How to Make a Super Mario Maker Level That Rocks
By: Bernhard Kaindl
Tags: Analytics, User Experience Design, Game Design, Data, Video Game Development

How to Make a Super Mario Maker Level That Rocks

Leveraging Data for Player-Centered Level Design

Who better to take lessons in Game Design from than Nintendo’s likeable plumber? Often cited as the pinnacle of Game and Level Design using games of the Super Mario Series seems pretty much like a no-brainer. (Source: Ricardo Saramago on Flickr).

Making video games combines many creative fields: from sound and music design to artwork and story writing. However, while other media, such as movies, also include all those elements, there are two fields in particular that make video games stand out as a medium and a form of art: gameplay and level design. Without wanting to get too much into the weeds on the discussion about the definition about these two terms, let me just drop the introductory statements of the corresponding Wikipedia articles here:

Gameplay is the specific way in which players interact with a game, and in particular with video games. Gameplay is the pattern defined through the game rules, connection between player and the game, challenges and overcoming them, plot and player’s connection with it. Video game gameplay is distinct from graphics and audio elements. — Wikipedia on Gameplay

… or, in short: gameplay is pretty complex of a concept to define. In fact, even the definition I just pasted is not an exact definition of the concept, as this is still a subject of debate, but more of a tool to set a frame of reference for what I’m going to talk about in this post. What is a little more straightforward to define is the term level design:

Level design, […], is a discipline of game development involving creation of video game levels — locales, stages, or missions. This is commonly done using a level editor, a game development software designed for building levels; however, some games feature built-in level editing tools. Level design is both an artistic and technical process. — Wikipedia on Level Design

This definition, while still being broad, gives us a clearer, more easily describable, and — most importantly — very concrete unit of observation: video game levels.

Now, one of the most interesting aspects about video games and their design for me is their position at the intersection of arts and engineering. This allows for a certain flexibility when it comes to design goals. Do I want to make a game simply for the player to enjoy? Do I want to create an experience that tells a story I want the players to hear? Which tools do I use to achieve this?

For example you might choose to use primarily art design and story writing to convey your message, but choose to keep gameplay and level design geared towards enjoyment and player engagement (or vice-versa). By no means do I want call for all creativity to be taken out of level design, but depending on your design goals it might make sense to leverage player data and to direct the level design process towards creating levels that players have fun playing. As mentioned above, video game development is at the intersection of engineering and arts, and I think it makes sense to make use of the flexibility along the spectrum between these two seemingly distant poles.

What we call “levels” can take different forms depending (be it missions, worlds,…) on the type of game you’re looking at. But to keep things simple, instead of looking up more definitions, let’s stick with a game that most of us are familiar with and that probably shaped the perception of what a “level” looks like as no other game did: The Mario Bros. series or, more specifically, Super Mario Maker.

There are several reasons that make Super Mario Maker an excellent choice to begin an investigation of how level design could be driven by data. One of them is the status the Mario Bros. series enjoys as a popular example of what good level and game design look like. This is because the simplistic gameplay design of the Mario Bros. games puts a strong emphasis on level design as a tool for creating an engaging player experience. The other reason is the premise of the game. For those of you who are not familiar with the game, here is a quick description: Super Mario Maker allows players to create levels in the style of one of the series’ titles and to share them with the online community for everyone else to play. This has two advantages:

We can expect a wealth of data to be created if every player also contributes levels to the game. This wealth comes from the number of different levels that are created and from the possible diversity of levels created. This way we can explore levels that we wouldn’t see in a usual setting with professional game designers and can gather enough data to confidently draw conclusions by using well-designed analytical methods. We can see players in both roles: first in their “natural” role as players, and second in the role of creators, having a shot at trying to create their ideal level. Using this, we can make careful comparisons of what players really play versus what players would like to see, and thus create.In addition, we also have metrics measuring a level’s success, such as stars or plays.

Luckily for us, Leonardo Mauro has supplied a corresponding data set on Kaggle, that allows us to dive into the topic of player behavior based on solid data. Using this data, the following article will address the following questions:

How can you ensure that you get the highest possible number of stars or the highest level of virality (i.e. number of tweets) as a creator?

Are the number of stars and the number of tweets driven by the same factors?

Do popular level characteristics differ between countries, i.e. do different “markets” for levels exist?

In the reminder of this post we will address these questions using admittedly simple analytical techniques that, nonetheless allow us to draw some conclusions about player behavior and could inspire people working in level design and the games industry to gather and leverage data to gear level design to player preferences if they wish to do so.