Super Mario Maker is a great game that has sparked the creativity of many gamers alike. We’ve been allowed to make our own courses for other people to play and it’s been a blast. Every once in a while something will come along and create a trend that will be overdone until it over saturates the market and goes away (kind of, maybe). For example the current fascination of first person shooters. Could we possibly be seeing the trend of the “Makers”? Minecraft, to Mario Maker to Dragon Quest Builders, is it possible that other companies will see the appeal behind these games and decide to follow suit? Maybe, we might be able to get an age where developers are letting gamers create their own content to play.
Maybe it’s me getting old (I’m 22), but I progressively find myself not totally into contemporary media. That goes for comics, movies, anime, and games, you name it. I’ve been living in the past for the last four/five months. Watching old movies, shows, anime, cartoons, reading old books, playing classic games etcetera, but let’s get back on track. Mario Maker was nostalgic in a lot of ways. We old timers got to make levels in the style of older Mario games (and the newest version). Part of the appeal of that game was the old school styles of Mario you could play as, which attracted some older Mario fans to actually buy a WiiU. For some nostalgia boners. And they are all having a great time playing and creating courses while being super erect.
With that being said, this presents an opportunity for the gaming community to usher in a new style of games being made. An age where we the gamers, are making our own stuff to play and share. Sure there is the RPG maker but what if players want something a little more specific? They only want to design games in the style of something they really love. The few franchises that absolutely need to have “Makers” are: Sonic the Hedgehog, Megaman, The Legend of Zelda and Final Fantasy (in my opinion).
Sonic, Megaman, Metroid and Zelda work because you can almost model it the same way as Mario Maker. Sonic 1, Sonic 3 (maybe one of the handheld Sonic games) and Sonic 4. You could create and switch between those four templates the same fashion Mario did. Megaman can do the same thing with Megaman 1, Megaman 6 to Megaman X. Metroid and Zelda are different because those are entire games for the most part. Not to mention the older ones are nonlinear. Creating an entire game in the style of The Legend of Zelda or The Link to the Past is not only time consuming to play, but to make. Not everyone has that kind of Ocarina, I mean time. So what if Zelda Maker lets you create dungeons with bosses and puzzles? They could find a way to make it work. I admit that I am not entirely sure how they’d do it with Metroid but they could make it work.
Now, designing Rpgs may be a big step but, I’m willing to bet we can handle it. Creating your own Final Fantasy game is a long-time dream of many fans, trust me (and no I’m not a Final Fantasy fan). This is where it gets a little controversial because people might create offensive stories with graphic dialogue and post it online. But I mean, that’s life, welcome to 2015, there will always be dickheads. I feel like this could potentially spawn some really interesting stories in the style of Final Fantasy.
To wrap things up, I admit this is a bit of a reach and a lot of wishful thinking on my part. We haven’t even began to play with the possibilities of making “Makers” for other genres but I feel like this would be a cool trend to start in gaming. The age of the “Makers”, where players become designers.
As a side note if you want to watch someone a lot smarter and wiser than me talk about this topic please take about seven minutes out of your day to watch Bob Chipman (also known as the game over thinker): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HK2mzjpTha8
By: Nya Hemmingz
Maybe it’s me getting old (I’m 22), but I progressively find myself not totally into contemporary media. That goes for comics, movies, anime, and games, you name it. I’ve been living in the past for the last four/five months. Watching old movies, shows, anime, cartoons, reading old books, playing classic games etcetera, but let’s get back on track. Mario Maker was nostalgic in a lot of ways. We old timers got to make levels in the style of older Mario games (and the newest version). Part of the appeal of that game was the old school styles of Mario you could play as, which attracted some older Mario fans to actually buy a WiiU. For some nostalgia boners. And they are all having a great time playing and creating courses while being super erect.
With that being said, this presents an opportunity for the gaming community to usher in a new style of games being made. An age where we the gamers, are making our own stuff to play and share. Sure there is the RPG maker but what if players want something a little more specific? They only want to design games in the style of something they really love. The few franchises that absolutely need to have “Makers” are: Sonic the Hedgehog, Megaman, The Legend of Zelda and Final Fantasy (in my opinion).
Sonic, Megaman, Metroid and Zelda work because you can almost model it the same way as Mario Maker. Sonic 1, Sonic 3 (maybe one of the handheld Sonic games) and Sonic 4. You could create and switch between those four templates the same fashion Mario did. Megaman can do the same thing with Megaman 1, Megaman 6 to Megaman X. Metroid and Zelda are different because those are entire games for the most part. Not to mention the older ones are nonlinear. Creating an entire game in the style of The Legend of Zelda or The Link to the Past is not only time consuming to play, but to make. Not everyone has that kind of Ocarina, I mean time. So what if Zelda Maker lets you create dungeons with bosses and puzzles? They could find a way to make it work. I admit that I am not entirely sure how they’d do it with Metroid but they could make it work.
Now, designing Rpgs may be a big step but, I’m willing to bet we can handle it. Creating your own Final Fantasy game is a long-time dream of many fans, trust me (and no I’m not a Final Fantasy fan). This is where it gets a little controversial because people might create offensive stories with graphic dialogue and post it online. But I mean, that’s life, welcome to 2015, there will always be dickheads. I feel like this could potentially spawn some really interesting stories in the style of Final Fantasy.
To wrap things up, I admit this is a bit of a reach and a lot of wishful thinking on my part. We haven’t even began to play with the possibilities of making “Makers” for other genres but I feel like this would be a cool trend to start in gaming. The age of the “Makers”, where players become designers.
By: Nya Hemmingz
