When it comes to New Super Mario Bros Wii mods, the quality and scope has only skyrocketed in recent years. There’s Beyond Super Mario Bros Wii, which reimagines the title as a Donkey Kong Country Returns style game with fully 3D modelled environments. There’s Infinite Mario Bros Wii, which adds a plethora of new enemies, world themes and mechanics, including those from the Mario Galaxy games and Kirby series.
And the list just goes on and on. Super Mario Bob-omb Blast, Super Mario Nightfall, Super Mario Bros Extreme Adventure… almost every week brings an ambitious new mod with dozens of new mechanics and ideas. It’s a great time for New Super Mario Bros fans, and one which provides fan projects on par or better than the official games.
With today’s interview subject being another fantastic example. Named New Super Mario Lost Worlds, it’s the 2D Mario adventure that fans of the RPGs and spinoffs have only previously dreamed of. With enemies like Shroobs and Tikis, world themes inspired by areas all across the franchise and even open world maps in a similar style to Super Mario 3D World, the game just gets better and better every time we look at it, with a level of ambitiousness and technical skill that puts even the likes of Newer Super Mario Bros Wii to shame.
So, today, we’re gonna ask the team all about it. To learn everything we can about New Super Mario Lost Worlds, and give it that nice bit of extra publicity in the wake of the New Super Mario Bros Modding Direct.
Let’s go!
The Interview
With our first question being about the team themselves. Who’s working on this game?
Nin0: Hi there! I am the founder of our project, mainly focussed on programming, organization, and a bit of everything else a game needs ^^
RedStoneMatt: Hi, I’m RedStoneMatt! I’m one of the early programmers of this mod, although I’ve been inactive for a while.
Ogu: Hey, I am another one of the many gears keeping this mod running. I am working on tools and core mechanics, but besides programming, I will also create maaaannnyyy levels for the players.
Synel: Hiiii! I’m also a programmer! I love making sprites and code stuff that the community could use in their mod and at some point Nin0 asked me if I wanted to join this adventure and there I am, really happy to be part of this!
The Captain: Hello! I’m the lead musician on the team. New Super Mario Lost Worlds is my first real project.
Zementblock: Hey there, I’m Zementblock. I’m making levels, models, animations, working on core mechanics, and improving the Reggie level editor.
Nin0: Our team is pretty dynamic. Over the years, a lot of people contributed to the project. Some moved on to other things, and others stayed with us long-term. Because of the scale of the game, we’re always bringing in new talent from the community. In total, about 80 people contributed directly or indirectly to the project. You can find a full list on our website at https://nin0.me/New-Super-Mario-Lost-Worlds/.
How did you get into gaming anyway?
RedStoneMatt: My parents bought me and my brother a DSi when I was around 6 or 7, I think? My first game was New Super Mario Bros. on that same system, in fact.
RedStoneMatt’s first game was the original New Super Mario Bros
Nin0: I also got a Nintendo DSi during my childhood as a birthday present, which marked the start of my gaming history. The various Mario games captivated me instantly. Among them also was a game that would later become a crucial part of the story in our project!
Ogu: I got early into gaming, with the Game Boy Color my mother used to have when I was around 5 years old. My first games were Super Mario Land and Tetris Blast xD
The Captain: My earliest memories of games include New Super Mario Bros. (DS), Minecraft, and even games like Super Mario Advance.
Zementblock: I got the NGC as my first console at a very young age together with my brothers.
Synel: I think the first console I got was actually a Nintendo 3DS with Nintendogs + Cats and then I loved it so much. Then I started playing different games like Animal Crossing, Tomodachi Life and then I got some Mario and Zelda games. I was a big fan of Nintendo as they seem to love making colourful games which is something I love too.
This (or one of its versions) was Synel’s first game
What games are you playing at the moment?
Nin0: Mostly Mario Kart World with friends and a handful of mobile games.
Nin0 is currently playing Mario Kart World
Synel: I recently finished Escape from Ever After, and I also play some Splatoon 3 and Mario Kart World from time to time.
RedStoneMatt: Hollow Knight: Silksong, when I have time.
Zementblock: I just recently completed the old Hollow Knight, to get ready for the new one. On Switch 2 I play Mario Kart World. I also play Halo occasionally. The new Donkey Kong and Metroid are on my plate. 🙂
Zementblock has just finished the original Hollow Knight
Ogu: Currently none unfortunately. The last game I played was Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Charmless and with the Demon Bell.
The Captain: I’m currently playing a lot of Minecraft and Super Mario Maker 2. I throw in the odd 3DS game when I’m really bored.
Are you a big fan of the 2D Mario series outside of mods?
Nin0: Yes, absolutely! I completed every 2D Mario since the DS era. Especially during my school time, I often played New Super Mario Bros. Wii with friends.
The Captain: I’ve played just about every mainline 2D Mario game there is, and I’ve gotta say: I’m a huge fan.
Ogu: Yes, I played almost all 2D Marios? NSMBW was my favourite though, I played it hundreds of hours over and over again. But NSMB DS is also veeerrryy good.
NSMB Wii is Ogu’s favourite 2D Mario game
Zementblock: Yes, I really love Nintendo for what they’ve created with their main Mario titles. I probably have played all of them. I’m also a big fan of the older games, especially SMW.
RedStoneMatt: Absolutely YES! I haven’t played them all, but I loved all of those I played, although Super Mario Bros. Wonder didn’t resonate with me as much as the others.
Synel: I would say yes and no. I’m a big fan of the 3D Mario games and I liked most of the 2D Mario games. However, New Super Mario Bros U and New Super Mario Bros 2, seemed less creative to me than previous titles. These games were more generic; they had less personality in my opinion. And then Super Mario Bros Wonder came out and oh my god it was really really good and fresh. So, I don’t really like a series of games, it’s more that I like individual games.
Synel’s interest in 2D Mario was restored with Super Mario Bros Wonder
Is New Super Mario Bros Wii your favourite game?
RedStoneMatt: Depends what “favourite” means. NSMBW is for sure the game I’ve been the most passionate with, but there were some games that blew my mind way more (SMG 1 & 2, Hollow Knight, Portal 1 & 2, …), and some games on which I have memories that I cherish much more (playing Professor Layton with my grandma, for example)
Ogu: No, I’ve got games I love more, i.e. Super Mario Galaxy 2, Elebits, Dark Souls, Sekiro, …
Nin0: That’s a hard question. I like various games of different genres. But New Super Mario Bros. Wii definitely is my favourite jump ‘n’ run game. I loved the game at first sight and I can still remember how much fun we had sabotaging each other when playing it in multiplayer during my childhood 😀
The Captain: While it was a large part of my childhood, I’m afraid the title of “favourite game” goes to Super Mario World.
Synel: Nah, it’s not, but it’s the first game that really intrigued me about how it was working “inside”, like how they made it; and I didn’t know what programming was back then but it made me want to understand how to make games.
Zementblock: I don’t have a single, most favourite game, album, or movie etc. However, I absolutely enjoyed Super Mario World ♥️, Sunshine, Galaxy, Bros. 3 and Odyssey, Zelda ALTTP or BotW, Mass Effect, Metroid Prime series, Halo 2/5, GTA 3/5, Bioshock, The Last of Us, God of War, and recently Hollow Knight! I deliberately left some out.
What got you into modding that game?
Zementblock: NSMBW was the second 2D game from the Mario series that was properly moddable with a level editor, after SMW and Lunar Magic. That caught my interest so I joined the GBAtemp group about NSMBW that would ultimately form the core members of the riivolution.net forum that was created soon after. I have modded other games before, the earliest one was probably Halo 2, where I modded the campaign.
Ogu: I always wanted to make my own Mario game. When I was a kid, I used to hang around on riivolution.net, saw some people making/announcing awesome mods, and then I wanted a piece of that too haha. I wanted to make THE best mod ever. So, I first started with Harder SMBW (never released) and another mod which never saw the light of the day unfortunately (you can see a pattern here xD) …
Synel: Definitely the motivation to understand how this game works. It was the first game that seemed to be “not too hard to mod”. Of course, it depends on what you want to do with it but I was really interested in doing some programming for that game from the start.
The Captain: I actually didn’t have any intentions on modding New Super Mario Bros. Wii. If anything, I wanted to mod New Super Mario Bros. 2 due to the lack of mods for that game. But Nin0 noticed my random music showcases in another Mario-focused server, DM’d me, and the rest is history.
Nin0: I can still remember how we invited The Captain. We were completely stuck on the music for our project until we stumbled upon his message saying they were looking to join a bigger project. The timing simply was perfect!
Personally, I started by modding Mario Kart Wii when I was around 14 years old. As my laptop at the time wasn’t able to run the tool to set up collisions, sadly my custom track never saw the light of the day. When I later found the open-source repository of Newer Super Mario Bros. Wii, I was intrigued to understand how they were able to bring so many custom things into the game and used my past experience to start my own NSMBW mod instead!
RedStoneMatt: As a kid, I had a lot of DS games and also played Rom hacks of New Super Mario Bros. such as “New Super Mario Bros. 3” by SKJmin. I played it, naively thinking it was a secret version of the game, until the day I understood it was a rom hack (which is, in fact, still in development). That got me into New Super Mario Bros. modding, which was made easy from the fact that the editor was super straightforward, since you just had to open the game’s ROM. However, I kept seeing NSMBW custom levels on YouTube, but I was completely unable to figure out how to extract the levels from the game and put the edited ones back in, as I didn’t speak English well enough yet to understand tutorials. Until that one fateful day I did figure it out.
Why New Super Mario Bros Wii rather than say, Super Mario 64 or Super Mario Bros Wonder?
Zementblock: Perhaps because of the availability of level editors early on for NSMBW. But to be honest, Wonder modding or modding a 3D game like Galaxy would also interest me and I have checked out the tools available for those games as well.
RedStoneMatt: SM64 forces you to know a lot of technical aspects of 3D aspects and programming that I didn’t have at the time. Plus, you essentially need to be a 3D artist to make anything that looks decent, whereas NSMBW level editing is something literally anyone can do. As for SMBW, I honestly feel like I’d get much less freedom than with NSMBW modding, considering it’s much easier to inject anything into a well documented 17 years old Wii game than a recent Nintendo Switch game.
Synel: Like RedStoneMatt said, the problem was understanding the technical aspects of 3D games and the little dumb girl I was back then wasn’t that smart so I came into the New Super Mario Bros Wii community. I’d like to mod Super Mario Bros Wonder someday but not before I’m done with what this game has to offer 😀
Nin0: When I started the project, I was still new to programming. So, without randomly coming across an existing project like Newer Super Mario Bros. Wii, I would probably have gone into programming completely new things instead of modding. NSMBW being my favourite jump ’n’ run game simply turned this into a perfect coincidence.
The Captain: After Nin0 messaged me about his New Super Mario Bros. Wii mod, that’s simply what I ended up working with. I’m totally up for modding other Mario games though!
Are there any other projects you’re really anticipating there?
Zementblock: Yeah, I watch the progress of all the major mods being developed in the NSMBW universe, there is a lot to see in the following years.
RedStoneMatt: Super Mario Bob-omb Blast, Super Mario Bros. Next, Infinite Wii.
The Captain: Yeah, Super Mario Bros. Next looks really good. Also looking forward to Beyond SMBWii!
Synel: Definitely Beyond SMBWii for me as well, as it looks really fresh, I won’t lie. 👀
Nin0: Next to the already mentioned, there are also projects such as Super Mario Nightfall, Super Mario Bros Extreme Adventure and Impending Doom, developed simultaneously by people on our team, which I am really looking forward to!
Either way, onto New Super Mario Lost Worlds now. What made you decide to start this game?
Nin0: Basically, a series of coincidences and childhood memories led to it. At the time I was looking for a new hobby and found the Newer Super Mario Bros. Wii repository. I was captivated by the idea of getting back into modding Wii games once more and learning how all of these things work.
RedStoneMatt: The project started around July 2020. At that time, I was working on my own mod Newer Super Mario Lost Lands. I cancelled that project in late September 2020, after which Nin0 asked me if he could take inspiration from that mod, including its name. I agreed, so long as proper credits were given. I eventually joined the team and programmed some things, mostly powerup-related. As of today, very few assets and pieces of code from Lost Lands remain in the game, but at least the name is close!
The Captain: I intended to start my own New Super Mario Bros. 2 mod, but Nin0 got to me first!
Zementblock: That’s quite a long time ago. Personally, I had helped out on various projects before, but not as a full member. And then there is also my own mod, The Pit of 100 Trials, which realistically will never be completed. So, I decided to join one major mod. And for many reasons, it simply had to be NSMLW.
Synel: Nin0 asked me to join his project because we already were working together on some sprites before it and I said yeah why not 😀
Ogu: I don’t even know anymore how I even ended up here haha. But at least I made a great friend with Nin0! (But seriously, only Nin0 might know how I ended up here)
Nin0: Haha. At some point Zement and RedStoneMatt told me about this German guy they always talk with and I asked them who that was and why he ain’t part of our team, that’s how we grabbed hold of you @Ogu 😀
Zementblock: 🙂
Did any other projects inspire you?
The Captain: Well, believe it or not, I was actually at one point working on New Super Mario Bros. Next around the time of the halloween hack release. Things didn’t work out at the time because my skills then were subpar. But the fact that I was on the team inspired me to try again later with something else when my skills had improved.
Synel: Newer Super Mario Bros Wii inspired me as it was the first mod I saw. I discovered it on YouTube when a random channel started playing it and I was like “Oh. My. God. I want to do that”. 😊
Zementblock: Here we definitely need to mention Newer Super Mario Bros. Wii, as it set the high standard of a full 8+ worlds mod with tons of custom things back when it was released. Other than that, I would mention Skawo, duplo, Mullkaw, B1, CLF78, Leplap, Weland, LiQ, joietyfull64, M&SG, and I surely forgot some.
Ogu: Regarding level design NSMBMe by joietyfull64, he was in my opinion single-handedly the best level designer this community ever saw but unfortunately, he left the community. He is probably my biggest inspiration with his unfinished but released mod NSMBMe. Many of the tilesets inside that mod “powered” the community for a long time. You should look the old trailer up; it is still online on YouTube! New Super Mario Bros by Me is possibly a mod everyone should get inspired by. I hope I didn’t sound like an absolute fanboy haha.
Nin0: We also take inspiration from various New Super Mario Bros. U mods, for example ideas for enemies or themes, allowing us to create more variety across our levels. For example, the cancelled mod Super Mario Evolution inspired us for some of our themes.
How did the title come about anyway?
RedStoneMatt: Well, there was inspiration from that aforementioned mod I was working on, right Nin0?
Nin0: Yeah, funny as it was, I did not know what to name the project in the beginning, so I was just working on “my mod” until I saw the title of RedStoneMatt’s project when he cancelled it and thought it would actually fit well with the story I had in mind. We then agreed on changing it just a bit, since the project would not become a direct continuation of the original mod.
What’s the story here? Based on what we’ve seen, we’d be surprised if it was just “Bowser kidnapped the princess, go save her”
Nin0: You are absolutely right! In fact, we mixed up roles quite a lot. You can play as Peach and Daisy in our project. There are many characters in unusual roles for a 2D mainline Mario game. But we don’t want to spoil too much, since opposed to the original game the story will play a bigger role in our project to progress through the game ^^
Do you have any plans to change how it’s presented in game? Like through new cutscenes, dialogue, etc?
Nin0: Our mod will feature both dialogue boxes and video cutscenes. We recently added THP support into the game, a well-documented video format used by many Nintendo games. You can see a preview of that here:
Synel: Dialogues? *wink* *wink* Yeah, I’m currently working on a paper Mario TTYD like dialogue system where the text would move around to make it fancier and to add a really nice and appealing detail. But that’s still work in progress haha. ^^
What’s with Baby Luigi being the main character in the videos? Are the baby bros the main characters now?
Nin0: One big change in our mod is that there is no longer a forced player 1 character. You can play as Baby Luigi or any of the other characters. We decided to use Baby Luigi because of multiple reasons, including the story, him being rarely used in mods until now and also because we had a huge Baby Luigi fan on our team haha 😀
Based on the concept art, it seems there’s a lot of stuff from spinoffs like Paper Mario, Mario & Luigi and Donkey Kong Country. Does this game aim to bring most of the Mario franchise together?
Concepts for NSMB Lost Worlds, showing models for Shroobs, Tikis, Boshi and other spinoff characters
The Captain: That’s a Nin0 question! Nin0 has always had big plans for this mod. Having so many series together in a single game like this always was a really big concept.
Ogu: Yeah! Nin0 is a VERY ambitious person, with sometimes crazy ideas… but I love them! So yeah, expect to see maaannnnyyyy things from different games outside the NSMB universe. We try our best to come up with many surprises and gotcha’s for the players.
Nin0: Originally our story would have included elements from “just” two spinoff titles, but many things came together over the years and we are now developing our project with the vision of interconnecting the majority of all the Mario stories into one big picture!
Is the main villain going to be from one of those series too?
The Captain: Yes, the main villain is from a spinoff series!
Are the graphics generally new?
The Captain: There are many custom assets made for the game, but the art style is generally close to the vanilla New Super Mario Bros. Wii game.
Nin0: We have a mix of new and original graphics. Especially, we aim to have many unique themes instead of reusing the same assets many times, to give each level a unique feeling!
Ogu: We just released our first trailer during this year’s NSMB Modding Direct, just take a look at it yourself:
If so, are they usually custom-made models and tilesets, or ones originating from other Nintendo games?
Zementblock: There are entirely new assets, some inspired from other games, and some that originate from other released mods or public sources.
Nin0: For tilesets and backgrounds, the majority is custom made. Some of them originate from other people and projects around the community, while others were created by various team members specifically for our project. Simultaneously, our newly introduced enemies are mostly known from existing games. So, while things are generally custom-made, we do take a lot of inspiration from existing games to create a natural environment which connects our story seamlessly into the Mario universe we all love!
What about the music? Is there a unique soundtrack here?
The Captain: Oh yes! Being that this is my first project ever, I really wanted to go all out with the soundtrack. There are lots of arrangements, but also lots of new songs composed just for New Super Mario Lost Worlds. This is the first time I’ve really pushed myself to learn how to compose, and I think everyone will enjoy what I have created.
If so, who’s composing it?
The Captain: That would be me! There have been a few others who came and went, but about 95% of the soundtrack has been made by me. (We’re always looking for more musicians, though!)
Nin0: I can’t express how grateful we are to have The Captain, singlehandedly stemming the work for so many different songs and all our requirements for them!
Any favourite songs so far?
The Captain: I’m a particular fan of the final level themes!
Zementblock: I love all the song snippets The Captain posts occasionally. They are really good and I’m excited to see them being used together with the levels and custom sprites.
How’s the game structured in general? Do you have the worlds planned out?
Zementblock: Yeah, all worlds and sub-worlds are already planned out and named!
Nin0: Our worlds are the pivotal point around which we designed all of our assets. There will be 8 main worlds and 4 smaller ones, making it larger than the original game. We are proud to see that around 8 of our maps are already modelled as well. Due to the huge amount of work involved, we could still take more helping hands for the remaining 4 though!
What about levels? Do you know how many there might be?
Zementblock: If we also count ambushes etc. as levels, then probably more than 120. But Nin0 can give a better answer here. 🙂
Nin0: We plan to have about 6-10 levels per world. Assuming an average of 7 we will probably have about 80-90 regular levels. As Zement said, every Super Mario game comes with bonus stages too though, so we will likely end up at more than 120 levels altogether!
One thing that’s rather interesting here is just how much ambition is present, with new enemies and mechanics galore. What made you decide to go that route?
Ogu: Nin0 wanted to deliver the full experience: custom graphics, models and mechanics. We want to show that almost everything is possible within the NSMBW framework. I am one of the programmers for NSMLW, but I am focused on more “system” level stuff. So, expect, besides new enemies, other cool things we are cooking up.
Nin0: Originally it honestly came down to underestimating the amount of effort all of this would take. Seeing how other teams managed to make huge changes to games simply inspired us to try the same. And as our team grew larger we more and more realized that together we actually could make the dream come true!
Is it difficult to add these things to NSMB Wii mods? I know they weren’t particularly common outside of Newer Super Mario Bros Wii for the longest time…
RedStoneMatt: While yes, very few released mods outside of NewerSMBW have made use of custom code, it is surprisingly not so difficult to add things like enemies and bosses, thanks to the amazing work of the Newer Team. However, it does become really difficult once you start talking about creating or editing core game mechanics, menus, player behaviour, etc.
Synel: It’s not easy, but easier than it was before. Many mods keep their code private, making learning really hard as there are only little examples. Personally, I personally didn’t want to make big mods from the start, I just wanted to make some sprites and learn some programming stuff. At some point I started releasing my work so other mods could use them instead of it just rotting on my computer. And then others started doing the same. I hope to see this trend continue on like that! It also makes good examples for people that would like to learn how to do this, because right now, there aren’t a lot of tutorials and examples of how to get started.
And is it easier or more common now? Seems like custom programming and mechanics are way more common in NSMB hacks than they used to be.
RedStoneMatt: It is both easier and more common. Some time ago, there was a surge of new programmers joining the community, and since then a collaboration has formed to document the game more thoroughly, making programming for it more accessible than it used to be.
Zementblock: Yeah, it is still not easy, but with more and better tools published, and in general more programming expertise available now, it has become more common to add custom code, or at least re-use modules that others have written.
Regardless, what are some of your favourite additions so far?
Ogu: I really like the custom player behaviour every character has, so every playable character plays a bit differently in a unique way. But there are even cooler things I cannot talk about yet. Expect some pretty cool things from us. Stay tuned haha!
Zementblock: The utility sprites are my favourites, like the Game State Event, Actor Spawner Path Controller (you could make an entire mod with this sprite alone), Universal Reconfigurator, etc.
The Captain: I’m actually a fan of the custom voices for each player. That’s apparently a thing that hasn’t been (easily) doable until recently. That, and the ability to have multi-track songs, which can switch between tracks in real time inside a level!
Synel: Yeah! I think the stream event controller is my favourite one too. In some games the music dynamically changes depending on the context, like what the player is doing, where they are, etc. So, I added a sprite that does exactly that. Depending on some actions and/or situations you can trigger this sprite to make the music change like you want.
Nin0: I especially love our huge collection of sprites designed specifically for our various themes, allowing us to introduce fully new mechanics into all of our levels!
Any ideas that didn’t quite work out?
Ogu: Until now? No, we make everything work ^^
The Captain: Not yet, fortunately.
Zementblock: While a few sprites still have problems, I am confident we can fix those, as we could for everything so far!
How are the bosses being handled here? Do you plan to make each of them unique to this mod?
Nin0: As we try to connect our story into the bigger Mario universe, you will see various characters from existing games come together in a unique way to challenge the players in our custom boss fights!
And uh, how difficult are they going to be?
Zementblock: They won’t be Hollow Knight difficulty, but they will be considerably more difficult than the retail bosses, which we all know are a bit too easy for any experienced player!
What’s the map like? Based on a few videos, it seems like free overworld movement is a thing here…
Nin0: That’s right, we are experimenting with free world movement as for example seen in Super Mario 3D World. However, our map will be split into separate models per world like the original game, but their themes will seamlessly connect them together!
Does this mean 3D World style maps could be a possibility now?
Ogu: Yes, thanks to the beautiful work of LiQ and Nin0.
Nin0: While one huge map at the scale of the map in 3D World might be challenging due to the hardware limitations of the Wii, we do plan to have smaller free walking areas in multiple worlds. Future mods may use our work and switch to this new system entirely opposed to strict paths to follow though!
Either way, the game’s been well-received so far, with plenty of interest in the custom mechanics and ideas. How does that make you feel?
Ogu: Personally, I am hyped haha. But I think I talk for all of us when I say that positive feedback motivates us even more to create the best experience possible for the players!
The Captain: I’m honestly a bit nervous. As my first project, I really want to show that I can handle such tasks and handle them well. I hope my work will be enjoyable!
Zementblock: I am thankful that we have Nin0, who holds everything together. This gives me confidence for the future of NSMLW, as every big mod needs such a person. Overall, I’m proud to be on this team!
Is there ever any pressure to make things truly insane there?
Ogu: Of course, again, we want to come up with some big bangers! As I mentioned before, I am also programming tools, used for developing the mod, which will also be available to the community when they are finished. There are some completely new tools, like our BRSAR editor called pysar. Because I always want things to be as perfect as possible, I feel a lot of pressure, but I am glad to see the release of this tool happening soon!
The Captain: From a music perspective, I wanted to make songs that made you feel really cool. I made many decisions in my music that you may not really hear in any official Nintendo music, especially Mario music. I hope it stands out in a good way, and that people come back to the soundtrack for repeated listens.
Zementblock: Anything other than creating truly insane levels will not be an option!
How far into development is the project? It seems like the levels haven’t been started yet…
The Captain: Well, for better or for worse we keep adding new things, which took a lot of our time so far. Adding to that, level design takes a lot of work to get right. Everyone remembers a good level, but bad levels can taint a whole game, so things really must be planned out properly!
Nin0: For that reason, our approach during the development of this project was to build things from the ground up. That means we started with programming new enemies, creating tilesets and backgrounds, as well as music for our levels first, before actually creating the levels. In our first trailer you can see some of our very first levels, that are a result of us completing a good chunk of our planned assets. If I had to put it into numbers, I would say we are at least at 80% regarding custom enemies, tilesets, backgrounds and music. Next, we plan to focus on programming and creating the remaining boss fights and world map models, before then finishing the project by creating all our remaining levels!
Zementblock: In anticipation of that, I’m currently implementing a “Quick Paint Tool” for Reggie, similar to the terrain-aware painting tool from the Super Mario Maker series. This will be available to the public as well!
Nin0: So, while it is true there are few levels yet, we are nearing the stage where this will finally change!
Do you have an intended release date in mind?
Nin0: No. When I first started the project, I assumed it would take at most 3 years to finish, which was more than 5 years ago. Ever since I joined the community, I saw the rise and fall of many ambitious projects and learned that announcing a release date before we are sure we can even make it until then will just cause lots of disappointment on all ends. We will only announce a release date the moment the project is in a state of just needing some finishing touches. Until then I can only urge people to help and join us if they want to see the mod release just one day earlier!
What about a demo release?
Nin0: We currently don’t plan to release a demo. Creating a demo would require us to invest time we believe to be better spent in completing the project altogether. However, in the past there were many level contests in the community to see who can create the coolest levels. We are considering holding such contests in the near future based on some of our assets, to turn our mod into a community project. If we truly decide to do so, you might be able to see some sneak peeks before the release of our mod!
Assuming everything goes well, do you have any other ROM hack plans after this?
RedStoneMatt: I truthfully have no idea. I would say no, but every single time I have, I ended up starting a new project anyway.
Ogu: No haha. I honestly left the community back in 2018 to focus on my studies. Only NSMLW keeps me still interested honestly. So, after NSMLW, I will definitely not work on anything again.
The Captain: It seems there are not any active plans for a sequel, but I’m not confident in saying that. We’ll see how things go, and we’ll go from there. I’ve already told Nin0 I’d be up for a sequel!
Zementblock: No not really, that might be too far into the future.
But I think it’s ok to have other projects running in parallel with NSMLW. Not really ROM hacks though, that might be too much. I think that many of the team members develop other tools, while also working on NSMLW, which is a nice combination.
Nin0: After we finish this project, I will take some time off. I think I will go try new things in life again, see what else is out there. But I definitely would love to see more projects come to life, and who knows, maybe we will all gather together once more in the future! Working with this team marked many of my most enjoyable moments in life! ^^
Finally, what advice would you give someone looking to get in NSMBW modding, or game development as a whole?
Ogu: Just do it. Try out everything, and SHOW the people your work. Get criticism, improve, learn new things, be persistent… Honestly, if you work hard, you will end up with a nice result. But you need to be ready to sacrifice time. So don’t make it a full-time job. It is a hobby. A hobby which should be fun. So don’t overwork yourself.
RedStoneMatt: Making a good NSMBW mod isn’t as easy as it might look, and considering it’s a very niche discipline, it’s gonna take you months if not years to be able to release something decent. The best advice I can give is to listen to constructive criticism, and to not let hateful criticism get into your head. In terms of game development as a whole, I’d say one shouldn’t be too ambitious when you’re still a beginner, because that idea of yours that you think will take you two to three years to develop may very well take you seven to ten instead, or get scrapped completely from lack of motivation.
Synel: You can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs. If you want to do it, then give it a try. Of course, everything won’t go as planned but time won’t be wasted as each error will make you learn something. It won’t be a work of only a few days, it will be a process of multiple months at least, years for many. And if you’re really interested and motivated, you’ll get there no problem. Obviously, it stays as a hobby, it’s not a full-time job so like Ogu said, don’t overwork yourself. And don’t be ashamed of your mistakes, everyone followed this path before you and look where they are today, and someday it will be you. ^^
The Captain: It’s a lot of work. It’s not something you can start and finish within, like, a month. You should try to get a team of individuals skilled in various specialties related to game development, and spread the work load evenly. Make a plan, and stick to it the best you can. But most of all: Try.
Zementblock: I like to give the advice to start out simple, just doing single levels first. Most people don’t really do that — just open Reggie and design a few levels. You can then ramp up the difficulty, replace more and more assets, and maybe try to create an entire world. At that point, people can then really think about game development in general. They can try to build or join a team to fulfil their dreams. Each department, like tileset editing, music, etc., needs a lot of expertise, so people really need to make sure they choose the right scope for their mod and be up for learning new things!
Nin0: There isn’t much left to add, so I will just say this: try to play in a team. If your dream is big, share it with others and make it come true together. Showcase your passion and skills and let others join you on the journey. Together everything is possible!
Thanks guys, there’s some great advice right there. Personally I’d say the comments about persistence, listening to constructive criticism and ramping up the complexity of your projects are the most important parts, since as you say yourself, a decent video game mod or ROM hack is a ton of work. Add this to how many of these fanworks are free projects done in people’s spare time as a hobby, and well, a decently sized game can easily be a multi-year if not decade long affair.
It’s a major reason many of these projects get cancelled or the dev team loses interest. They realise the workload is far higher than they ever imagined, and learn that most people aren’t going to stick around to see their ambitions through. It’s a bit like becoming an indie dev or YouTuber, except without the monetary jackpot carrot at the end to lure people to stick around.
So, it’s definitely a type of project that’ll appeal to certain people more than others, and which rewards people that are almost fanatically devoted to their game and vision.
I’d also say it’s one of those things where teams are a weirdly mixed bag.
On the one hand, as the Captain said, it’s unlikely you’ll be an expert at everything relating to game development, and your chances are certainly better if you can get a good team behind you here. Having people that are specifically good at art, music, programming and game design does give a project better odds of success than having to take care of everything yourself.
At the same time though, it’s also quite risky too. Game development is a long, often tedious process without any immediate payback, and a lot of creatives will get burnt out and lose interest because of that. Plenty of amateur game development projects die because one or more members of the team go awol midway through the development process, or because people get into arguments about the game’s direction and fall out.
Hence a good team is a boon for this sort of project, while a bad one can just as easily tear it apart.
Regardless, thanks for the interview everyone! It was really interesting learning more about New Super Mario Lost Worlds, and your words have only made us more excited for the finished game. Congrats on the awesome work so far, and we’ll keep an eye on the game right up to the day its release.
Still, what did you think? Did you enjoy the interview? Did we ask the right questions here?
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