1 HN user recommended this documentary1 month2021–2023score 1
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026
HN mentions it for the game design history it contains and as part of a list of good gaming history channels.
A Gaming Historian documentary on the creation of Super Mario Bros. 3, the hype around its release and why it is regarded as one of the greatest games. It runs about 50 minutes in three parts.
“And at GDC, they talked about their Chemistry engine for BotW” (HN, 2023)
Your comment got me thinking: "Wouldn't be nice if existed an 'awesome list' for this kind of content?" After a brief google search the best I could find is this [0] and it seems to be abandoned. Does anyone know a better source for this type of content? I'm leaving some random links to great channels that produce this kind of content: - CGA Graphics - Not as bad as you thought! [1] - DVD-RAM: The Disc that Behaved like a Flash Drive [2] - The Story of Super Mario Bros. 3 | Gaming Historian [3] [0] - [link] [1] - [link] [2] - [link] [3] - [this video]
Gaming history channel listed among great channels.
There is also some footage about digitization/level design in this SMB3 documentary (they might be using the same sources though): [this video] The mouse with the crosshair is a nice idea!
SMB3 documentary footage on digitization and level design.
Yes, it's rare, but they have. Game maker's toolkit has one on how they solved their open world problem for BotW: - [link] And at GDC, they talked about their Chemistry engine for BotW: - [link] - [link] Game historian has some tidbits of how they made certain design decisions for their successful games Mario Kart: - [link] Super Mario World: - [link] Super Mario Bro 3: - [this video] GMT, Snowman, and Extra credit does analysis of how Nintendo designs their Mario levels. - [link] - [link] - [link] - [link] - [link] Generally, it follows the ramp up and down of the Hero's journey in storytelling. 1. Introduce a new mechanic in a safe area where it's impossible to die. 2. Increase the challenge with the mechanic by adding variations 3. Ramp up challenge even more by combining with previously learned mechanic 4. Have periods of rest inbetween the challenges.
Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.
Plays via YouTube's privacy-enhanced embed
3 Hacker News comments
From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.
Citations, criticism and jokes
Read more