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Michael "Kayin" O'Reilly may not be a household name, but if you have any interest in the masocore scene or indie games in general, you've probably heard of his masterpiece, I Wanna Be The Guy. The game, along with its sequel, I Wanna Be The Guy: Gaiden, is more than just a challenging platformer — it's a cruel, willfully deceptive game built around manipulating the player's trust and breaking its own rules, often to hilarious effect.
After multiple requests from commenters both here on Polygon and on our YouTube channel, we finally asked Kayin if he'd be interested in applying his unique level design skills to Nintendo's Super Mario Maker in our Devs Make Mario series. He said yes, so last week we paid a visit to Kayin's Long Island home and spent some time documenting his level design process.
Above, watch Kayin discuss how he built his level (appropriately titled "Frog Fractions 2"), a devious reimagining of Super Mario Bros.' opening stage, World 1-1, that plays with player expectation, trust and deception in all the ways you'd expect from the man who brought us IWBTG.
If you'd like to play Kayin's stage, the Course ID is FD23-0000-00AA-636E — give it a try and see if you can find the solution without the help of our video walkthrough. (Trust us, it's much more satisfying that way.) For more from Kayin, follow him on Twitter at @KayinNasaki, or check out his dev blog kayin.moe, where he chronicles the development of post-IWBTG projects like Brave Earth.
Got a game developer you'd like to see try their hand at Mario Maker? Let us know in the comments and they may appear in a future episode!
(Music: NΣΣT - "Hanabi")
