I've decided the theme of this level is 'density.' Just going for as much in one place as possible.
Hi, my name is Asher Vollmer. I made Threes and PuzzleJuice, and this is my Mario Maker level.
When I set out, I was prepared to make lots
of locks and keys and little micropuzzles with a map you'd have to memorize, and I got like
halfway there, but it changed a lot. I kept shrinking it down and shrinking it
down, and the fact that I'm actually not super great at playing Mario helped a lot.
[Mario death sound] Ah! This is mean.
...because it meant that I could make these tiny individual challenges, and then prove
that they were solvable, and then put 'em really close to each other and just know that
the level is beatable. I'm not very good at Mario, so there's not
gonna be a lot of reflexes, beyond maybe jumping on some turtles.
In game design, I definitely go for function first and try to make something that's the
most fun. But usually, something's only fun if the player
understands it, which basically goes in line with how it looks and visually communicates
itself. So usually, I start with the function, but
as I'm going, I'll add in little form bits and little pieces that will help you understand
the game mechanics a little more that end up contributing to the overall visual style.
I care a lot about players' comprehension of a game, and so a big part of this level
is that you can crawl around it on every side and sort of take in what the game is going
to be before you actually jump into it and start playing it.
There are reflex-based moments, but the planning stage is totally mental.
I think if I sort of label them, like, 'you get a key if you go this way!,'
then suddenly players will have informed decisions that they're making.
My advice for players going into this stage would be to take some time, take in the sights,
figure out what path you're gonna take before you take it, and also figure out which path
is gonna be the hardest for you, and try to do that first, just so you get it out of the way.