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Over the course of Devs Make Mario, we've commissioned stages from all types of game developers — from an NES-era industry legend to a physics game designer to a studio known for party games. The variety of stages we've seen has been incredible — which is why this week we've asked visual novelist Christine Love, best known for VNs like Digital: A Love Story and Analog: A Hate Story, to try her hand at building a Super Mario Maker level.
It might like no genre could be further removed from the Mario-style 2D platformer than the visual novel — at least, at first glance. But in the above video, Christine points out the surprising parallels (some facetious, some not) between level design and constructing a VN. The resulting stage: "The Rime of the Ancient Plumber," a challenging, often hilarious level with some unusual narrative quirks, not to mention an additional layer of literal narrative in the form of occasional Miiverse comments written by Christine herself.
The Course ID for Christine's stage is 587B-0000-00E3-1938 — give it a shot and let us know what you thought of it in the comments below.
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 - "Haru")
