A Look Back at Making Mario 64

Press the Buttons has commentary on a short, interesting piece at the Miyamoto Shrine site. There, they look back at the making of Mario 64. From the article: "Possibly the most important part of Mario 64 was making sure Mario was easy to control. Before any of the levels had been created Mr. Miyamoto had Mario running around and picking up objects in a small 'garden' which he uses in all his games to test gameplay elements. 'Alot of the animation was actually in there before any of the game' explains Goddard. 'The Mario that he had running around basically looked the same as he did in the final version. Mario's movement is based on good physics, but you have bits on top that you plug in so you can do things you shouldn't be able to do. They spent a lot of time working on the swimming, it's harder than running to get the feeling right, they didn't want you to avoid the water, the wanted to make it an advantage and fun to dive in.'"

Comments

Most important part

[Threni]

Surely the most important part was making it impossible to know where the bloody was going to swivel around to next, from pointing at the back of his head to looking behind him.

Mario 64 Completion in 16 minutes

[Anonymous Coward]

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6493722340 610946105

Cameras Still Don't Work

[MBCook]

I loved that game, still do. It is right up there with Super Mario World as one of the best games ever made, bar none.

I think it is a bit sad we still don't have the camera right in most games. You would think we would by now, but we don't. I just finished Shadow of the Colossus (great game), but there are real camera problems.

When you are fighting a Colossus and there is lots of room, the camera works very well most of the time (like when you are climbing on their back). But as soon as you walk around a confined space or fight a colossus in a small room, the camera is a MAJOR pain and caused me to get motion sickness very quick (I'm susceptable to that). And in other situations (like on the final colossus when you are climbing on his hand) the camera doesn't work well even though you are in a big space (the camera has a hard time figuring out which side of his hand to show you) and this makes it hard to see what you are doing.

The biggest problem with all these is that they try to fit the camera into the world. The camera shouldn't model a phyical camera that can't be inside a wall, it is supposed to show a "mind's eye" view that doesn't have those limitations. Imagine if they tried to shoot sitcoms in real rooms instead of rooms missing one wall. It would be a disaster.

Yet in SotC and many other games, the camera must "obey" the world and can not be "in" a wall. Why not let the camera go there and make the wall invisible? If I am pivoting the camera to try to get a sense of where I am, having it suddenly run into the wall my back is up against and stop is very disconcerting. It takes you right out of the expiriance. There you are, about to fight a giant monster, up against a wall, and the only view you can get is that of yourself and that wall because the camera can't show you the oposite view.

It was a great game, but most camera systems still suck. The only games that don't really have problems are fixed camera games (Tycoon games, Warcraft III, first person shooters, driving games, etc). I haven't seen a 3D platformer yet that has a "perfect" camera system. They all have problems.

But they all have the same problems that Mario 64 had 10 years ago. 10 years ago. Loot at how far we've come in other respects (graphics being the obvious example), yet we can't fix the camera system.

Great game though. It is a Shakespere or Dickens or Hemminway of video games. Not in story (very generic), but in getting everything right (pacing, little extras, challenge, presentation, etc).

Re:Cameras Still Don't Work

[david.given]

I have to say that I didn't like Mario 64 very much --- that kind of collect-all-the-tokens, do-every-level-500-times adventure bores me stiff. But I agree with you completely about cameras; most of them suck.

(I was once playing Banjo and Kazooie (another game I tired of very quickly) and died because I fell down one side of a wall and the camera fell down the other side and couldn't get back to me. I could hear that I was being eaten by something, but couldn't tell what.)

The best camera work I've ever seen was in, surprise surprise, Ocarina of Time. It just felt natural most of the time, even doing things like panning up when you approached an edge so that you could see over. Interestingly, the camera in Wind Waker wasn't as good, for reasons I can't quite put my finger on; I found it annoying me in ways that it didn't in Ocarina.

Re:Cameras Still Don't Work

[MBCook]

That kind of collecting is a matter of taste. I enjoyed Banjo-Kazooie too. But if the games were released today, I don't think I would go collecting all 120 stars. But back then there was nothing else like it anywhere so each star was a totally fresh and new experience.

I've had things like what you mention with Banjo-Kazooie happen too, and it is almost funny some times (depends on how critical it is that you stay alive then). I must say that while I've played all the Zelda games, I don't remember the camera system in any of them (except that they use Z-Targeting). I guess that means they had an excellent camera system (otherwise I would remember them being a pain).

Actually, I do remember one thing. In small rooms, the Zelda camera systems would lock your view from one or two points (almost like from security cameras) to avoid many of the problems that I've mentioned with the camera "running into things". Most areas were easily large enough to not run into any problem, which is probably a testament to good level design more than anything else.

Re:Cameras Still Don't Work

[skyman8081]

In OoT, what they did for a lot of rooms was that the camera was locked to a specific point, and then used a 2D pre-rendered bckdrop, and put the characters, pots, chests, cows, and doors over it.

Very clever stuff.

I don't understand...

[Kazzahdrane]

This is a story on Slashdot with the Nintendo logo proudly displayed on the main page...and yet it isn't an article about journalists guessing how the Revolution controller might possibly perhaps be used, or how it might possibly perhaps change the face of gaming simply by existing.

Is this one of the signs of the Apocalypse?

Software patents may have harmed Mario 64

[MilenCent]

From the article:

The camera became quite a problem for Takumi Kawagoe who was working on the Lakitu cam, Goddard recalls: "suddenly, halfway through the project, one of the people from downstairs came up and said 'Do you realise Sega has patent on being able to switch camera views?'" The team were devastated. "Half the patents that come out are for techniques people have used for years" says Goddard. "The software patents just don't work."

I don't really have anything more to add to that, just wanted to point it out....

(Yeah, and probably someone will reply and say, "But the other half of the time software patents ARE good!" Why you gotta be ignorant your whole life?)