My soul settled as I realized my failure wasn't a lack of creativity, but another belief that closely orbits my fragile sense of self: There's no such thing as effortless, natural talent - only the gumption to learn and master a skill.
There, scattered across Reddit, Twitter, Facebook and a dozen gaming forums, I found my answer. In a last-ditch effort, I turned to the internet for help. "I'm not going to let some video game throw my personal identity into question." I scoured the game's online Course World mode for inspiration from highly rated level designers and pored over Nintendo's official Super Mario Maker Idea Book, but still wound up with terrible, boring levels that weren't fun to make or play. If I'm not having fun making Mario levels, is that proof that I'm not really the creative-type I see myself as? I couldn't accept that. I'm the problem, not Super Mario Maker.Ĭoming to terms with this was like getting punched in the gut. I love Nintendo's platforming games and Maker's creation toolset is as intuitive as they come. When Minecraft's building mode failed to garner my attention, I easily dismissed it as just "not my thing." When Disney Infinity's sandbox world didn't spark my interest, I blamed it for having "convoluted" tools that weren't "straightforward." I can't apply these excuses to Super Mario Maker. My self-image has always revolved, in some fashion, around the idea that I am a creative person Super Mario Maker contradicts that in a way that other DIY game builders never have. Objectively, I knew that my failure to fall in love with Super Mario Maker's level editor is little more than a simple mismatch with my own creative sensibilities, but the reality of it still bothered me to the core. My by-the-numbers Mario levels (a few power-ups to start, some pipes to leap over, maybe a Hammer brother or two and a flagpole at the end) feel more like light plagiarism than original content. Yes, technically I can construct a stage from set pieces I've seen in other Mario games, but I'm not really creating anything. I could make games." No, Super Mario Maker has shown me, I can't - not really. As both a hobbyist gamer and a journalist that covers games, I've always humored the little voice in the back of my head that said, "I could do this if I wanted. My ego didn't take this realization well. It was then that a shocking and heartbreaking realization washed over me: I hate making video games.
I'd dreamed about making Nintendo games since I was 6 years old, but when the company gave me the chance to prove a game design genius lived under my skin, I flopped. levels and play them on a real Nintendo console, and I was completely miserable. I'd been playing Super Mario Maker, a video game that lets you make your own Super Mario Bros. I knew the answer was "yes," but I still wasn't having any. If you used one of the special submit buttons (and if you don't delete the dashes at the bottom of the Text field), your post will be flaired automatically."Isn't this supposed to be fun?" I asked myself over and over again. Posts in this subreddit are categorized by flair. If you're promoting a stream/channel, please contribute to our community in other ways too. Level contests shouldn't offer monetary/tangible prizes. Please don't ask for stars, trade stars, or promise stars. r/Mariomaker is a community for sharing Mario Maker levels and discussing Mario level design.
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