The Making of Mario 64
By Andy Robinson

Super Mario 64 was a game like none other, It's amazingly original structure and appearance changed the way games developers thought forever. The simple fact that now, 6 years after it's release, the game is still leaps and bounds above it's nearest rival makes you wonder what exactly the 15 man Mario 64 development team were doing differently.

Nintendo veteran Giles Goddard describes the open-plan office packed with cubicles where the Mario 64 team resided: "You could just stand up and shout at someone who was working on Wave Race, just away from someone working on Mario 64. Quite a good little set-up." A Mario game was a natural choice for the Nintendo 64's launch line-up and at the very beginning of it's development the team used silicon graphics computers to emulate what the N64 would be like when it was finished. The project was Shigeru Miyamoto's main priority amongst the 4 games he was working on at the time "Three of those weren't high priority" reveal Giles, "So he was 100% Mario 64. He was always there, sitting around playing with the various demos."

The game changed as the Nintendo 64's hardware became finalized, originally the team had used keyboards to move Mario around and later went on to modified SNES pads and hundreds of N64 prototypes. Although even today Mr. Miyamoto is not completely satisfied with the way the N64's pad design went "He said it would have been better to have two d-pads, it would have been a better balance to have the same configuration on the left and the right" says Mr. Goddard.

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."

Mario 64 was Miyamoto's first 3D game and at times he was unsure of the direction it should take "Quite a few months were spent just playing around with different camera views, animations and ways of looking at the map. At one point the game had a fixed path, almost like an isometric type of game." recalls Mr. Goddard. 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."

As the game began to take shape, time was running out for the development team. Nintendo's future depended on Mario 64 being ready for launch so the artists and programmers worked flat out to squeeze as much content into the game as possible, characters were put straight into the game as soon as they were created and ideas such as being able to ride Yoshi were left out completely. The game was finally unveiled at Nintendo's Spaceworld show and it received an amazing reception, Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi said at the show "I don't mean to brag, but when this game is finished I believe it will be our best ever."

Shigeru Miyamoto and the Mario 64 team had created one of the greatest games ever and Giles Goddard went on to work on 1080 Snowboarding and Doshin the Giant. However Goddard reveals not all of the staff had such a bright future "One of the programmers had quite a hard time of it, and two of them decided not to make games anymore because of Mario 64. Not because they didn't enjoy it, but because they'd burned themselves out."

Thanks to N64 Magazine for Giles Goddard quotes.

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