Development of the Super Mario Galaxy series

The development of Super Mario Galaxy began after the completion of the GameCube video game Donkey Kong Jungle Beat, presumably sometime in 2005. The developer, Nintendo EAD Tokyo, was asked by Shigeru Miyamoto to develop the new major Nintendo game. One of the team members suggested they make the next Mario game, and Miyamoto whole-heartedly agreed. The developer, while new, consisted of some veteran video game designer. The director, Yoshiaki Koizumi, had previously worked on games such asSuper Mario 64, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, and Super Mario Sunshine as director or co-director.

Super Mario Galaxy was officially announced during E3 of 2006, though the night before images of the game and the logo were released without Nintendo's permission. Speculation began on what this game was going to deliver, and their questions were answered the next day. The game was planned to be released within the Wii's launch window, though they were forced to move the release date to November of 2007 - a year after the Wii was launched. This wasn't particularly surprising considering Nintendo's tendency to delay their prominent titles. Upon release, the game sold well, much more than Super Mario Sunshine, and had excessively long legs, appearing in the top 50 for years.

Super Mario 64
Super Mario 64 clearly played a large role in the influence of Super Mario Galaxy. Being part of the same series, this is not surprising. The whole concept of collecting stars originated from this game, and was used in Super Mario Sunshine (which, rather than stars, used Shine Sprites). The game featured a primary hub world from which all of the other levels are connected. The hub world, Princess Peach's Castle, was itself used in the beginning and end of Super Mario Galaxy, which likewise featured a hub world (the Astral Observatory). Super Mario 64 was directed by Shigeru Miyamoto and co-directed by Takashi Tezuka and Koizumi Yoshiaki. Yoshiaki went on to direct Super Mario Sunshine and, of course, Super Mario Galaxy. Shigeru Miyamoto played a large role as well as the concept creator and producer. Takashi Tezuka, while still one of the general managers of all of Nintendo's EAD divisions, didn't play a role in the development of Super Mario Galaxy.

Koizumi Yoshiaki created Mario's 3D model and programmed a few of the actions to make sure it felt new and unlike anything gamers have ever experienced before. He explained that Miyamoto, who led the project, had numerous of clear and sometimes unclear demands. Once during development at 2 AM when everyone excluding Koizumi and Miyamoto had left Miyamoto couldn't express his desires for Mario's motions while swimming so he acted them out by pretending to swim on his chair so that Koizumi could understand exactly what he was talking about. Koizumi explained that one of the most appealing things to work on in 3D games is the camera. Introduced in Super Mario 64, it was impressive for its time though is dated by today's standards, Sunshine's camera was accordingly 4 times better, and Galaxy nearly perfected the camera controls.

Super Mario 128
Super Mario 128 was a game that was shown before the GameCube's launch to show the console's capabilities. Many thought that the game would be the title for the next game in the series, though ultimately they opted for Super Mario Sunshine. People within Nintendo promised that Super Mario 128 was still coming, and many expected it to be a last hurrah for the GameCube, though that role was essentially taken by The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Little is known about Super Mario 128 other than its immense importance on four of Nintendo's video games, including Pikmin, Metroid Prime, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, and of course Super Mario Galaxy.

The name of Super Mario 128 was coined by Miyamoto in an interview held by Nintendo Power in early 1997. He used it referring to a sequel to Super Mario 64, which had revolutionized video games thanks to its camera, 3D perspective, and use of the innovative joystick. The name was possibly given due to 64+64 equaling 128.

In 2000 Nintendo showcased Super Mario 128 as a tech demo for the GameCube. In it, they showed the power of the GameCube by having 128 characters (all Mario) moving on the screen at once. The characters were moving underneath the UFO like platform indicating that it was a planetoid like structure with its own noteworthy gravity. The next year Nintendo announced that Super Mario Sunshine was going to be the first Mario game for the GameCube, and that Mario 128 was, while being put on the shelf, going to be implemented in other video games. The first game was Pikmin, which incorporated the idea of having many characters on the screen at once. The physics technology used in the game was put into Metroid Prime, while sphere walking found its way in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Super Mario Galaxy, however, was the game that was influenced by it the most. The physics and sphere walking, two of the most prominent features in Galaxy, were both used in the game.

Interestingly, Koizumi, director of Galaxy, directed this tech demo as well.

Announcement
The game was officially announced during the Nintendo press conference of 2006 at E3 in May. Nintendo had said on the record that a new Mario game was being developed for a Nintendo console, though virtually nothing was known about the title. During the press conference, Super Mario Galaxy was revealed subsequently after Miyamoto revealed titles such as Excite Trucks and Wii Music, among other games. Galaxy was accompanied by applause, though it was unfortunately mixed in with a bunch of other titles so it didn't get as much screen time as some other games such as Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. During the event, Miyamoto announced that the game would be released within six months of the Wii launch, and game producer Shimizu thought that they'd be able to do it, but this was not the case. The tension was so intense to get the game done, though they had to make sure that it was of the utmost quality. Shimizu stated that if Super Mario Galaxy hadn't received good reviews, they thought that they may close down the Tokyo office.

The beginning and Miyamoto's involvement
In 2005 after Donkey Kong Jungle Beat was completed by Yoshiaki and his team in Tokyo, Miyamoto went down to Tokyo to discuss what their next project would be. Some of the team wanted to create a new game that was light, though Miyamoto, looking disappointed, said that he had wished they would make a game from one of Nintendo's already developed franchises. One of the younger members on the team then enthusiastically suggested that the team make the next Mario game. Miyamoto liked the idea, and the fact that the co-director of Super Mario 64 and director of Super Mario Sunshine (Yoshiaki) was on the team, it would mean the project would go more smoothly than it would if an outsider was on the team.

The team in Tokyo made the Super Mario Revolutions idea which outlined their overall goals (more on that in the "Spherical worlds" section). Koizumi explained that he viewed himself as a cook showing his team a recipe for a dish to create. his team, however, felt that they would never be able to create what he was asking, despite Miyamoto saying that it looked good. So, Koizumi decided to gather a group of a few key staff members so that they could, for three months, make a prototype of what he was thinking so that he could show it to the rest of his staff. It was during this time that he officially decided to make the game in outer space due to it being the only appropriate place for planets with their own gravity to be. So, they created a prototype that even included gravity. When this project was finished, the rest of the team had a clear view of what they were looking to create.

Koizumi took his cook analogy further, explaining that he sent him samples of what they have created, and Miyamoto would send responses explaining what they could do better. And eventually Miyamoto came down to Tokyo, which he explained as a restaurant, so that he could test every thing they've implemented in the game. Miyamoto explained that these test sessions were very nerve racking for him since he felt that if he performed bad, the rest of the team would be wondering why someone who couldn't play games were giving them tips on how to make them.

Regarding Miyamoto, Iwata said that he only asked Miyamoto to do one thing, which was to only do what he was capable of doing, and to make sure that the game would best represent what the Wii was all about. Even then, Miyamoto would work on days when no one else was, sending e-mails to producer asking him to change certain aspects. Shimizu said that it felt as if Miyamoto, despite being hundreds of miles away, was in Tokyo with the team. He also explained that Miyamoto would occasionally come down to Tokyo despite them having a program set up so that people at NCL could play it in Kyoto.

Koizumi said that there were multiple times when he and Miyamoto disagreed on points. Sometimes they would go with what Koizumi said, though other times they went with Miyamoto. It seems as if Miyamoto usually got his way, once telling Koizumi to "trust what the old guy says!" when they were working on a game long before Galaxy. While he was aggravated that he didn't get his way, he found himself using the same words when talking with the younger members of the team of Galaxy.

Shimizu stated that during development, he acted as a "sickness sensor". Many Japanese people, according to Shimizu, get motion sickness when camera angles are constantly changing and when they make the angles extravagant. He said that Miyamoto wouldn't listen to him when he said that he would get sick after Miyamoto said that they needed to make the angles more fantastic, though that when the play tester said they got sick, he told them that he'll fix it. Regarding play testers, the developers and Iwata explain that there was an astonishing amount of them to make sure that the game they were developing was of the highest quality available.

Spherical worlds
Nintendo EAD Tokyo made a spec sheet that they titled Super Mario Revolutions, named after the Nintendo Revolution (codename of the WIi). In it the team described the idea of a spherical world that Nintendo explored but barely touched on in the Super Mario 128 tech demo. He said that in a regular 3D playing field, you may be able to walk quite a long way though there will always be a wall that will halt your progress and make you turn around. Doing that will cause the camera to switch the direction and mess the player up, though in this concept the idea was to allow Mario to go around the entire sphere, meaning no restrictions on where the player can go and no camera alterations that would cause the player to mess up. He said that the play field he created would never end and thus the player wouldn't need to constantly adjust the camera, a criticized point that was made regarding Super Mario Sunshine.

Koizumi did have doubts regarding the idea. He said that Mario 128 was a bit more doable since the planetoid was in the shape of a flying saucer, while in Galaxy they were planning on using more spherical planets (coupled with other oddly shaped objects, including ones that were in the shape of a flying saucer). He explained that in order to make spherical planets that could freely be roamed by Mario, the team would be required to possess a high level of technical abilities. Though, at the same time, he felt that his team would love to overcome this most challenging task.

Satoru Iwata, president of Nintendo, stated that Miyamoto had told him about the spherical idea before Mario 128 was even released. He said that he didn't quite understand how having spherical worlds would improve the gameplay and how the game would benefit from it. Though as the game started to take form, he began to see Miyamoto's vision and understood it. Koizumi felt the same way, and didn't know if making spheres would be worth the astonishing amount of effort that it would require from the team. He continued, saying that this was probably the mutual thought from many of the team members in Tokyo. He said that despite this, Miyamoto was determined to make sure that it would happen.

Mario's moves
Mario's basic moves remain the same as they were in previous games, such as jumping and ducking and such. Though the developers have added a few new moves. One such move is the spin, which is performed by swinging the Wii Remote. Koizumi always thought it was too challenging to jump on a character in a 3D space compared to 2D platform. Thus with the spin you are able to knock a character out and then jump on it. Originally spinning was done by rotating the joystick on the Nunchuk, though it proved to be a bit of a challenge, so they switched it to swinging the Wii Remote, which according to Koizumi was more intuitive. There are many advantages that spinning has over jumping, especially on the spherical based stages, where its much more challenging to jump on enemies. Thus, on these stages the run and spin are the most prominent actions, though on the stages where it's a bit more flat, the jump is used more. Koizumi explained that if there wasn't any jumping, it certainly wouldn't be a Mario game at all.

Shimizu said that originally the player could spin as long as they wanted by constantly shaking the Wii Remote. The developers in Tokyo didn't see the fault in this, though Miyamoto saw that it became too easy to simply defeat enemies by constantly spinning, so he proposed that after you spin, a small pause is initiated so that you'll have to face the enemies' attacks. But, after doing this, the developers were required to change the balance of all the enemies and even the bosses because of this slight alteration that Miyamoto did. Koizumi explained that thanks to him, however, they were able to tighten the everything better.

Staff
The staff was one of the biggest ever to work on a Mario game. Many of the people had worked on the series before, though for some it was the first time. Mr. Aoyagi (who worked on the gravity and enemy/boss programming), for example, had never worked on a game in the series before, and when he as put on the team his goal was to figure out what the essence of Mario is.