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As with the original Super Mario Bros., the “?” release in early April. Your feedback
Blocks are encountered as soon as the game will help us wrap up the demo towards
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for a question, they inherently invite the player to Check out the teaser below.
investigate.
You are most welcomed to join us the
In addition to being positioned over Mario’s head, a
testing team using the following link:
slowly approaching Goomba encourages the player
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and a Super Mushroom).
Many thanks!
The red Venus Fire Trap is also introduced here
and — in typical Mario fashion — doesn’t respawn TeaserFinal.mp4
if killed and only comes out if Mario isn’t standing
next to its pipe (or on top of it). Although the player Five Nations - Unit Balancing - Epi…
can’t go down this particular pipe, the fact that an By Webellion
enemy emerges from it hints at the possibility of About
Mario being able to do the same. The following article is about how we
have balanced units in our space sci-fi
RTS, Five Nations. Five Nations is a
futuristic real-time strategy game that
2) World 1-1 follows the events of a mind-bending
opera of space about the survival of
Important Information humanity. As a game designer
 Iworking
a…
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an RTS, the most demanding
Policy. aspect of my job is to make fully
balanced fractions with a great variety

of units. Designing units, with unique
Browse  Community  Forums  Careers  attributes,
Members  interesting
Search  characteristics
and construction processes is
extremaly challenging the say the
least.
Resolution
Our main goal is to design units with:
Unique roles, Strengths and
weaknesses, Cool personality,
Balanced data and attributes. Step 1.
Defining the Unit statistics
Everything starts with the definition of
the unit’s attributes:
Hull: used to specify the amount of
damage a unit can withstand before it
is destroyed. Unit class: explained
later. Shield: energy field that could
protect the unit’s Hull. Shields can be
regenerate slowly. (there are a number
of weapons that can pass the shield
Immediately after collecting the mushroom and hit directly the units hull) Armor: a
powerup, the player is presented with a red Koopa value which reduces the damages
Troopa, an enemy that hides in its shell after a against the unit’s hull. (some weapons
successful jump attack. ignore the vessels armor). Armour
does not affect shield damages.
If the Koopa Troopa is touched while in this state, it Hangar capacity: represents how
quickly slides away from Mario. Although the big many “Fighter class” units can be
white block is a bit in the way, the player can still carried. Speed Vision: Line of sight.
accomplish this feat fairly easily. If he does, he’ll Collusion area: This value represents
learn that shells can be used to activate “?” blocks the unit’s size. Units with bigger
(which is the only way to do it in this case as the collision area can be hit easily.
block cannot be hit from below) while discovering Weapons: A list of the unit’s primary
the game’s new powerup: the Super Leaf. and secondary armaments and
equipments. Resources: Metal: Metal
Immediately to the right, a strip of flat land with
cost. Helium-3: Helium-3 cost.
three enemies — one of them a red
Tachyion: Tachyon cost. (usually, the
Paragoomba — lets the player experiment with
capital ships requires tachyon.)
Raccoon Mario’s glide and spin-attack mechanics.
Place: Population cost. Building
time: How many seconds it takes for
the unit to build. (It is likely that
3) World 1-1 throughout the process of designing

the units, the main attributes turn out
imperfect and we need to go back and
Important Information reach out for more variables.)
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In Five Nations units are like

“containers” which can have a wide
Browse  Community  Forums  Careers  variety
Members  of Weapons.
Search These armaments
and types of equipment define the
units the best. Contrary to Starcraft:
Brood War, Age of Empires where
units usually have only one unique
weapon we decided to provide
ourselves with the ability to mix a wide
range of instruments for each
individual unit. Weapons main
attributes are:
Damage to hull: Amount of damage
the weapon does to the hull. Damage
to hull upg/level: How many additional
damages the weapon deals per
upgrade. Damage to shield: Amount of
damage the weapon does to shield.
Damage to shield upg/level: How
many additional damages the weapon
deals per upgrade. Range: How far the
Following the three Goombas (which don’t respawn weapon can shoot/effect.
if killed, leaving the strip clean of enemies), a Velocity: Projectile’s initial speed
diagonal trail of coins leads up into the sky. The generated by the weapon.
player must jump over a bottomless pit at the end Acceleration: Rate of change of
of this runway and is encouraged to collect the velocity of the projectile with respect of
coins, so it makes sense for him to get a running time. Max Velocity: Projectile’s
start and jump as high and far as possible. maximum speed. Accuracy: Weapons
precision in %. 100 means the
When the player starts running, a HUD meter fills weapon’s projectile always hit the
up, the running animation changes, and an urgent target point. Splash dmg range: Range
sound effect begins looping in the background. All of damage unintentionally dealt with a
these events signify that something important is unit not being directly targeted by the
happening, and when the player jumps and soars weapon Splash dmg on
into the sky, the screen — for the first time in a allies?: Boolean of weapon can hit
Mario game — begins to scroll horizontally and their allies. Cooldown: Amount of time
vertically at the same time. that the weapon must wait in between
attacks. Homing?: Boolean of
weapon’s projectiles can follow its
target. Minimum range: A potential
4) World 1-1 minimum distance a projectile can
attack units. CAF: Can aim Fighter
class - some weapons can’t attack
small, fighter class units. This boolean
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cannot aim fighters but can hit

accidentally them. If this value is 0, the
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COAB: Can only aim Building - there
are certain weapons that are
specialized to destroy constructions
and stations only. Targeting: In Five
Nations weapon’s projectiles/shells
collide with hostile spacecraft or
constructions regardless of their initial
target. This solution offers many
opportunities in micromanagement (for
example player can place the big
capital ships with a huge amount of
hull and shield in the front line, while
the smaller vulnerable “artillery” units
attack from behind. Targeting=1
means that the unit’s projectile collides
only with its target. Specialty: Weapon
unique abilities.
Okay, it can be seen, that we have a

lot of data which can be variable and
customizable the units. Initially, we
thought it was enough to make unique
units, counter units...etc. For example,
we can make
units with a great amount of hull but
lack of shield, units which are
specialized to tear down shields easily
but weak against the hull. fast and
micro-oriented vessels, artillery ships,
“sniper” units, support units...etc.
Step 2. Traditional Balancing method -

the Rock-paper-scissor solution
“In most RTS games you would prefer
if the players built several different
kinds of units. A game could be
interesting even with only one major
unit type, but people may complain
that it’s all about “massing units,”
which will hurt your reviews. The
As soon as Mario lands on a series of clouds, he
standard way of enforcing this is to
finds an isolated Brick Block that floats in the air
Important Information make sure that all units have at least
much like the “?” blocks. This similarity encourages  I a…
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of Use, This weakness can be
and Privacy
the player to interact with it in much the same way,
Policy. exploited by your opponent, and thus
i.e., by hitting it, which yields the first 1-Up forcing you to mix up your units a
Mushroom. little.” Oxeyegames.com
Browse  Community  Forums  Careers  Well, the article
Members is absolutely
Search  right and
The clouds continue to the right creating another
this is equally the very foundation of
clear runway that ends with a trail of coins. In a
balancing units in Five Nations. In this
dare of sorts, the coins ask the player to throw
part we have decided to study the
caution to the wind and make a blind leap into the
biggest RTS games on the market:
unknown. The newly acquired flying ability is quite
Empire Earth - one of my personal
thrilling and liberating, and having just earned an
favorite childhood RTS, but the
extra life, it stands to reason that most players
balancing was terrible: they used the
would want to pursue the extra treasure. Doing so
simplest rock-paper-scissor method.
takes Mario off-screen and gradually lowers him by
Units can be too easy to kill with
a tall pipe.
counter units. A lot of information, unit
With no other obvious place to go, the game abilities wasn’t clear and wasn’t
stresses the significance of the pipe. If the player revealed during the game, and only
figures out how to enter it, its path leads him to a can be found in long manuals. Another
neat little Easter Egg: a room filled with coins that bullshit in this game is that the
are arranged to form the number 3. resource piles can’t be exrected. Total
Annihilation - great game with a huge
variety of units. But most of the units
are totally unused. So we decide to
5) World 1-1 follow the “less is sometimes more”
method. Another negative point is the
economy which we found too simple to
adapt in Five Nations. Age of Empires
2 - This is a good game! I spent tons of
hours playing with this precious. This
games also follows the rock-paper-
scissor method, but was much more
balanced and more understandable
than Empire Earth. When we took it
again and played with it we noted a lot
of useful solutions. The game have
more than 2 resources, in this way the
economy was little more complicated
than in other RTS games. We decided
to use this kind of economy in Five
Nations. Great variety of research
options. Ages, the periods of
civilization advancement in the game.
Brilliant idea, but we couldn’t find its
place in Five Nations. The only thing
which we did not like in AoE2 that the
units compared with starcraft are lack
If the player misses the opportunity to fly up to the in characteristics.
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passage, the next to our community
two sections serve to Guidelines, Terms Starcraft
of Use, and Privacy
- This game is age like fine
Policy. wine! A sample of the perfect
introduce some new enemies. The first contains a
green Koopa Troopa and three green Koopa balancing! I don’t think i have to
Paratroopas that drop from the sky (hinting that introduce SC in detail, so let’s get to
there’s
Browse  something up above).
Community  The Paratroopas
Forums  Careers  the solutions
Members  which we
Search  really like and
demonstrate their ability to jump onto and fall down try to adapt in Five Nations: Types of
from platforms, while the two pits to the sides serve buildings. Each race starts with a
as an opening to show that enemies can also fall to “Town hall” type building, where like in
their deaths. SC the almost all workers are
produced, resources are collected and
The second area contains a Piranha Plant and a
technology begins. There is some
green Venus Fire Trap. Their proximity makes it
difference in Five Nations for example,
more likely that the player will have to stop by one
workers don’t deliver the resources
of them on his route to the level’s end. If he does,
directly in the “Town hall”. Each race
he’ll have another opportunity to discover that the
has a unique resource gathering
plants can’t come out of pipes if Mario is standing
method. For example in Human
near them. The immobile version of Super Mario
Federation the processing of raw
will also encourage the discovery of crouching in
materials is composed of two separate
order to dodge the fireballs, and a Raccoon Mario
steps. Step 1: The Engineer Shuttle
will get a chance to dispatch the plants with his
obtains the raw material from the
spin-attack.
asteroid, then carries it to the Mining
Station Step 2: Icarus transports the
processed raw materials to the
Command Station, which – after the
6) World 1-1
receipt – can immediately be used for
building stations, manufacturing or
developing space shuttles. Unique
races. All five races in Five nations
have their own strengths and
weaknesses as well units, structures,
researches and micro/macro
mechanics. Micro- and
Macromanagement. We really
respects the developers and designers
work in Blizzard. They make a brilliant
micro and macro oriented game. Cool
unit personalities.
Okay, now it may seem like we want to

clone Starcraft. Actually, we want to
make a different, deep space oriented
game, but in any case we honestly
admit that we learned a lot from it.
Command and Conquer Red Alert 2
- “Red Alert 2 is one of the most
polished, best-conceived, and
Important Information downright enjoyable real-time strategy
 I a…
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of Use, in recent
and memory.” The units in
Privacy
Policy. RA2 are an amazing mix of land, sea
and air forces. Maybe the only problem

is that the fractions are unbalanced.
Browse  Community  Forums  Careers  For example,
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Search  a lot of match
with the allied by only producing
rocketeers, but anyway the game had
a lot of potential such as: Mobile
construction Vehicles (MCV): I
personally really like this idea, a unit
which is the foundation of field base by
deploying into it. In the early state of
the designing we wanted a
planet/planemo colonization system in
the game, but my colleague Bence
suggested that do not limit the players
macro expanding potentials. We’ve
been thinking a lot about what would
be a good and acceptable solution,
and then the idea was born! We
introduced a similar “MCV” system in
Five Nations as well. Similar but not
the same, because in FN the “Town
Right before the level’s end, the player encounters hall” type buildings providing power to
two grounded piles of Brick Blocks. Since the nearby stations. Players can build
player had two previous chances to pick up a stations/structures only inside this
Super Leaf, he’s likely to try the spin-attack on radius. (There are some exceptions
these glowing objects as there’s no way to hit them like refinery and extraction stations.)
from below. Step 3. The easiest and most
straightforward technique of balancing:
In addition to this lesson, there’s also a solitary red land, air (and naval) units
Koopa Troopa pacing atop the second group of When it comes to balancing, visually
blocks. Since the player already had a few chances displaying unit movement dimensions
to learn that Koopa Troopa shells can take out is undoubtedly one of the silver-bullet
other enemies and activate powerups, he might try that we could have employed (ground,
to do the same here. If he does, the shell will break air, water etc). Nevertheless, our
through a bunch of Brick Blocks and leave one of greatest concern was that the entire
them unobstructed. If Mario hits this block from game takes place in deep space and
below (or spin-attacks it from the side), it will reveal therefore it makes no sense to design
a P-Switch. land vs air, land vs land or air vs air
specialist units. Instead of making
The P-Switch functionality immediately turns all the
“floating” space platforms where land
remaining bricks into coins and plays a jaunty
units could have only moved we
countdown theme. When the countdown ends, the
decided to make something more
remaining coins turn back into Brick Blocks,
logical (of course nothing can be really
teaching the player that the transformation is only
logical in a space war but whatever...).
temporary. The music change is important as there
Important Information We don’t want to make “hidden” or
are no other visual cues to indicate if and when the  I a…
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Policy. with red shield are weaker than units
with green lasers...etc. Our solution

was to make different unit classes with
7) World
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characteristics.
Fighter class: small and vulnerable
units which are extremely mobile (can
pass through almost every obstacles)
and not attackable by many units (like
the air units in traditional RTS games.)
Corvette class: light and mobile units,
but instead of the fighters they can’t
pass through obstacles like asteroids
and wrecks. They specialized to deal
with the fighters Cruiser
class: specialized and armored
vessels. They are usually weaker
against Fighters but strong against
Corvette units. Battleship class: these
fearsome capital ships combining an
“all-big-gun” armament with protection.
Although they are the dominant
weapon of the Five Nations they are
also expensive and slow units with
lack of anti-fighter weapons. Carrier
class: Warships that serves as a
moving spacebases, equipped with
The final part of the stage is segmented by a
spacecraft facilities and hangars. The
jagged black line that spans the height of the map.
main role to carry the vulnerable
This clearly denotes the end of the level while
fighters.
keeping with Super Mario Bros. 3’s stage motif —
crossing this boundary is almost like stepping
All right guys, this is the end of the first
behind a curtain.
part of my article. I’ll continue very
The only object in this area is an animating Goal soon, stick around!
Panel that instantly draws the player’s attention
and ends the stage when touched. Since the floor
leading up to it is flat, it encourages the player to
run in at full speed and jump into the panel. More
often than not, this rewards the player with a star, 240119-dialogs-merged.mp4 240119-
the best possible Goal Panel prize. fed-story-merged.mp4 240119-
Prequel-Simcity-merged.mp4 sylon-
encounter-variance-1.mp4 athrael-
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As soon as the second level begins, the player is

introduced to slopes and gets to experiment with
how they affect Mario’s movement. Once Mario
reaches the first peak, he can also dispatch a
Goomba with the slide-attack while being pursued
by more Goombas spawning out of a horizontal
pipe.
9) World 1-2
 I a…
Policy.
The second major area in the level shows an

almost unreachable series of coins, a floating pipe
with a Venus Fire Trap, and some Brick Blocks  I a…
located just above the ground. The player is likely
Policy.
to collect most of the coins and then attempt to
break through the Brick Blocks, and perhaps learn

the run-then-duck-to-slide maneuver.
If the first block is hit, it reveals a P-Switch. Unlike
the P-Switch in the first level, this one turns coins
into other Brick Blocks. This results in the coins (or
at least what’s left of them) being transformed into
a path that leads up to the pipe. This clearly labels
the pipe as a destination and allows Mario to use it
to get to another bonus room.
10) World 1-2
The final new object introduced in level 2 is the

Jump Block. Much like the other types of blocks, it’s
uniquely (if a bit abstractly) decorated, naturally
drawing the player’s attention.
The first two Jump Blocks are spotted in a valley

with a Paragoomba, increasing the chance that the
player will bump into them while dodging/attacking
the enemy. The bouncincess of the blocks is quite
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immediately understand — encouraging the player

to jump off of them as they dip to their lowest point.
The second block also spits out a powerup, and it’s
possible to initiate this by bumping it from below or
landing on top of it. In case the player misses this
point, the next area contains a pit and a stairway of
Jump Blocks. In order to safely traverse the pit, the
player is likely to use the Jump Blocks above it
(instead of risking bumping into them from below),
the last of which drops a Starman.
11) World 1-2
The level end introduces a new enemy, a flying

Paragoomba that bombards Mario with Micro-
Goombas. Since there are no other enemies or
obstacles in sight, it’s a safe place to demonstrate
the mechanic of Micro-Goombas slowing down
Mario if they attach themselves to him.
If the player lets the Paragoomba follow Mario, he

might also learn that any enemies on screen will  I a…
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12) World
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As the third level begins, the player is greeted with

a few large blocks and a Koopa Troopa. Both of
these elements seem to be an aid in dispatching
the Boomerang Bro. that stands behind ’em, i.e.,
the Koopa Troopa’s shell can be rocketed into him,
while the higher vantage points makes it easier to
dodge his boomerangs and squash him from
above.
13) World 1-3
 I a…
Policy.
Following the Boomerang Bro., another Brick Block

pile is presented where a red Koopa Troopa can be
used to set off a chain reaction that destroys many  I a…
of the bricks. This time around the pinballing turtle
Policy.
shell shows how Jump Blocks react to its touch
(simply deflect it like other blocks) while rewarding

the player with some extra coins.
When the turtle shell leaves the screen, the player
is encouraged to jump down into the cavity it
created and investigate the leftover blocks. One of
them yields a powerup , while another proves to be
a Coin Block . The newly formed brick configuration
leads the player to jump back out once he’s done,
at which point he has a chance to encounter an
invisible Jump Block. This pink block can only be
hit from below, and when activated, it sends Mario
into the Coin Heaven bonus section.
14) World 1-3
Although Level 3 is mostly flat, it doesn’t hold any

rewards up in the sky. The Cloud Heaven, though,
contains a bunch of extra coins and a 1-Up if the
player uses it as a runway.
 I a…
15) World 1-3
Policy.
Past the pile of Brick Blocks, the player encounters

a series of stacked Wooden Blocks. The reason
they’re grouped this way is to encourage the player
to press against them as he jumps forward, giving
him a chance to discover that Wooden Blocks can
yield powerups if hit from the side.
16) World 1-4
 I a…
Policy.
Although level 4 is not incredibly challenging, it’s

much more difficult than the previous three stages.
It’s almost completely devoid of solid ground, and
its auto-scrolling nature makes it a much more
intense experience. This is perhaps the reason why
it’s skipable on the overworld map.
In addition to the automatic scrolling that can push

Mario to his death, the stage also introduces
moving platforms. The platforms only move
horizontally, and drop as soon as Mario lands on
them. This is a pretty intuitive mechanic as it’s easy
to imagine Mario’s weight overpowering the
ethereal strings that hold up the platforms.
Once the player learns this, he can use it to his

advantage in an area where a vertical stack of
coins is positioned next to a wall. With some quick
thinking, the player can figure out that if he jumps
on the incoming platform, it’ll drop and he’ll collect
all the coins, and then still be able to jump off of it
and through a gap in the wall. This is a great
example of rewarding the player for proper
environmental analysis and making him feel like
he’s mastering its traversal.  I a…
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17) World 1-4 Existing user? Sign In  Sign Up
Unlike the previous stages, level 4’s main area

ends with a solid wall and a pipe. Since there’s
nowhere else to go, the player — for the first time
— must learn to travel through a pipe in order to
finish the level. On the other side, he’ll be
ambushed by a Boomerang Bro. and find the
standard Goal Panel.
Somewhat emphasizing the level’s optional-

challenge nature, if the player collects all the coins
in the map, Toad’s Blue House will also open up in
the overworld area.
18) World 1 Fortress
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Podoboos and Roto-Discs are first introduced in

spaces where it’s easy to avoid them. Once the
player gets used to their functionality, the difficulty
is ramped up: multiple Podoboos emerge from lava
(with different timing), while Roto-Discs occupy
platforms that Mario must jump on in order to
proceed through the level.
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The Fortress marks the first in-level appearance of

the Fire Flower. This is significant as there are no
regular enemies in the Fortress that can be
defeated with Fire Mario’s fireballs. This is a tactic
that’s used multiple times in the game, but because
powerups carry over from level to level and it’s
always adventagous to be in “big” Mario mode, it
never feels like a handicap.
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If the player chooses to trade in the Fire Flower for

a Super Leaf, he can discover another secret in the
sky. This is hinted at by the open ceiling and — if
the Dry Bones is temporarily dispatched with a
stomp — a runway right next to it. This particular
secret leads to a Warp Whistle, and is much more
intuitive than the obscure duck-on-a-white-block-
for-an-extended-period-of-time maneuver required
to get the first whistle.
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The first door the player encounters leads him to a

room with a spiked ceiling. The ceiling starts to
descend as soon as the player enters the area, but
he is also shown a gap that might keep Mario safe.
With no other options in sight, it’s natural for most
players to strive to reach it before the ceiling
crushes them.
When the ceiling drops down all the way, it begins

to recede and Mario is forced to jump over a
bottomless pit. There is no second hiding spot in
sight, so the player has to trust the game to provide
one for him. This creates tension and forces the
player to perform a leap-of-faith, but he’s ultimately
saved by a final tiny gap (much smaller in width
and height than the first one) at the end of the area.
The gap is located next to a wall so it’s fairly easy
to get into it, but its small size makes the whole
sequence feel like a nail-biting escape.

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The Fotress level ends with a boss battle against

Boom Boom, an enemy that needs to be stomped
three times before being defeated. If the player still
possesses the Fire Flower, he can also dispatch
him with its fireballs.
When Boom Boom perishes, he drops a “?” Ball

that ends the level when touched, adding to the
“specialness” of the Fortress level.
23) World 1-5
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In case the player never discovered that he could

slide down slopes to take out enemies back in
World 1-2, this level does it for him.
Unlike all the other stages, it begins with Mario on a

slope already in a butt-scoop position. He then
proceeds to barrel through some Buzzy Beetles
that just happen to be climbing up the hill.
This not only shows the mechanic, but also

displays its usefulness. In addition, sliding is pretty
much a universally fun activity, and its presence is
another incentive for the player to experiment with
the moveset.
24) World 1-5
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The level contains another Fire Flower that allows

the player to test out the enemies, but it’s only
accessible after the section pictured above. This is
notable due to the pipe that hosts a Piranha Plant
located close to the ground, making it likely that the
player will stop and wait for the plant to recede.
During this interval, an approaching Buzzy Beetle
will prevent Mario from running through the
opening.
When the Buzzy Bettle finally reaches Mario, the

player will likely jump on top of it, learning that the
beetles’ shells act much like those of the turtles. At
this point, the careening shell will have a high
chance of taking out the Piranha Plant as it comes
out of the pipe, teaching the player another useful
combat mechanic.
25) World 1-5
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Policy.
And in case the player missed the pink Jump Block

in World 1-3, he gets another chance to discover it
here.
Walking up slopes is never fun so the player is

encouraged to jump through the area, and in the
process possibly bump into the invisible Jump
Block. As usual, the pink Jump Block leads to a
Coin Heaven area where — once again — he can
discover extra coins and a 1-Up if he uses it as a
runway.
26) World 1-6
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Policy.
Although this level is not autoscrolling like World 1-

4, it’s similarly devoid of a floor. This creates some
interesting airborne hijinks with the red Koopa
Troopas that do not walk off of platforms by
themselves.
As shown in the above example, it’s very easy to

start off the level by stomping a Koopa Troopa and
sending its shell flying to the right. In turn, the shell
will fall off the platform, travel through empty space,
land on another platform, and eventually take out
another Koopa Troopa that patrols it.
27) World 1-6
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Unlike the floating platforms in World 1-4, these

ones are attached to a thin path and are buffeted
by end pieces. This allows the player to easily
guage the platform’s movement and plan his jumps
accordingly.
The first platform is introduced with no enemies in

sight, but the second one runs head-first into a
Koopa Paratroopa. Also, its path doesn’t contain an
end piece, forcing it to eventually fall off the path
itself. This in turn forces the player to quickly jump
to a nearby platform.
28) World 1-6
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More opportunities for mid-air stunts are presented

via the flying red Koopa Paratroopas. By the time
the player encounters them, he’s more than familiar
with the mechanic of clipping the wings of enemies
and sending them plummeting to the ground.
Since there’s never any solid ground below these

turtles, the stomped Koopa Paratroopas simply fall
to their deaths. This creates some rather satisfying
scenarios where the player can kill two birds with
one stone: dispatch an enemy and make a piggy-
back jump onto a new platform.
29) World 1-6
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The area above is a runway, but it’s punctuated by

a single gap that slightly drains the run meter. If the
player jumps onto it while running from a previous  I a…
platform, though, he retains part of the run-charge
Policy.
and is able to take off into the air.
A path of coins beyond the platform shadows

Mario’s flight arch, and when he finally floats down,
he’s safely
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30) World 1 Airship
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The airship levels start off with a short cutscene of

Toad pleading for help and Mario heroically leaping
onto a moving airship in pursuit of Bowser’s
minions.
Like all “artillery” stages, the level auto-scrolls and

is filled with unique enemies such as Cannonballs
and Bullet Bills. This approach makes it feel almost
like a shmup as the player is forced to concentrate
on avoiding multiple projectiles while waiting for the
end-segment to scroll into view.
However, unlike most shmups, Mario has to deal

with gravity, the movement of the ship, and the
cramped architecture. This makes avoiding bullets
much harder, but also steers the player into making
another discovery: not only can Mario kill the
projectiles by jumping on them, they can also
perish if they touch his feet (even while he’s
standing still). A single Fire Flower stresses this
point as all the enemies in the level are
invulnerable to its fireballs.
When the end-boss is defeated, the significance of

Important
the levelInformation
is further accentuated by a series of  I a…
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jumps down to the ground, cures the king, receives
a congratulatory message, and finally reads a letter

from Princess Peach that comes packaged with a
powerup.
Super Mario Bros. 3 contains many obvious design

lessons that are also present in other games, e.g.,
the gradual layering of complexity that allows
players to master a specific mechanic. What
surprised me during my playthrough, though, was
how some of these lessons were completely
optional.
For example, it’s possible to send a turtle shell

skittering in the opposite direction of destructible
bricks, or to take the cloud-route and skip certain
powerups and interactive objects. Of course these
same lessons are repeated multiple times, but
they’re not always as heavily hinted.
Personally, this hits a sweet spot for me. The game

doesn’t have any forced hand-holding, and it isn’t
afraid of the player simply exploring it at his own
pace (even if it means circumventing chunks of the
experience). This approach also serves to
encourage multiple replays, and — back during
SMB 3’s initial release — it probably sparked many
playground discussions.
Note: This article was originally published on the

author's blog, and is reproduced here with kind
permission. Check out his work at Incubator
Games.
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USER FEEDBACK
3 Comments 0 Reviews
penguinbyebye  379 
Posted June 28, 2017
I love this game, and I will be looking forward for

the part 2. This was a great analysis.
Navyman  9783 
Posted June 28, 2017 (edited)
Reminds me of the Extra Credits, on YouTube,

series on the same subject.
Edited June 28, 2017 by Navyman
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Game Design and Theory  Super Mario Bros 3 Level Design Lessons, Part 1
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01/03/2019 Super Mario Bros 3 Level Design Lessons, Part 1 - Game Design and Theory - GameDev.

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3) World 1-1 throughout the process of designing

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As soon as the second level begins, the player is

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The second major area in the level shows an

break through the Brick Blocks, and perhaps learn

10) World 1-2

The final new object introduced in level 2 is the

The first two Jump Blocks are spotted in a valley

immediately understand — encouraging the player

11) World 1-2

The level end introduces a new enemy, a flying

If the player lets the Paragoomba follow Mario, he

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As the third level begins, the player is greeted with

13) World 1-3

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Following the Boomerang Bro., another Brick Block

(simply deflect it like other blocks) while rewarding

14) World 1-3

Although Level 3 is mostly flat, it doesn’t hold any

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Past the pile of Brick Blocks, the player encounters

16) World 1-4

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Although level 4 is not incredibly challenging, it’s

In addition to the automatic scrolling that can push

Once the player learns this, he can use it to his

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Unlike the previous stages, level 4’s main area