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Nintendo on implementing fan feedback in Super Mario Maker, future updates, other 'Maker' games

by rawmeatcowboy
05 November 2015
GN Version 5.0

A portion of a USgamer interview with Takashi Tezuka, Yosuke Oshino and Yoshikazu Yamashita...

USgamer: How many new additions are based on fan feedback and the way people have been playing the game, and how many were elements you couldn't work into the first release of Super Mario Maker, or that people within Nintendo such as Mr. Nakago have insisted on including?

Tezuka: The checkpoint flag's inclusion was specifically to address voices in the community that we've seen calling for it—demanding it, really.

Oshino: Well, the event course and accompanying Costume Mario additions to the update were something that, as Mr. Tezuka also commented, we had been planning during the game's development. But with the checkpoint flag, we weren't sure if it was even possible. We did look into it, though, and right around the day the game was released we immediately began seeing user demand for it. So we looked more seriously into idea of including it and eventually were able to come up with a way to put it into the game.

Yamashita: As Mr. Oshino says, costumes and event courses were something we'd planned during development. But originally, with the checkpoint flag, this was something we thought wouldn't be possible, too difficult to include. Once we saw the strong response on the Internet, we realized we needed to look into the issue again and press forward to make its inclusion possible.

Usgamer: Is this update a one-time affair, or can we expect to see additional additions to Super Mario Maker—provided they fit your time and resources, of course?

Tezuka: We do expect to hear continued requests from the community and the player base, and one of our biggest goals is to get as many people as possible to enjoy Mario Maker. We definitely want to fulfill these requests, but we can't promise anything at this time.

USgamer: Do you think the "Maker" idea only works for Mario, or is there interest in extending it to other series or concepts?

Tezuka: The concept for this game really started with Mario and the kinds of actions you do in Mario games, and we felt the Mario series was really well-suited to a game of this type. During development, we did hear opinions like, "Wow, a Zelda Maker or something like that would be a great idea!" But, in thinking about it, it didn't seem like something that would be quite as easy to make or to play.

Yamashita: As a player and a user of Super Mario Maker myself, I have a lot of ideas and would love to see them all made. But as a developer of the game, I definitely have the same opinion as Mr. Tezuka. While a lot of these ideas are really appealing, the idea of implementing them and making sure they're fun to play is a real challenge.

That said, also speaking as a developer, taking on difficult challenges like that has an appeal all its own!

[Link]