to pick either Toadette or Nabbit
1:29
"Which is why in more than 30 mainline super mario games"
Jan Misali is rolling in their grave right now (except they aren't dead)
The count is 18* (depending on how you count, so you can argue any number you want depending on your criteria).
his grave
@@zym6687 Hi! Jan Misali uses he and they pronouns, hopes this helps! :)
@@mistermetenor1 Hi! His is the genitive form of he, hope this helps! (:
@@zym6687 I wonder why anybody would complain about the usage of gender-neutral pronouns... I would suggest going outside more often.
I think the Star Coin "added difficulty" concept from New Super Mario Bros actually dates back to the Dragon Coins in Super Mario World. In the original SNES release, collecting all 5 nets a 1-up. But in the GBA release, Super Mario Advance 2, all 5 Dragon Coins are tracked in the stage progress screen just like Star Coins. I wonder if this was a limitation of save RAM storage, since Yoshi's Island (like original Banjo Kazooie) saves a "score" instead of individual collectables found per stage. It's actually pretty interesting that 3D collectathon Mario ended up influencing 2D Mario in such a way. Congrats on the 200th episode, Mark!
I like how in the newer games if you collect the star coin you collected a star coin although if you die it's kind of weird they don't reset but in world when you collect the star coin it doesn't do anything for you unless you collect all five of them and you have to beat the level without dying including Not using the checkpoint though you can actually cross the checkpoint. Problem is if you cross the checkpoint and then die you restarted the checkpoint and sometimes you can't go back for the other star coins which is really annoying that you lose them You think it would save your progress up to that spot including the coins you collected but I guess not.
minimum for a 100 point score to be saved is 7 bits of memory (124 max value). Using bitwise flags you can track 7 *unique* things in those 7 bits (each bit is a flag). Either way you probably need a whole 8bit address space to store which of the 5 coins the player collected.
They probably used the score system because it was more versatile and easier to tally up and display.
Agreed. Those coins were introduced in super mario world.
when I heard that, I was upset that he didn't notice dragon coins in Super Mario World.
I think that within the context of early mario games1 rewarding the player with lives doesn't generally make the game easier. They're designed like arcade games where playing well is intended to let you "play more". To a skilled player a bonus life is more a trophy than a real reduction in difficulty.
And to a less skilled player those rewards are a way to let (and encourage) you learn and protect you from mistakes while you develop your skills.
Kind of building on what you're saying about preset, selectable difficulty and invisible difficulty settings...
Last year we released our first game on Steam: a shoot 'em up / STG / shmup called Schildmaid MX. We didn't make a game in this genre because 2D shooting games are easy to make (making a good one actually isn't easy at all and the best shmups are complex bits of design and programming work in a way that isn't always clear to observe by the average onlooker), but because we genuinely love these types of games.
The challenge was: a relatively successful shmup has an almost built in audience of hardcore players that are looking for the next game to challenge them... but we also wanted our game to avoid the brick wall difficulty that typifies the genre and be more welcoming to newcomers, while not betraying that audience.
So we decided to cut the content of our game, consisting of a large set of stages that gradually increase in diffiiculty, up in various game modes of varying challenge levels. So if you pick the easiest mode, it's not "baby difficulty" but its very own mode with its very own set of stages and other quirks and characteristics that make it a somewhat different experience from the other, harder game modes, which all also offer their own, individual experiences. This even makes the easiest mode interesting for veteran shmup players as it gives them the breathing room to get to grips with the very specific enemy bullet absorbing mechanics of our game and understand what it is exactly that we are asking from them and how it differs from the shmups they are used to.
Aditionally, save for one mode that is a 10 minute continuous, uninterrupted gauntlet, each mode has an optional harder route that is only accessible when the player meets certain, more challenging conditions. Then, layered on top of everything, we have incorporated an arcade game staple: a invisible difficulty slider that increases when the player makes progress without losing lives, to ensure constant pushback and friction, and drops just as fast when a player makes regular mistakes and loses lives along the way.
We like to think that we made a game that caters to a large variety of player skill levels and encourages and motivates players to keep pushing to get better and try the harder modes, without diminishing their accomplishments in the easier modes. And it was at least recognised by PC Gamer journalist Will Freeman who wrote a recommendation article on our game in the magazine focused on how Schildmaid MX reframes difficulty: twitter.com/HitPStudio/status/1682117719745855492
I honestly wish more games did difficulty like Celeste does it.
There’s an assist mode that lets you toggle settings ranging from simply pausing when you dash to make sure you go the right direction, to making you literally invincible. The amount and way you make the game easier is completely up to you.
But on the flip side, you can get into the optional challenges immediately. There are strawberries and B-side, and even the winged golden strawberry if you want an extreme challenge - all in just the first level.
The challenges also have a huge range in difficulty, ranging from regular strawberries that are just barely harder than usual gameplay, to the golden strawberries and Farewell (an optional level past the main story) that can take even the best players hours upon hours to do for the first time.
The incredibly customizable difficulty settings make it fun for everyone, whether you enjoy an _extremely_ hard challenge or aren't too experienced with games and are mainly just there for the story.
I remember dying over 1000 times in 3A. I just could not do that last stretch. And when I had trouble understanding how the bubbles and wind worked in 4A, I finally said "screw it" and went full assist. By the time I got to 6A, I was wondering how the HELL you were supposed to do some sections at all, let alone without the assistance. In one room, I had to focus on the fact a winged strawberry was present to inform my approach. "Okay, it flies away when I dash. That means it must be possible to reach that area without using that button" and I was eventually able to get there.
I can't understate how much of a welcome addition the Badges are to Super Mario Bros. Wonder. Using them feels great and they've been a big help in getting me through the Stages and clearing all those extra challenges. Congratulations on 200 videos!
the old school sonic games definitely had a similar idea of difficulty levels built into the level design. If you keep your speed as long as you can, you'll likely stay at the top level, make a mistake and you'll drop down a level
My first thought when he showed the pipe graphic was "knuckles chaotix". the level design is literally always as you describe
@@Jeffeffery9knuckles chaotic?
Fantastic video! I got my nephew Mario Wonder for Christmas and it was fascinating to watch someone who has never played Mario start to learn and how the game caters to newer players. Great breakdown!
i feel like mario wonders badges are a really fun way to do difficulty - if youre struggling you can use some of the badges out to help like the bounce off the bottom of the screen badge or the parachute cap; but theyre both also good for skilled players who can use them well. if you want to just be more medium difficulty you can use more quality of life badges like coin vacuum or just some of the more gimmicky less useful but still fun badges like the extra run speed or grapple vine badges; and if you want a real challenge you can use the three expert badges - i played a majority of the game with jet run and it felt awesome and really hard and i think thats an awesome thing to have as a bonus challenge in a mario game
its not even like going for the easier badges feels like an easy mode because they change the way you play and for the most part are just genuinely fun to use even if it is easier
Defining “difficulty” has always intrigued me, as there are so many different ways to measure difficulty. Really cool analysis! I’ve always had fun making my own challenges. And keeping extra challenges as side content is very clever.
Thank you for 200 videos Mark! This is by far my favorite CZcams channel. I love game design, and though I haven’t officially made a game yet (hopefully one day), I do often use your stuff when I GM at my weekly D&D night.
Here's to many more years and more great game design insights!
5:43 those green stars are relatively mandatory in 3D world, you need quite a lot of them to open the final boss
Replayed 3D World recently and while I was ahead for the first few worlds, by the time I got to the last of the regular worlds I was replaying levels for stars. I was already trying to get as many as I could so I wouldn't have to grind to unlock Rosalina post game, so I was surprised that I was about five short to face off against King Kitty Koopa.
22:08 That's a positive feedback loop, not negative. In feedback loops "positive" and "negative" don't mean "good" or "bad", they mean something more like "accelerates" or "counteract". Rewarding a player who's winning with something that makes will make it easier for them to win more is very much a positive feedback loop.
Mark used it correctly. He is saying that being able to do hard things in the game gives you rewards that make the game easier. From hard to easy, a feedback loop pushing you in the opposite direction of difficulty, hence negative feedback.
Immediately after, he describes a situation where being able to do hard things result in being given even harder challenges. From hard to harder, a feedback loop pushing you in the same direction of difficulty, hence positive feedback.
@@HoleSamIt can be pretty confusing, but giving players who are already doing well an advantage is the definition of positive feedback loop.
@InvaderMik but it entirely depends on the perspective. Mark looked at it from the perspective of a player looking for a challenge. Who was then rewarded with less challenge upon overcoming the difficult part. Which is a negative feedback loop.
As he explains, this pushes a player who wants to be in the upper pipe back into the lower ones. Taking away the momentum and changing the trajectory.
I think he meant its a negative feedback loop in terms of the difficulty or challenge faced by the skilled player
Hey! In this instance I was thinking of the pipe scenario - if you move into the "hard" pipe, in an attempt to make the game more difficult, the game gives you rewards that push you out back down to the normal / easy pipe. So it's inadvertently a counteracting the player's desire to make things more difficult. It can then move to become a positive loop (the game gets easier and easier), but I believe it /starts/ as a self-correcting negative feedback loop.
Congratulations on 10 years and 200 episodes! That's absolutely wild; your stuff is so high-quality. I hope the next year brings another slew of fantastic GMTK videos.
Congrats on the 200th! One thing this channel always makes me think about when discussing difficulty is the punishment/reward. I like how the latest Mario rewards good players with extra challenge, and assist less skilled player with support.
Many games punishes failure with more difficulty, and success with rewards making the game easier. To me this is very backwards. For example games that will keep your money/objects where you died, and now you need to go track back again on a difficult section, with often harder difficulty since you are missing key objects, with the added stress of risking losing your stuff. It can become very frustrating when your skill level is below a certain level and being punished with even more difficulty than required for a skilled player.
I like ultrakill's difficulty system, where the selected difficulty isnt just some stat changes, but behavior changes as well
I'm always a fan of when games do this and really make new difficulties way more than just "extra numbers". Makes you feel good to actually explore each difficulty setting instead of just have the same but harder.
Congrats on reaching 200 episodes!! Your videos are so rewatchable and I love putting them on when I wanna learn about my favourite games or just feel like delving deeper into what makes them tick :)
Thank you!
@@GMTK You're welcome!
Kirby games are some of the easiest games by Nintendo.
But nearly all of them are quite challenging and feel like a completely different game if you chose to not use copy abilities and only Kirbis core abilities.
Most bosses in fact are designed around the idea you can beat them wo having a copy ability. But then again the games dont give you any rewards for doing so.
I think with Forgotten Land there's at least one boss fight (if not more) that has an optional challenge to win without copy abilities. Yeah, the instances of rewards for stuff like that are few and far between, especially when the player decides to take on that challenge without provocation (i.e. no copy abilities because you can, or speedrunning when there's no in-game incentive behind it).
@@gameman250 Forgotten Land also does something really nice with the copy ability upgrades: you can still use the weaker versions.
I think the simplest way I've seen it pointed out to me is: in Kirby, you can just fly over most challenges to clear them easily, or you can take the ground route for more difficulty.
But see that’s the problem with any game that relies on creating difficulty through self imposed restrictions: playing as basic Kirby isn’t very fun, the copy abilities are a huge selling point. It’s like how badges in Mario Wonder break the game but not using them feels like you’re missing out on a big part of the experience.
Forgotten Land also lets you change the actual diffculty setting mid-game and even reminds you that you can!
Happy 200 Video Anniversary! Thank you for all the great videos and analysis and insight that you've given us over the years Mark, I really appreciate you and what you do!
You need to be carefull with this stuff. I've heard that if you repeat the words "all mainline mario games" three times, a certain youtuber will kick your door down and demand to know what exactly do you think you mean by that.
20:52 - I agree with hiding the assist modes until players need then. But then what happened in Mario Maker 2? I'd say I am quite good at platformers, yet I still remember the freaking campaign with Luigi chiming in after each death.
"Hey bro, if you're having trouble with a course, why don't you git gud?"
And before someone points this out: Yes, I am aware that this has been patched after release.
i thought smm2's "call luigi" option would be like the "luigi shows you how to do the level" feature in other games; but it's just a level skip
@@jfb- How would they do that with user generated content? The game could replay how the level maker played, but what stands in the way for them to stand there for minutes before they do anything?
@@NuiYabuko the feature I'm refering to only exists in story mode
Recently played through the beginning of Mario Wonder with friends, and one of them had a lot of trouble wall jumping because she rarely ever played platformers at all beforehand. It made me think back just a bit on this whole thing, and it's kinda refreshing.
Congrats on 200 videos, Mark! I love seeing your content and how you analyse all these different systems from so many different games, it's such a pleasure to watch. Thanks for all the great content!
2:05 “Every single mainline entry”
[jan Misali voice] So, which games did you play?
Congrats on 200 videos!! Love to see you guys still finding such great topics to talk about!
Happy 200th episode mate! Congrats!
This was such a well-put together video. Thanks for all the hard work
Saw this in my Subscriptions tab - haven't had your content recommended to me in months. Glad you're still going 😊
Love the 200th video milestone. Your work is always excellent and top notch💖💖
Congrats on 200 videos! 🎉 Always a pleasure
Congrats on 200 episodes, Mark! I don’t know how often you hear it, but thank you so much for all the hours and effort you’ve poured into your work over these past years. The information is always helpful, and the content always presented in a high-quality and concise manner. It’s so awesome having such a high quality resource available for free, and I’m really grateful for it.
that was an awesome video! some of the difficulty stuff was more obvious to me when i was younger (like super guides), but it never hit me that there was more subtle ones (like those power-ups and bonuses that take a little more risk to get)! cheers to 200 videos!
22:22 Another thing about hiding more difficult challenges as a reward for completing challenges is that, similarly to how assists don't show up unless the game is confident you are struggling and need some help, expert challenges won't appear or become available until the player can demonstrate their skill and prove that they're capable of taking on the more difficult levels. This way, the difficulty won't overwhelm less skilled players and make them feel like they haven't truly completed the game, since they won't even see the more difficult challenges. This is a key part of what makes Mario games more approachable and less intimidating to new players.
This really reminds me of how hidetaka Miyazaki is committed to not implementing difficulty modes but rather naturally adding features that can make the game easier while fitting perfectly in the context of the actual game
and then he just nerfed all of them except for the Parry & the Guts from Berserk sword 🤣🤣
He netted like rivers of blood and madness for pvp purposes. Bro r you ok?
@@chaselowell4567 Yes, PVP is a huge issue with Souls games. It interferes with what would be best design for a single player experience because everything needs to be balanced for the PVP aspect of the game. If it had no PVP, it could have overpowered weapons and underpowered weapons and it would function well as invisible difficulty settings.
Awesome vid, excited to watch and support you for another year :)
The thumbnail for this video is really good. Full of interesting details, indicating a level of quality, yet still clean and readable. Great work, whoever made that 💯
they should just put a poison swamp in the next mario game and call it a day. with dragons. and wolves. and dragons riding wolves.
This reminds me of kid icarus uprising's difficulty system. You can bet hearts on your ability to beat a level on a certain level of difficulty. If you die, you lose some of those hearts, and the difficulty drops a bit. You can also spend hearts to have a super low difficulty, but there's no return. It's really cool, and it encouraged me to play at higher difficulty levels. Add in the intensity gate system, and it was really cool.
You sound like you describing Smash Bros. That mode were at the very end you have to beat Master hand.
@@bland9876 ah, I wouldn't know. I'm much more familiar with kiu, lol
@@loreleiloriestone9179 how are you not familiar with Smash Bros?
@@bland9876 I'm aware of it as a concept, but since I don't like fighting games, I've never played it or watched anyone play it. So, I've heard of it, but I don't understand the difficulty system.
@@loreleiloriestone9179 🤯how do you mention Kid Icarus uprising and then have never played Smash Bros?
Also your definition of fighting game has to be super loose to include Smash Bros. I mean if you even look at any footage of Mortal Kombat, Street fighter, or Tekken you would see a huge difference.
At least it's not as dumb as calling Dynasty Warriors a fighting game. I'm not kidding they actually do.
Also if you have friends would you even do? Mario Kart? Mario Kart has power ups and the physics are kind of weird and you don't even have a proper gas button like you would in say Forza Motorsport. So people consider it different just like they do with Smash.
I'm happy that you've stuck around and made videos like this one. It is really fun and interesting what you find in games. Especially for me, who also likes looking for the "hidden gems" of game design.
There's no way this is the 200th video! It's so amazing to see an amazing channel like this grow larger and larger every month. I love everything you do, there has not been a single video which I did not enjoy ♥️♥️♥️
I'd love to see you do a video on how you could apply these same concepts to an RPG. I can imagine that it'll largely depend on the type of gameplay chosen and the story line for that matter, but I'm definitely going to have to think about this.
Here's some ideas. Grinding is the big one, fight more battles, game gets easier. Xenoblade even lets you lower your level to add challenge back (cause it's so easy to overlevel).
Adding extra challenges to a battle:
- FFX if you do enough damage you get overkill
- trying to do as much damage as you can do in a short amount of time (FFXVI shows damage during stagger) (star rating a battle based on how long it was)
- Star Ocean 4 builds a board of bonuses as you kill enemies in certain ways but breaks when you take a crit hit,
- a lot of modern open-world games have almost randomly generated challenges like kill using certain ability or without getting hit. Legends Arceus Pokedex is my favorite example
- FF7 hyper status makes you take more damage but fill limit break more
- Obviously postgame dungeons/bosses
RPGs usually add a ton of mechanics to make games easier:
- Summons in FF (slow but powerful)
- Multiple progression systems so if you don't understand one it doesn't hinder you too much
- Hidden chests give you better items (rewarding exploration)
- Open world lets you go elsewhere and build up before trying again (Elden Ring)
Progression systems that make players choose between growing or using what they have are fun:
- FF9 equip this to learn an ability even though it's not gonna help you in battle. But if you struggle, change to something that helps you.
- Job systems - level up a new job vs use a job I have a lot of abilities in.
- Ratchet and Clank's weapons max out and then you need to use new ones if you want to level them up
RPGS often suffer from positive feedback loops - aka good players get more rewards => even eaiser. Bad players get less rewards => even harder. So, thought and care needs to be put in to make sure people stay in their flow channels. One idea: instead of just giving more XP/money to skilled players, give something that makes them change how they play (eg. equipment that's high-risk/high-reward), cosmetics / achievements.
@@Paul-to1nb Load balancing is definitely a problem in RPG's. Like with FFT you can only use two jobs per character, but once you get the monk job class you're a walking tank, and once you get calculator you can nearly take out every enemy in one turn. They tried to somewhat Nerf calculator by only giving you four properties to target and four divisors, but they didn't even try with monks. It's why monkulator is the most overpowered job setup that you can have. The only real inhibition they placed is that the higher your levels, the more powerful the enemies you fight in battle, but even that they didn't get right because there are several level degenerator traps that allow you to really beef up your characters. The problem I'm having, is that I don't really know how I'd do it any better and still make it fun to play.
While it's not an RPG, you might take some inspiration from _Super Metroid_ with its fight against Phantoon.
By the time you fight Phantoon in a normal playthrough, you have access to missiles, super missiles, and all but one beam type. Super missiles do the most damage to Phantoon of available weapons, but hitting him with one will temporarily put him into an enraged state in which he's invulnerable and attacks you with walls of fire. If you found the Charge Beam in Brinstar and know how to use it defensively, you can use it to avoid damage from his fire attacks in his enraged state, but if you didn't find the Charge Beam or don't know how to use it defensively, you're better off using ordinary missiles instead of super missiles and accepting a more drawn-out fight.
In an RPG, you might achieve something similar by building in the potential for riskier strategies that require deep knowledge of one's enemy and battle mechanics that can pay off greatly if done correctly but that punish players who do it poorly. In that case, players would generally stick to safer, more reliable strategies unless they have the knowledge and confidence to pull off something more daring.
@@reillywalker195 Ah, like the Ruby or Emerald Weapons in FF7. Certain attacks would anger them to where they might use a laser beam attack that wipes out your whole party or just kicks you out of the battle. Instead of it being super difficult and requiring a strategy guide, I could scatter clues that hint at strengths and weaknesses for bosses that you need to fight. Maybe even have methods of skipping them outright until you're at a level where you're ready to take them on, but ultimately you would need to because of an item they would have. I suppose that's also like the Zelda series too, at least what I've heard of them since the only one I've played thus far is Link's Awakening because I've got it for the Game Boy, but I've seen enough videos on the others to have seen a similar mechanic in them.
Happy 200th episode mate!
Marvelous video. I love how subtle Nintendo can be setting this sort of stuff which can be obvious to many experienced players but the real quality test is perceiving it when it's not actually showing up. Your channel is always amazing. Once again, greetings from Brazil.
Congrats on hitting 200 videos! I've been watching since your very first(?) video on Toki Tori 2+, and the show has completely changed the way I interact with games. You've inspired a great love of game design, and I'm always excited to see a new video release. Looking forward to Mind Over Magnet!
I’ve always thought Kirby’s float was the most brilliant invisible difficulty setting. In theory it trivializes the entire game, in practice due to how the float reduces your speed, newer players will only use it to avoid whatever they’re uncomfortable with, which should gradually decrease as they’re occasionally forced to get closer to the levels hazards. Experienced players see the float as a challenge, as they try to get to the end as fast as they can, using it as little as they can get away with. And due to being a dynamic element everyone inbetween could use it to the degree they see fit.
The games repeatedly seem to be encouraging you to go faster. It seems they realized the potential back in Super Star Ultra, where the game timed every mode, had you race against DDD, and even let you play as a new character designed to go as fast as possible. But this is reverberated pretty consistently throughout the games with the game often sneaking little races for items into secret areas, and giving medals for good level times.
I’d say the failure to include it in any meaningful capacity was one of the reasons that Star Allies is regarded as boring and forgettable by most Kirby veterans at the very least. There was a lot wrong with that game, it’s kinda hard to believe they actually shipped it.
For what it's worth, HAL has said they intentionally toned the difficulty of Star Allies back. Whether people liked it or not it's a separate thing, but it was a thing they did on purpose. Their goal was a celebration of all the past 2d games and they wanted literally anyone to be able to finish it. The difficulty is in the arena and post game Heroes in Another Dimension mode. The game was what they intended it to be and that's why they shipped it.
@@Yirggzmb I mean that’s interesting to know but if that’s their explanation it sounds like they have a very poor understanding of how their own franchise works. Most Kirby games can be beat by literally anyone, the float lets you avoid skip past everything, so neutering everything does nothing for newer players, and only detracts from the experience for everyone else.
The most egregious comparison is likely the secret challenges you can only reach by being attentive have been used to be things like speed checks that you needed you to think about the level terrain, or puzzles that had you choose which ropes to cut in order to get an item. Sometimes there would be a chest in the background, but you needed to see that, and not destroy a box in the foreground to get it. The only things locked were optional collectibles, but they kept veterans engaged and helped build up newer players to become better and one day get on the level of those veterans. Kirby took the time to gently build the literacy of beginners, while allowing veterans to express their familiarity.
Now we have Star Allies which, and I kid you not this is an actual “puzzle” in the late game, gives you an ice ability, and a sword ability, and a sign that shows you that if you combine the ice with the blade you can get a frozen sword, and then puts a collectible behind a chain that’s on fire. The game does these stupid ability matches through the whole game where they tell you what to do, then you do it. No figuring it out, no allowing the player to stumble and discover what’s wrong themselves, or evolution of a concept that build from previous understandings, no allowing the player to do their thing. Just tell them what to do, give them a shiny, and move on.
The main campaign of Star Allies is designed for preschoolers. The difficulty curve is a flatline. The main campaign of other Kirby games is for everyone, as in actually everyone, preschoolers included.
It’s not a celebration of Kirby it’s a spit in the face to all the evolution the games have gone through in a journey to bring beginners up to the level of veterans while also appeasing both. You can’t just shove the actual game into the back end.
Even if you could the most charitable interpretation of Heroes in Another Dimension would be “Short and Sweet” and a more accurate one would be “the first third of an actual Kirby game plus a buggy mess at the end.”
The most charitable version of The Ultimate Choice would be “the arena but worse.” Or to put it in more words “like The Arena, but we didn’t want this additional challenge for experienced players to move you out of your comfort zone or anything, so you can’t lose your ability, no need to change strategies or roll with the punches in order to save a good run, and if you feel like you need to get better to get over a challenge feel free to drop the difficulty down a notch instead. There are 10 and the maximum is far too difficult for a reasonable person, so we know that there’s no option that seems feasible right now that has any meaning, which should hopefully kill your desire to improve.”
The whole game just feels like what would happen if the franchise was handed off to a new developer who could grasp the basic framework, but not the meat that made that framework into something exceptional.
@@BIOSHZRD Even as a big fan of Kirby Star Allies as a whole, I have to agree that the way it handles difficulty in the main story (i.e. more shallow than necessary for veterans) could've been a hell of a lot better. That being said, I didn't have any issues with how the Ultimate Choice was handled. Losing copy abilities and being forced to switch was rarely a concern in other arenas in my experience (outside of Sectonia's final fight in Triple Deluxe, what with the numerous pits for your dropped ability stars to fall into), so the fact that you couldn't lose one in the ultimate choice barely even registered to me. If anything, the fact that the difficulty ceiling could go arguably higher than other Kirby arenas made me like it more than those other arenas. I also don't understand how having lower difficulty options would kill a newer player's desire to improve. The lower difficulties have a lot of bosses missing, so I would think many players would then be motivated to try the higher difficulties so they can actually fight every boss.
I wish they had better rewards than 1-ups... Extra lives are extremely pointless rewards when you're already skilled enough to not die regularly.
What a deep dive! Love seeing longer videos that go deeper into topics
Congratulations on your milestone of 200 episodes in 10 years! That's an admirable accomplishment Mark-especially considering all the time, craft, and care you put into your work. I applaud your decision to create your own game. It's been fascinating to hear, and more recently, watch you over the years. Watching your videos evolve has been consistently interesting. You took those learned wisdoms & lessons from your analytical video work and then seriously tried your hand at making the thing you studied. That's so interesting to me. You've mined premium knowledge and shared for the betterment of craft and community. Thank you Mark for your valuable insights-the Star Coins of your labors. Looking forward to your game.
Huge props for mentioning SMB Deluxe, probably the only game where getting a high score is an optional level objective
Congratulations on your 200th video 🎉🎉. Hope for 200th more
Thank you, Mark, for so many years of insightful game design videos. My favorite one is your discussion of the structure of Mario levels. It helped me improve my own Mario Maker levels.
Congrats Mark on 10 years. Feels crazy. Feels like I started watching your videos yesterday.
Can’t wait for mind over magnet!
That reminded me of the jan misali "what are the mainline super mario game?"
Yoo 200th video? Thats crazy man keep up the grind
Congrats on 200 vids, that's some dedication. Love your content and the way you explore the mind of develpors ❤
Outstanding video, editing etc… Amazing storytelling and detailed research!
The challenges in nsmbu is the best and most difficult content i've come across in any Mario game. Grinding for the gold medals in everything was really hard and took me hours. I was dissapointed they hadn't brought something similar to wonder
Great to see 200 episodes reached as a milestone. What hurt me a bit, was seeing Nntendo in a few instances instead of Nintendo. It seems like an error from one quote that was carried over to different quotes. Other than that, it's a great overview and depth, I haven't expected.
Vowels cost extra when paying for transcripts.
Congrats on 10 years and 200 videos! Been watching for many years. Great inspiration and learning!
Loved the video but also congrats on 10 years and 200 videos, I'm looking forward to seeing the future of the channel 😁
Congratulations on 200 videos!
Interesting take on "Easy Mode" for some of the easter eggs in the early Mario games like SMB1. Being able to skip worlds by finding the warp zone definitely makes the game easier, but it's also not something a beginner player would likely find. I always saw those as easter eggs rather than taking the easy mode route.
Amazing start, really excited for the channel this year
Dude, 200 episodes? That's mindblowing! You just rock. Never forget that. Thank you so much for countless hours of great, educational, fun and just awesome content. Your whole style of videos became it's own genre on youtube. Man, I salute you! Cheers!
Excellent video, like the previous 199 times !
another take on difficulty is how it's done in the thief trilogy, where "more difficult" just means "more objectives": this naturally leads to more exploration, planning and immersion. also, you can change it every time you begin a mission.
10:35 Typo with 'Nntendo'
Super well made video! I like the visuals you used and the pipe analogy
Congrats on 200...and this really shows how much nintendo always tried to keep innovating
As somebody working on a game GMTK has been incredibly helpful for me.
It is truly surprising what you can learn from other game even if they are in a completely different genre. As an example your video on Jusant and climbing in that game inspired me to add certain mechanics to one of the playables in my realism based semi-Gorey survival game.
I know this channel usually goes into intentional design, but this video makes me wonder about player set difficulty, such as the Nuzlockes in pokemon, an entirely fan crafted, yet popular difficulty option
Just gotta say, congrats on 200 Vids, GMTK! Thanks for educating all of us while keeping us entertained. You deserve each ounce of success you get!
Incredible video, thank you!
I love these Super Mario videos
I keep getting distracted by the music loops that keep getting cut short until the very end of the explanation. It sounds off.
Congratz on 200 episodes and 10 years! Hope you'll revisit this difficulty discussion with other games. I've been on getting into Pokemon lately with Violet, and while I'm enjoying myself a lot, I can see a bunch of stuff that makes it way easier than previous titles. There's divisive EXP share between Pokemon that I quite like, but can't be turned off. There's the fact the latest title lets you swap Pokemon on the fly, likely due to the open-world nature of the game. And there's the fact that your team is fully healed at certain points right before a fight, which kinda breaks the self-imposed Nuzlokes. Lots of stuff to talk about there.
Great video! Congrats for 200 episodes!
Now I want to go and have myself another Mariothon!
The nuanced way that cooperative play interacts with the extra challenges in Wonder is particularly impressive. My spouse and I can be playing the same game, on the same screen, at the same time, with dynamically different difficulty, completely seamlessly. It elevates the co-op experience even compared to 3D World and NSMBWii, and it makes the awkward attempts at skill level balancing in online cooperative shooters and RPG look hopelessly crude.
Regarding the Switch Palace Blocks in _Super Mario World:_ I always found it a bit counterintuitive that the Switch Palaces are hidden, (except for yellow) so that you'd only be able to find them if you were a good player. Probably good enough to not need the extra help, while the people who DO need the extra help likely aren't going to find the Switch Palaces. Though, the game does have several instances where you need the blocks to gain access to certain hidden exits and harder bonus levels, which does feel like a better use of those blocks. You found the Switch palaces? Then you can access this additional, harder, content.
switch palaces arent to make game easier, they're for 101% completion for secret exits which use the solid blocks as a platform to alternate paths.
@@TemmiePlays Both things are true. The blocks unlocked by the switch palaces make numerous levels easier. The yellow blocks make it so you can't fall off the stage in Yoshi's Island 3 and the blue blocks in Chocolate Island 4 also keep you from falling in lava, and there are numerous times when the green blocks give you feathers, such as right before the fight with Lemmy. To say that the blocks do not make the game easier is incorrect. The issue is that, as you said, the blocks are ALSO needed for alternate paths and 101% completion, which means the switch palaces do two different things that are at odds with each other.
2:23 i know it may sound silly, but hearing you say "for the 200th time" really made me happy, thinking about how you get to make these enjoyable, high quality videos about topics you clearly enjoy, and how you'll get to keep making them for as long as you want. Wish you the best, for you, your videos, and the game you're making
Did anyone else assume Mark Brown was like a distinguished 45+ year old with salt and pepper hair before seeing him? Had no idea he’d look that young
This is why I love the super mario maker franchise. Just let us make the levels as easy/difficult as we want.