Adding Implied Details of Depth

Taxonomy of Virtual Spaces Part II

I continue to work on my platformer game expansion to my interactive Taxonomy of Virtual Spaces project. This overall project is being created to explore the aesthetics of primary geometry methods used when virtual spaces are projected onto a game screen in different visuo-spatial configurations.

World 1-1 in 3-D doesn't look that different from 2-D

The initial geometry I created for my platformer world was equal to World 1-1 of Super Mario Bros., but it all looked highly artificial from a perspectival view. I made several simple changes to the level objects to convey the implied dimensionality of the objects in the game based on how they are rendered.

This page references several original Super Mario Bros. design document images that have been shared by Nintendo through the Super Mario Bros. 30th Anniversary Special Interview, Iwata Asks Bonus 1: Ancient Documents from 1985, and an Asahi Shimbun article. These files have been preserved by Gaming Alexandria.

The path "width"

It seems odd to see the character running on a one-block wide pathway. Judging by the early SMB design document shown above, the "ground" layer might have had some visible depth, with receding lines drawn vertically on the screen in a vertical oblique projection (see this previous post for more analysis and comparison to other NES games). There is a sense that there is some foreground space in front of and some background space behind the character on the ground surface.

To mimic this look, I changed the ground elements to be 2 blocks deeps. Floating blocks in the image above do not have the same sort of receding lines, giving the impression that they are not as deep as the ground surface. I left those elements at 1 block deep.

The Warp Pipes

The green warp pipes are clearly intended to be cylinders, as they mimic both sewer pipes (a direct reference to the original Mario Bros.) and planter pots (with piranha plants growing out of them). All of the pipes are 2 blocks wide on the screen and thus, presumably, 2 blocks deep as well. The dithered shading and highlights imply a metal pipe painted green with a shiny paint. The direction of the highlight signifies that the light source is to the left of and behind the "camera."

My pipes are all now 2 block wide cylinders of varying heights. In perspectival view, the circular tops of the cylinders look unusual, but I have found that this is often the case when drawing a circle in 1-point perspective. This is little more than Unity's default perspective camera so far; I still need to add capabilities for other projection methods.

Stairblocks

These blocks are commonly used to make "staircase" patterns in SMB, such as a staircase leading to a platform at the end of a level, just before the flagpole. Unlike bricks and other blocks, stairblocks (so named in the official strategy guide How to Win at Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo, 1987)) appear to have beveled edges, with strong highlights on the upper and left edges and shadows on the lower and right edges.

To match this, I beveled the edges of the stairblocks in my world. The lighting also roughly matches the implied lighting of the original game.

Castle

World 1-1 ends with a two-section castle, over which fireworks may explode if the last digit of your timer is a 1, 3, or 6. The wider base of the castle appears to be a gatehouse with battlements across the top of the wall. Behind the gatehouse there appears to be a narrower and taller tower keep, also with battlements across the top of the wall.

The front face of this castle wall appears to be flat (like a brick wall) as opposed to round (like the warp pipes). The battlements on the far left and right side give the impression that the castle walls are 1/4 block thick. I created a roughly square gatehouse and a smaller, similar keep.

Conclusion

As far as gameplay goes, none of these changes have made any difference in the environment. All of the invisible colliders are exactly the same. In 2-D orthographic projection, the only differences are in lighting and shading: all of the shapes are exactly the same size on the screen. In 3-D perspectival view, this begins to feel more like a fleshed out world, even though many detail elements are missing (such as bushes, hills, and clouds).