Crossing the Split Pyramid

I wouldn't be where I am today without the Split Pyramid.  I'd say influences like it are pretty common in my industry - that is to say, Game Development - though most of my compatriots probably don't remember theirs in particular.  But mine was definitely the Split Pyramid.

What I'm referring to is the moment when you're looking at something and decide that there's more to it than it lets on, and that you understand it.  The sort of starting moment that leads up to a career, in hope or theory.  Certainly not universal, but again, "pretty common."  In my case it was the Split Pyramid, a block structure in Super Mario Bros Stage 1-1, which is an example of a Passive Tutorial.

How eponymous.

The Split Pyramid is found not long after the stage's midpoint, just past a crop of Goombas lined up to play target practice for your new Fire Flower.  It measures 10 x 4, with a 4 x 4 simple staircase on the left, followed by a two-block gap, and then a 4 x 4 descending staircase to the right.  There are no enemies climbing over it, no Koopa Troopas waiting to be exploited for infinite lives like the player will find further down the game.  It's just there, unguarded and untrapped.  The only remarkable thing about the Split Pyramid in and of itself is the bushes in the middle of it, like the designers felt they had to jazz the place up a little.  In isolation, there's no sign whatsoever to explain why the game designers decided to play with a random crop of blocks, like Alex Kidd would do a few years later.  At least Alex could break them.

But there's still something to this pyramid, though maybe you have to have the dexterity of a five year old to appreciate it.  Pull up a mental map of Stage 1-1.  C'mon, if you've read this far I think we can assume you've played Super Mario Bros like everyone else, I know you know it.  You start in an empty field, a hill to the left, and approach the first Goomba and set of question mark blocks.   Past that are some pipes, the first of which you can descend to some coins.  I'll talk more about SMB's opening moments some other day.  For now, keep going.  Soon both paths are past the pipes and we come to the first pit.  The next pit is larger, but a clever player can climb the blocks above to a gap of similar size to the previous, and at least up there you have a safety net.  Perhaps you can see where this is going?

That's right.  When I was five, I couldn't actually cross the Split Pyramid.  While it's the same width as the previous gaps - two blocks - it lacks the running room of the previous.  Mario's jump width at a walk is somewhere between two and three blocks, while at a run it's closer than eight.  Now assume that my five year-old self would let go of a jump early, or make the jump a block too late.  Either one of those two mistakes would be acceptable on the previous jumps if I hit them at a run, as the jump could be made from safety and clear the 2-block gap in safety.  But not the Split Pyramid.  The Split Pyramid gives you only enough room to run one space.  If I hit the jump a block too late, I'd have already fallen.  If tried to jump without running to avoid that, I probably wouldn't push hard enough to the right, and would miss the gap all the same.  Instead, I would fall in and crawl up the other side.

Totally did this on purpose.  Total, man.

This is all pertinent because of the next hazard on 1-1: the second Split Pyramid.  This one measures one block wider, with two blocks for new Mario players to build up their run, but at the cost of the safe zone in between.  Instead, there's a pit.  Can't do this simple jump?  You die, power-ups or not.  And I could not do that simple jump.  Not for my life.

But the magic moment wasn't in landing the jump, which I eventually did (after a day or two awestruck over my friend's dad, who could beat the level and would go on to get creamed by flying Cheap-Cheaps in 2-2).  No, the key point wasn't the jump, or the trap, but rather the first Split Pyramid.  Even as a kid, I came to realize exactly what on earth it was there for.  I'm sure you've worked it out by now too: it's there to teach you how to cross the second one.

My friend and I lamented SMB's inability to backtrack, since I realized that if we could just go back to the first pyramid over and over, we could practice the jump (obviously we could try to keep it on screen but you remember me saying I was incredibly sloppy at this, right?).  And that is assuredly the purpose of the first Split Pyramid.  It even explains the bushes: the bushes help you identify the gap as a safe spot before you can't go back.  You know you can fall in that gap.  You know as soon as you see the second pyramid that you can't fall in that gap.  And so the Split Pyramids become one of Mario's expertly-created Passive Tutorials: the game teaches you how to play it and identify its cues without actually coming up to tell you how to play it or identify its cues.

This blog is about game design.  Teaching, immersing, engaging, challenging and otherwise interacting with the player to convey the intended emotions.  If I can keep on-focus, it will be about the aspects of game design I understand the least, under the hope that if I talk about them out loud, maybe I'll hit the right notes.  As a result, until I find my comfort zone I'll probably be speaking about things from my level rather than, say, introductory.  In the meantime, just in case you wandered in here hoping to learn game design from scratch, I figured I had best redirect you to a more appropriate sources.

• Gamasutra.com - The game developer's news and hub website.
• GameCareerGuide.com - This is where you want to go if you want to do this for a living.
• HG101 - Encyclopedic entries on hundreds of games and franchises, listing what works for each and why.  With few low-quality or less-objective exceptions, this sort of objectivity is exactly the sort of way you want to start looking at games, both if you've heard of them and if you haven't.
• Kongregate.com - Kongregate hosts Flash and Unity games and has a site-wide Achievement system selected by a neutral source at the company.  Besides learning a thing-or-two about achievement design, more importantly grabbing achievements will force you to play games you wouldn't otherwise bother to play.  And I can't recommend that highly enough.  Branch out.  Kongregate's selection of high-quality "badged" games is a good way to start.