Super Mario Series

[Spark Of Spirit]

I managed about 80 stars on my first ten levels, so I thought I'd share a bit of what I've learned with this game's community. There are a few problems to sort through, but I think once most people get passed them, things will only get better.

Some tips for Super Mario Maker:

1. Please no more automatic levels. If you're going to make a level, make one that requires button presses. These were novel for the first few days, but that novelty has officially worn out.

2. Avoid enemy spam. More than three enemy types a screen is going to overwhelm anyone but a Mario master. Try to avoid this unless you have a sufficient item like the Fire Flower. Only bullet bills, fire bars, and fireballs can withstand tons of use, but they can still be too much. Beware.

3. Mind Lakitu. I've beaten so many levels because makers put Lakitu in very easy to reach places and allow me to beat otherwise hard levels in two seconds flat. Save Lakitu for areas you either can't hit him or you won't benefit much from getting his cloud. This also goes for the leaf, cape, and propeller hat. Be wary that these power ups can break your level if you aren't paying attention.

4. Give your stage a good name. Tell me it's a maze upfront so I can prepare myself for it. Same if it's a gimmick level of some kind. I shouldn't get random deaths because I can't figure out your stage doesn't play by classic Mario rules.

5. Don't be a cheesy designer. I can't play expert mode because of this. Levels that require hits to progress are bad. Levels that thrive on blind jumps are bad. Levels that require precision platforming in narrow corridors and low roofs are bad. Levels that put invisible blocks up to cheese your jumps are bad. Do me a solid and not make those please. I will be your best friend.

6. Don't make your platforms one block wide. Unless there's solid ground underneath, that is. Why? Because a lot of people are bad at it and will never beat your level. I have no issue with it, but I've been playing these games my whole life. Most players will never give your level a second shot if they need to be absolute masters of the controls. This also goes for the wall jumping in NSMBU style: the wall jump is next to impossible to pull off on a small enough area. Don't even think of making that required to progress.

7. Use coins to guide players. Don't use arrows, it's bad design to outright tell players where to go. If you want a player to jump somewhere, make a trail of coins to give them incentive to go there. That's Miyamoto game design 101. Related: don't lead them into traps or pits. You will have at least twenty deaths in any pit you make no matter how easy it is to avoid. Trust me.

8.People really are that bad at Mario games. I made a SMW level with no difficulty on purpose and last I checked it had a 46% completion rate. It has literally two small pits in the level. Keep that in mind when making your levels that the people who will play them are simply not that good at platformers. It doesn't mean you don't have to make hard levels, but just make it fair and give second chances to players when you can. That's really all you can do about it.

9. Star good levels whenever you can and follow the creators. Nudge the good creators to keep going. It is sometimes disheartening to see a bunch of players go through your level and never star it, mostly because it isn't gimmicky enough or another stupid automatic level. There are some people out there making great classic Mario style levels getting like 1 or 2 stars who really deserve the attention. Help bring that quality up to the surface.

10. Make fun levels! Nintendo gave you the tools, so use them! I'm currently following about 30 creators right now, all with vastly different level design ideas, but all with the classic Mario "fun first" mentality. Don't punish the player, don't coddle the player, just make fun levels. It might take a bit of re-uploading old levels with extra polish and thinking of crazy new ones, but it can be done. Eventually stars start trickling in as people find your work, so it will even out. Just do the best you can.

But seriously, no more automatic or enemy spam levels. We have way too much of those right now.

[Foggle]

I do want to make some bullshit hard levels, but enemy spam and hidden blocks over pits are just lame. That's not creative or fun at all!

[Spark Of Spirit]

I uploaded my level codes to Nintendolife.

So if you've got Super Mario Maker and want to play some old school-style Mario levels, here is the place to find them.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Someone is recreating the e-reader levels in Super Mario Maker!

I'm glad someone is touching them if Nintendo won't.

[Nel_Annette]

I bought it this morning. Swamped with homework, but I can't wait to play around with it.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Here's a tip for 100 Mario Challenge:

Pause the level when you start and check the level's rating. If it has something ridiculous like 50 plays with no stars, then skip it. It's probably a garbage level that will waste your lives.

[Foggle]

I watched a video of someone playing through the top 10 highest rated levels last night; 9 of them were either completely automatic or required no skill at all to beat.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I watched a video of someone playing through the top 10 highest rated levels last night; 9 of them were either completely automatic or required no skill at all to beat.

You will see them a lot in Easy 100 Mario Challenge, too. Just like Expert is filled with unplayable junk, Easy is filled with no controller touching lameness. I simply follow a lot of good level builders and constantly check them for levels to play.

I think Gamexplain might be the only high rated maker (AndreGX) that makes actual levels you actually need to play to beat.

[Nel_Annette]

Two quick ones I made. Tried to make them straight up Mario levels.

Cabbage Patch Cave: AB7E-0000-0093-268E

This one's kind of bullshit. I filled it to the brim with precise platforming over various piranha plants. It's doable, though.

In The Valley Below: 95E1-0000-0093-2079

Standard grass level. First level I made. Tried to do upper and lower paths like a Sonic game. Various enemies, pits, power-ups. Very easy.

And people are already playing them! This is awesome! 

[Spark Of Spirit]

Beat and starred them both. Very good starter levels. There was nothing massively unfair like invisible blocks over pits or a triple stack of giant Bowsers, just normal difficulty, which is always nice. I also followed you for future creations. Keep it up!

My level codes are listed here. There are 20 of them, so I didn't want to copy and paste them all. Just play whatever you want.

[Nel_Annette]

Aw, thanks bro! Yeah, I'm not a real fan of the super crazy stuff; I just want to make standard, fun Mario levels. I have tomorrow off so I'll check out your stuff then! 

[Foggle]

I'll keep these in mind for when I finally get the game. I hope you will play my levels, too.

[Nel_Annette]

I think my favorite thing at the moment are Thwomps riding Clown Cars. Just the way they seek Mario out to crush him. It's so malicious!

[Spark Of Spirit]

Try putting the rotating boos in the clown cars. It's fairly creepy.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Tezuka isn't a fan of the high amount of Kaizo/troll levels out there.

Can't say that I blame him. I've only played through expert 100 Mario Challenge once because of all the bad levels.