Chapter 497: A Game Tailor-Made for the Switch
"Super Mario Odyssey" features a total of 17 kingdoms, including the Cap Kingdom, Cascade Kingdom, Sand Kingdom, Lake Kingdom, Forest Kingdom, and more. Each kingdom contains a certain number of Power Moons, with additional moons unlocked after completing the main story.
In "Super Mario Odyssey," the total number of Power Moons exceeds 860, with even more coins and special currencies scattered throughout. These elements are hidden in various obscure locations across the maps, and recreating them requires a large amount of Memory Recall Potion.
Fortunately, Chen Mo had stockpiled a fair amount beforehand, so it was sufficient. Otherwise, he would have had to meticulously plan every level from scratch.
"Super Mario Odyssey" is a sandbox-style game, where each small kingdom is relatively independent, making development not overly complex. Once all the props and enemy placement were planned out, the difficulty of development dropped significantly.
While writing the design concept draft, Chen Mo relied on the Memory Recall Potion, yet he still found the sheer variety of elements overwhelming. One could only imagine how much effort would be required during actual production.
Additionally, the game is packed with numerous Easter eggs. For example, in the Metro Kingdom, the level is filled with references to Donkey Kong. The taxi in the city has a license plate reading "1981-nd," likely commemorating 1981, the year Mario and Donkey Kong first appeared together.
Furthermore, "Super Mario Odyssey" includes many background music tracks that serve as Easter eggs. For instance, the music during the minicar challenges in the Metro Kingdom is the same as the card game music from "Super Mario Bros. 3." At the start of the minicar race, players can also hear the background music from "Super Mario Kart."
Obviously, players in the parallel world wouldn't understand these Easter eggs, which was admittedly a pity.
However, Chen Mo certainly couldn't bring over the entire Mario series. Some Mario games, by the design standards of the current parallel world, would feel outdated, and porting them would be pointless.
Considering these Easter eggs as part of the content of "Super Mario Odyssey" and as a form of diverse supplementation wasn't a bad idea. After all, in Chen Mo's previous life, many people had never played earlier Mario games, yet that didn't diminish their love for "Super Mario Odyssey."
He believed that many players would be pleasantly surprised when encountering the 2D-to-3D "Two-Dimensional Foil" attack, even if they had never played the original Mario games.
Moreover, Chen Mo wrote extensively about the art and music styles.
For the background music, he went so far as to write out the melodies for the more important tracks in the game, leaving only some details to be refined.
...
Soon, the design concept draft was completed. Everyone was gathered by Chen Mo for a meeting.
Regarding this new game, everyone had already heard some rumors, but what intrigued them more was Chen Mo's claim that it would be a handheld console game. What exactly would this handheld console be like?
Chen Mo quickly answered their questions.
This time, the design concept draft consisted of two parts: one was the design concept for the Switch, and the other was the design concept for "Super Mario Odyssey."
Clearly, presenting these two concepts together would help everyone better understand why this game was most suited for a handheld console.
Chen Mo first introduced the functions of the various buttons on the two controllers. For example, the left joystick controls character movement, the right joystick controls the camera; players can crouch, run, throw the hat, and jump.
At the same time, players could perform special gestures by swinging the controllers, allowing Mario to execute unique actions. For instance, while climbing, swinging the controllers would make Mario climb faster.
Additionally, there were more complex moves like the triple jump, long jump, roll, ground pound, backflip, and side flip, each with corresponding button inputs and gestures.
This immediately caught everyone's attention.
Qian Kun said with some surprise, "Boss, it feels like this game has a really complex set of actions, even more so than some VR games!"
Chen Mo nodded. "That's right. VR games can't have such a complex action system because they need to record too much conscious information. If it were actually implemented, players might find it extremely tiring to play."
Zheng Hongxi nodded. "Exactly. I also think this game is very suitable for a handheld console platform. The game's capacity is quite large, making it hard for phones to handle, but if placed on a PC, it wouldn't be portable enough."
Chen Mo smiled and added, "Moreover, the feel of a joystick is better than a mouse. You'll understand once it's made."
Su Jinyu said, "I also think that if it were made as a VR game, this third-person follow-camera perspective might not be suitable, and it wouldn't leverage the strong immersion of the VR platform."
Clearly, everyone now had a deep understanding of game design. After Chen Mo presented the design concept draft, they had no trouble grasping his intentions.
Obviously, this was a game tailor-made for the Switch. Everything—from game capacity and features to control methods—perfectly matched this handheld console.
What shocked everyone even more was the incredibly high level of completion in Chen Mo's design concept draft. Although all of Chen Mo's previous design concepts had been thorough and detailed, this one seemed almost absurdly complete.
The locations of coins, special currencies, and Power Moons in each level, the distribution of enemies, and even the placement of various objects were all clearly written out. Through these complex level maps, most people could even imagine the challenges the protagonist would face upon entering a level and the optimal route to clear it.
The game's art style and background music were also clearly described, including a dedicated theme song.
In short, each level had its own unique characteristics, and no two levels were alike.
Additionally, the special gameplay mechanics involving the hat felt very novel to everyone.
In the game, the hat is Mario's companion. Besides serving as an attack tool, it can be used in combination with Mario to perform very complex actions. The hat can also possess other small creatures, greatly increasing the game's replayability.
In other words, players could control as many special units as there were creatures in the game. Moreover, the skills of these creatures would synergize with the level design, making the gameplay even richer.
Chen Mo said, "This time, the main difficulty lies in the level design, which is quite complex to implement. But I believe everyone is fully capable of handling it."
"Also, I hope everyone can maintain a childlike heart while making this game. Its defining feature is stripping away the flashy, over-polished gameplay common in the current market and returning to the most fundamental joy of gaming."
"'Super Mario Odyssey' should be enjoyable for both teenagers and middle-aged people in their forties and fifties. Everyone must keep this in mind and constantly remind themselves to stay childlike during the design process."
Qian Kun asked, "Boss, this handheld console seems really interesting. Will we be porting some large-scale games to it in the future? Like some big VR games?"
Chen Mo shook his head. "No plans for now. The positioning of this handheld console is completely different from VR. It's not suitable for porting those highly immersive VR games."