- Having a very hot debate inside
whether to make it simpler or just to play better.
(soft jazz music)
- Hi, my name's Roger and
I'm a computer teacher and video game designer.
Being a video game designer is all about loving video games,
and imagining yourself playing it
and how you would want to spend three hours
solving this puzzle or getting through
this interesting level all inside of a character
that you want to be the entire time.
I've played Super Mario Maker
back when it first came out on the Wii U.
I feel like the opportunity to sit
and actually be creative with the level
without having to worry about
the actual programming element of it.
If it's gonna work, I think that's the best part
is that get to just be 100% creative
and don't have to worry about the logistics, really.
Let's do it, I'm ready to play.
(soft jazz music)
You have the good old fashion old school, yeah, 80s.
Probably gonna go Super Mario World Super Nintendo.
So first things first, yeah,
we're gonna need somewhere to run to, I think.
Always play when you make a lot of changes.
So that way, you don't have to keep going back
and redoing five things that you could've figured out
that you made a mistake.
(soft music)
Our floating realm is starting to form.
They've had zero challenges so far.
(upbeat music)
Oh, I can change my character.
All right, so now we got Luigi and his little wonger.
So I'll be able to change stuff.
(playful music)
(popping)
My favorite is when you have enemies
that seem like they're just here to harm you,
but in reality, you need them.
(upbeat music)
(popping)
I think my strategy is just going to be
trying to make it look as if you're not gonna make it.
And giving you that tension and stress.
Oh, oh,
man, this changes everything.
Oh man, I didn't realize we could do a ghost house.
It's gonna make this a whole new level now.
- [Narrator] 3, 2, 1.
(tape rewind)
(dramatic music)
First up is Boom Boom.
Let's see how that goes, yeah.
(dramatic music)
All right.
We need to make this a boss battle.
I need to actually beat, that would be good.
(tense music)
(organ music)
(silly sound effects)
All right, let's see what happens.
Oh man.
Great.
Now we have the nice boss battle,
then we have a little weather theme going on.
(funky music)
Little more fun to get through is,
if you keep seeing these weird constant
things coming back.
(dramatic music)
I also like the element of randomness.
It's nice that things are uniform,
but when there's just this element of
things scattered about,
makes it just a little more uneasy.
(funky music)
(popping)
Think you're safe, ah!
Just kidding.
Oh it hurt the thing.
Oh!
It's another thing to worry about now.
(organ music)
(popping)
As a player of a game,
when you're thinking about the fact
that you're only seeing like a screen at a time.
What I want to do first is make these little pieces
work individually that I'm just messing with here
and then start to look at the bigger picture.
(intense music)
(popping)
(coin clink)
I think it's gonna be, yep perfect.
Yeah, I like that.
When you think it's something difficult,
and all you had to do was just walk.
(dramatic music)
(organ music)
(silly video game sounds)
(coin clink)
(dramatic music)
(popping)
Maybe we needed Yoshi all along.
(dramatic music)
(popping)
- Here we go!
- All right, let's see if I can get through that part.
(intense music)
(silly video game noises)
Yeah.
That's gonna work out just great.
(dramatic music)
We should put a nice visit from Bowser at the end.
(dramatic music)
(popping)
(intense music)
Ah.
(silly video game noises)
Mm, great.
I'm liking this a lot.
It contains a lot of my favorite elements,
such as surprise, luck, and absolute absurd randomness.
(dramatic music)
Some levels are really straight forward in some games.
I'm really feeling very unsure of
what is even going on at the beginning of this level,
and it almost feels a little bit glitched,
which is always fun too,
because it feels like a secret you shouldn't be playing.
(intense music)
(popping)
I'm enjoying my level of difficulty
but it has to be at least playable, so.
Having a very hot debate inside
whether to make it simpler or just to play better.
Trying to decide if I'm having fun or not.
(funky music)
Always the biggest question.
(popping)
(intense music)
All right, so I think I got my design down.
I've been testing.
Might be time to submit.
(dramatic music)
(intense music)
(silly video game noises)
Alright, alright, alright, alright, alright, alright.
(silly video game noises)
(clicking)
(intense music)
Okay gonna flip out of there.
(funky music)
(silly video game noises)
Ah,
oh yes!
I felt like this is a wonderful way to stoke creativity,
and a way to kind of use technology
sort of differently than what you'd expect
because you're not just making calculations
and you're not banging on the table
because your program just crashes.
You're banging on the table because
you're having so much fun trying the play the level
while also learning about how computers
and how technology does work,
and you have to be able to realize the constraints
of what you have but push it.
That's the whole goal.
(upbeat music)