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Sheets of Graph Paper Were Used to Design Super Mario Bros (2016)
- mch82 3y agoNeat insight… > "Most times I start by making a course I want to play, which is usually like 2-1 (World 2, Level 1) or 2-2 (World 2, Level 2)," said Miyamoto while discussing the difficulty of the game. "Once that's done, we try to make it a little easier, so we move on to making 1-1 (World 1, Level 1)."
- anon373839 3y agoLow fidelity prototypes (like these sketches) are one of the best ways to explore and understand a problem space efficiently. It's tempting to rush into implementation, but usually being patient and investing more time in paper and pencil will lead to a better result at the end, and a smoother development process too.
- rightbyte 3y agoAs I understand it, they are almost 1:1 fidelity? I mean, look at world 1:2. The programmer took it literally. Only bricks. No artistic freedoom to make it look nice.
- anon373839 3y agoSketches and drawings belong to the category of “low fidelity prototype”, compared to “high fidelity” prototypes which are polished simulations of the final product. But you’re right, these are very precisely specified. I suppose you might say they’re high-fidelity low-fidelity prototypes? :)
- Waterluvian 3y agoThey’re not prototypes. They’re the formal document designers used. These were handed to the coders who precisely coded them into the program data. I think we can agree that low tech solutions that work are super simple, efficient, and robust.
- omoikane 3y agoThis reminds me of: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29657343 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29657343 - Street Fighter II paper trails – allocating sprite space by hand (2021)
- rightbyte 3y agoInteresting. I would have thought they used some pixel editor? But the simple approuch maybe saves time. It was probably way easier to get an overview of the map during design.
- amelius 3y agoI mean, why not? Writing a level-editor is a lot of work. (A spreadsheet could be another option)
- smokel 3y agoSpreadsheets were not so great back then. I'd be surprised if Lotus 1-2-3 was able to render cells in multiple colors, and I think it could render only about 8 columns at a time.
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- fsloth 3y agoI still default to pen and paper when approaching problem that lacks a predetermined fixed schema. Computer editors are not ready yet. There is nothing that is as powerful and immediate as pen and paper (and yes, I've seen a lot of them).
- HumblyTossed 3y agoUsed to do sprites with graph paper on my C=64 back in the day. I mean it’s kinda what graph paper is good for.
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