Miyamoto Shares How He Designed Super Mario Bros

Oh Mario, that cheeky Italian plumber has graced our consciousness for nearly 30 years. To celebrate this anniversary, Nintendo have both released the original drawings when designing the first Super Mario Bros and also talked about their upcoming game Super Mario Maker. This game allows you to create your very own Mario levels and share them with all your friends.

So how do you create a world of plumbers, mushrooms and many colours? Well, according to the plans and artwork, video games designers Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka, discussed how they used graph paper with the aim of roughly sketching out their imaginations. This was then refined so that each level was more accurate before submitting them to the game programmers.

But how do you make a level so well refined? Well I studied for a Degree in Animation, so I do have an idea, maybe surprising to hear but I do. Basically what each animator, storyboard artist or designer does is very lightly sketch out the level, any parts which seem to be in inaccurate, wrong or will not work are rubbed out before being re drawn. If you are a character designer for an animated series, and you wish to make your person move in very small increments, you first sketch the first movement of the character on thin animated paper; you then place this onto a light box and place the next piece of blank paper on top. You can then see the first piece of paper from beneath the next piece which then shows you what to draw next.

This is a variation of what the games designers employed, they used tracing paper on top of levels so that editing was easier. If you keep correcting paper drawings, said paper will become worn and messy, image is below of the original drawings.

The level of detail with which these designs have been, well designed is amazing, for example, the first level of Super Mario Bros where the player falls into a pit does not kill the character, but, it informs the player that these will kill you and you should really not do that.

If you are reading this and would like to be a games designer, or you are at college and studying animation, then by all means check these drawings and concepts out. Yes games have evolved, but it’s the principle which should be studied, never take shortcuts and always delve into the notion of what games designing is all about. If you do this, perhaps a career in games is for you.

Also, sorry, to go on as I bet you thought that was the end of the article, if you are studying animation, from experience, always read and delve into as many sources and examples as you can, you may not like a certain game or style, but all concepts are influenced somewhere. When studying animation, you don’t need to always stick to storyline conventions, let your imagination think outside the box, if you’re designing a project which allows you to animate what you like, then plan it. Always keep any ideas down, even if they sound stupid, as these ideas morph into other ideas which then in turn morph into other, other ideas.

When you are studying it, you have no pressure to conform to what a games company or Film Company is asking you to do. Therefore, enjoy it and be creative.

Thank You Rocket News 24 for providing us with this information