 If you've ever tried to build a level in Super Mario Maker, you're probably aware that making the perfect Mario level is no small task. How difficult should you make the level? Where should you place enemies? What gimmicks or unique challenges can you put in? Believe it or not, when creating a new 2D Mario game, even the creators at Nintendo run into these challenges. At the dawn of the Wii U era, the company was working on building two different new Super Mario Bros. titles at the same time. This required a lot of additional level designers, but there was a problem. Nintendo simply didn't have enough staff members who were familiar with the difficulties of making a 2D platformer. Gaming had moved on, and Nintendo had been focusing on 3D games for a while. There were staff members within the company who were familiar with 2D Mario, but they were scattered across various different projects. There certainly weren't enough experienced designers to make up the development team for two separate Mario games at the same time. Luckily, two Nintendo veterans had a plan. Takashi Tazuka and Toshihiko Nakago were going to take their younger colleagues to school. This was the birth of the Mario Cram School, as Nintendo employees from across the company got to learn at the feet of video game masters. Takashi Tazuka and Toshihiko Nakago were two-thirds of Nintendo's golden triangle. Their trio were veteran developers who'd worked on countless older games, including many of the original Super Mario titles. The company had moved forward since this era. Many new, upcoming developers within Nintendo were better trained in the art of making modern games. This was all well and good, until two new Super Mario games were needed at once, one for the Wii U, and one for the 3DS. At the time, many of the senior developers at Nintendo were working on other various projects. The teams that had made new Super Mario Brothers and new Super Mario Brothers Wii had been scattered, and there weren't enough experienced 2D Mario developers to go around. Takashi and Toshihiko pondered on this problem. How could they arrange their teams in such a way that both upcoming 2D games could be well-staffed by people who knew what they were doing? The solution was the Mario Cram School, a chance to teach newer Nintendo employees the basics of crafting the perfect 2D platformer. Takashi and Toshihiko began drawing up a list of potential students for their class, aware that this Cram School was unlike anything Nintendo had ever done before. The goal was to give many people across the company the skills they needed to make Mario games, and not limit this to a single pool of developers. If the Mario Cram School worked, then the Golden Triangle's knowledge could be dispersed across hundreds of employees. Typically, only a single department within Nintendo, the Entertainment and Analysis Division, were responsible for making 2D Mario games. But Takashi and Toshihiko extended invitations to members of many different teams and departments across the company. Some people were confused about why they were being included. Yosuke Amano, who had previously worked on new Super Mario Brothers Wii, felt that his schedule didn't really allow for time spent learning in the classroom. He was busy putting together Star Fox 64 3D, and often wasn't available to join the school's classes. In spite of this, Takashi and Toshihiko seemed intent on sharing their knowledge with him, and getting him to play the levels that the Mario Cram School students had designed. Little did Yosuke realize that the Golden Triangle had a good reason for wanting to keep him informed. He was soon going to be chosen as the director for the 3DS new Super Mario Brothers game, and would be working closely with many of the students in the Cram School. The school itself was incredibly productive, the total number of students was significantly more than would usually build a Mario Brothers platformer, and as such, there were a lot of strange and bizarre ideas floating around. The class came up with levels together, based on instructions from their teachers. Takashi would explain the process of building a game level and coming up with ideas, while Toshihiko solved programming concerns that the class came up against. Before long, the school students were caught up on how to make these games, and, having been taught the foundations of Mario making, they were free to return to their respective departments. Takashi and Toshihiko then informed Yosuke and another senior developer, Masatako Takemoto, that they would be project directors on the two upcoming games. At first, neither director had any idea what they were going to do, their teams hadn't been formed, and they didn't know who would be joining them. But, one by one, different alumni from the Mario Cram School finished their respective projects, and were assigned to work on one of these two new games. Of the two titles, the Wii U game was staffed by more experienced new Mario creators. Their work was seen as a continuation of the Wii game in the series, and so it was relatively easy to get back into the swing of things, even with many new junior team members who hadn't previously made 2D Mario games. But the question remained, what could be done to make their latest game different from those that had come before? This was especially difficult considering that two games were in development at once. The teams for both new Super Mario games shared ideas as they worked, meaning that unless each title had its own distinct theme, they would end up feeling very similar. It also didn't help that development equipment for the Wii U didn't really exist at the time. It was only as the team began pondering the potential uses for this upcoming new console that Masataka began to form ideas. The Wii U was essentially a successor to the DS, and there was one moment from developing the dual screened handheld that always stuck with Masataka. He remembered a big event that had been organised to publicise the DS. Huge crowds had gathered to try out Nintendo's latest creation, and the developers used this as an opportunity to watch how people reacted to the device. One child tried their hand at playing Yoshi's Touch and Go, a game in which the player needs to draw lines on the screen to help aid Yoshi in his adventures. The child was very small, probably only around two years old, and the game simply was too complicated for him. Masataka had always remanded this. He knew that if he was making a game for a brand new touchscreen device, he wanted it to have a mode that was accessible to everyone, even two-year-olds. He wondered about recycling this idea from Yoshi's Touch and Go, but making it simpler. What if, while one player rushed through the platforming level, another player could tap the screen to spawn blocks to help assist the first player? This seemed like an excellent use of the new console's unique hardware. It would allow two players to play together and give people of limited platforming experience a useful role in the gameplay. So Masataka consulted with Takashi about how this could work, and his team began building a prototype for the game before testing it out. Masataka's main fear was that the game would become too easy, that with an assistance spawning extra platforms, the player could bypass many of the game's big challenges. But it didn't turn out this way. As a few of the game's developers tried the mode out, Masataka realised his folly. These spawning platforms didn't make the game easier. Instead, they made it much, much harder. Because players began trying to sabotage each other. It became fun to spawn blocks in the way of other players, forcing them to take odd new routes. What in theory was a helpful tool became a lot more interesting, as it messed with the balance of power between two players. This seemed like a good step in the right direction. Takashi continued to guide the project. He liked this focus on the idea of people of every different level of experience being able to play together, with everyone bringing something important to the table. In many ways, it felt very similar to the core idea behind the Mario Cram School in the first place. No one player was more important than any other. Someone playing by tapping the Wii U gamepad was just as crucial to completing a level as the players who were hopping around on platforms. But making the game simple wasn't enough. To try to give a greater challenge to more experienced players, the team also added a punishing challenge mode, as well as other tweaks that made the game easy to play, but difficult to master. Finally, the game was complete. Takashi felt that new Super Mario Bros. U achieved its goal, by democratising the Super Mario play experience, allowing players of all skill levels to play together. The moral of this story is that teamwork means involving everyone. It's not just enough to draw on the experience of veterans who know what they're doing. A big part of working together is allowing outsiders with less practice to share their ideas as well. While the Mario Cram School allowed relative newcomers to Nintendo to learn the ropes of building a Mario game, it also allowed these team members to contribute fresh ideas that help make the gameplay more exciting. Building games from different Nintendo franchises had helped these players to learn new, original approaches to building classic Mario puzzles. We can all grow and learn together when we're willing to listen to each other, and rely on the strengths and skills of those around us, even and especially if they're not traditionally thought of as being relevant. Cherish your own talents. Your unique blend of skills and abilities means that you have a lot to offer, so long as you're willing to work with others who similarly deserve your respect. But this is only half the story. The Mario Cram School also produced new Super Mario Bros. 2 for the 2DS, and the development of this game is even more intriguing. Next week, concluding our trilogy on the Golden Triangle, we'll tell the story of the lunch meeting that inspired the focus of a brand new Mario game, and how one member of Nintendo's Dream Trio nearly tore the whole project apart. To be continued.