Mario & Luigi | Brothership Devs on Getting the Right Look

During a new “Ask the Developer” interview with Nintendo, multiple Mario & Luigi: Brothership developers weighed in on the hardships of creating Mario’s new 3D look:

Mario & Luigi | Brothership Devs on Getting the Right Look:

Hitomi Furuta: Our challenge was to develop 3D visuals that would bring out the unique appeal of the Mario & Luigi series and differentiate it from other Mario games. I’m ashamed to say it, but we weren’t conscious of that when development started, which led to us making a huge detour. And in our search for a new Mario & Luigi style, at one point we ended up trying to present an edgier, more rugged Mario instead… (Laughs)

Then we received feedback from Nintendo that we should aim to make the art direction identifiable by fans as belonging to the Mario & Luigi series. After that, we were able to narrow down our focus to how we could combine two things: the appeal of illustrations featuring, for example, solid outlines and bold, black eyes, and the charm of pixel animations depicting the two characters moving around comically in all directions. I think that’s when we finally started to develop an art style that’s unique to this game.

These early concepts certainly do make Mario feel a bit different from the series so far.

Akira Otani: From Nintendo’s perspective reviewing the character designs, they gave the impression of something different that just resembled Mario. So we called for a meeting in order to reassess the direction.

Hitomi Furuta: During the meeting, Nintendo showed us a document describing what defines Mario and Luigi in the Mario & Luigi series. Although we’d enthusiastically pitched this rugged version of Mario, when I considered it from a player’s perspective, I started to worry about whether it really represented the Mario that players would want to play. So, when we got that clear direction from Nintendo, it made perfect sense to us. I think that’s when we realised for the first time, “Ah, this is what we should be aiming for this time in terms of a 3D visual style from Acquire”, and were able to establish the fundamental direction.

Haruyuki Ohashi: We had a strong desire to experiment with new visual styles, but they articulated their vision to us each time in a way that we found convincing.

Akira Otani: Yeah, it’s like we’d unleashed Acquire into the wild…only to go chasing after them again.

While we wanted Acquire to have their own unique style, we also wanted them to preserve what defines Mario. I think it was a period when we were experimenting with how those two things could coexist.

Haruyuki Ohashi: As mentioned earlier, Acquire has hardly ever created games with other companies’ characters, so we didn’t have an established process for this. That was truly a challenge we faced as we kicked off the development of this game. That said, we were able to course correct at the beginning of development by communicating in the way we just described.

Hitomi Furuta: On the artwork side, we struggled with how to embody the characteristics of Mario and Luigi in illustrations, and how to match the expressiveness of the original pixel graphics with 3D models. It’s technically difficult to apply styles that were made possible with pixels to 3D, and we made a lot of challenging requests to the character modelling and 3D motion teams. Also, we were set on incorporating drawn outlines, which is one of the characteristics of the series’ artwork.

From a technical perspective, achieving this in 3D can be CPU-intensive and limits what can be done visually, but we were determined to retain these outlines and made it our priority. Thanks to the perseverance of our character modelling lead, who has a deep passion for the Mario series, and our technical staff, we think that the art came together nicely.

Haruyuki Ohashi: Because we focused on the outlines, we were able to differentiate it from the way Mario is depicted in other action games and realised that we’d established something unique to this game.

Akira Otani: When the announcement trailer was first released in the Nintendo Direct, I saw the excitement from fans that the Mario & Luigi series was back, and I think this reaction can be credited to Acquire’s hard work. Not only were the 3D models brought closer to the style of 2D illustrations, but the animations also closely mirrored the movements from the pixel graphics in past Mario & Luigi games.

Hitomi Furuta: Our 3D motion team studied the series’ pixel graphics in a lot of detail to ensure its appeal would come through. They did a lot of research to depict the movements flawlessly from every angle while preserving the silliness of the pixel graphics. They didn’t just replicate the pixel graphics from previous games, they created a style of animation that’s unique to this game but stays faithful to the Mario & Luigi series.

When it came to Mario’s running animation, we also used Super Mario Odyssey as a reference, studying the feel of the controls closely. The 3D motion and programming teams were constantly tending to the game and kept making adjustments. For example, making it feel more satisfying for players through things like the responsiveness with which Mario’s body tilts when running around corners.

Haruyuki Ohashi: We alternated between working on something and asking Otani-san to try it out.

Hitomi Furuta: While it’s essential to get Mario’s look right, we realised that he’s a character for which the fun and satisfaction you feel through the controller as you’re playing as him are just as important.

For the full interview, why not click here to check out Ask the Developer Vol. 15, Mario & Luigi: Brothership – Chapter 2:

Ask the Developer | Mario & Luigi Brothership (Participating Developers)

• Akira Otani | Entertainment Planning & Development Division, Co-Production Group (Producer)
• Tomoki Fukushima | Entertainment Planning & Development Division, Co-Production Group (Associate Producer)
• Haruyuki Ohashi | Director, Acquire Corp.
• Hitomi Furuta | Designer, Acquire Corp. (Art Director)