Dev Commentary Time! This Being The First Level I Ever Made For Retrush, You'd Probably Think It Comes

dev commentary time! this being the first level i ever made for retrush, you'd probably think it comes with the most changes of all. not so! it's mostly only had minor edits and tweaks in the last nine years. here's a comparison between the very first demo in 2014 and the final:

that said, there's three changes that are major enough to be worth mentioning! first off is that it was originally named Gelatin Grasses, which is a much more abstract name than the final. very kirby inspired, in case the "food/place" level names weren't obvious enough!

the second major change was this last section before the stairs – the old version was a flat plain dotted with enemies. it wasn't a case of novice level design, it had actual roots in the flat, enemy-covered levels of SMB1 (like 3-2)... but still, it was really boring!

the new section that replaces it was an attempt to make use of the available space for something more dynamic and freeform. it's a little more cramped than i wanted it to be, but i think i did a pretty good job giving the player the freedom to find their own route!

last up is the star shards! these didn't exist at all before last year. in the older versions of the game that Retrush started out in, something as complex as star shards were completely unthinkable! so these were "just" coins...

...coins with a twist, that is! these five coins were connected to region triggers, and when all five were collected, it would play a little sound, like in the NSMB games!

pretty neat, eh? long before star shards were even a thought, these little flourishes were always in the cards.

i could wax on about how the very oldest versions of Retrush had mushrooms and even 1-ups instead of stars... but we'll have more time to go over the meta stuff later, and this is plenty about this level for now. see you tomorrow!

Gelato Grasslands (1-1) | Retrush

Welcome back to familiar plains of bricks and pipes! This is a great place to get reacquainted with SMB1's physics and sense of momentum. With well-timed jumps, you can clear even the tallest pipes at full speed!

dev commentary time! easily one of the best-named levels in the whole pack, Fillet Fjords was another level that i nailed the layout of on my first try, meaning it really only got minor edits over the years. but there's a few meta things to talk about...

probably the biggest layout change was fixing an oversight – the player could get stuck falling in the water in some places, so i added some extra ledges. nothing revolutionary!

the water itself is one of my favorite series of animated tiles in the game, replicating the wavy effect often used on the genesis. all of these tiles were hand-edited to achieve that authentic look!

if you look closely at the edges of the tiles, you'll see the effect stops at the 16x16 tile boundary – this was an intentional decision, because having it bleed too far would mean dozens of extraneous animated tiles for every single edge case. besides, this looks plenty good!

the water was originally just a safety catch for platforming, with no plans to build routes around it... but after i made the remix, i realized i could open up this little passage to skip a key! you can see it in the video, i was pretty lucky to get it first try~

speaking of keys, they were practically designed for this level and Toffee Tracks. the original layouts used Portal-style switches, which you have to aim at and press a dedicated Use button. it works fine with a mouse, but it's finnicky with controller… and annoying on mobile!

the way each key opens a matching colored door was next to impossible in older versions of Mari0… long story short, custom elements like this aren't made with code, they use built-in behaviors. over time, the list of behaviors has grown into… well, something resembling code!

even back in the day, i knew the Portal-style switches were pretty meh, but i couldn't find anything better in-engine to replace them with. blessedly, taking nine years to finish this actually resulted in huge improvements to the engine – and Retrush itself, as a result!

i think a lot about those nine years, and whether the end result was worth all that time, and whether Retrush would've been better off released in 2015 as twelve weirdly inconsistent levels with no remixes...

but the engine is better now, and the mechanics are better now, and my own level design skill is better too. Retrush is better for having waited, even if the waiting wasn't always for the best reasons.

Fillet Fjords (3-1) | Retrush #Mari0

A freezing, flooded furrow of fish! The tiered terrain tests your jump control, with water to back you up if you fall. There's more enemies than usual, but you've learned a lot so far – you can keep your cool, right?

dev commentary time! did you know Retrush was originally planned to have just twelve levels? Dijon Dunes was not in the original plan, making it one of the last few main levels i worked on – and i think it shows how much i learned over time, cause it has great speedrun flow!

after i came up with the idea for remixes of the original 12 levels, i saw a vision in my head of a desert level whose remix is an underwater trench… and it was just TOO cool of an idea to pass up!

so i came up with a few more levels to pad out one more world, which of course means remixes for each one… and that's the story of how i overscoped this entire mappack from 12 levels to 32. oops!!!

and because it was made relatively late(ish), like 2017… that unfortunately means there's not really any cut content or beta layouts to show here.

instead, let's talk about why there's no slopes. isn't it a little weird that all the sandy dunes are squared off?

without getting too deep into the weeds, Mari0's collision system was not built to handle slopes, and every attempt at adding them over the years has been EXTREMELY hacky and unstable. retrush has no slopes because there were never any good slopes in the engine to begin with.

the versions of Mari0 i used technically had those hacky slopes, but they weren't worth using!… until a month or two ago, when Mari0: AE finally solved the problem and made great, robust slopes. a little too late for me to change the entire layout to add them, you know? ^^;

but! i remade Dijon Dunes in Super Mario Maker 2 when the game first came out as a test of its editor, and when i did, i added slopes. it's a neat alternate universe take on what could have been!

Dijon Dunes (1-3) | Retrush

This one's a technical, tricky trek across the desert and its ruins. The enemies here have a bone to pick with you – but if you get the drop on them first, the bounce will carry you over the sandy steps!

Almond Aquarium (2-4) | Retrush

This abandoned, run-down aquarium has been flooded with Cheep Cheeps and other scavengers. The portal gun can save LOTS of time swimming through the water tanks if you know where to use it!

dev commentary time! Nectarine Nocturne was also not in the original 12-level plan for Retrush. in fact, both it and Dijon Dunes were made to expand World 1 for a better learning curve and difficulty pacing! now that i've seen people play it, i think that was a smart move.

god, though, i REALLY struggled to make this level work. this was one of the slowest levels to put together – it was only about halfway done when i tabled Retrush in 2019 to start working full time, and coming back to it in 2022 was no easier.

i didn't scrap even a single platform because it was already hard enough to come up with ideas… i stuck by every decision and made it work somehow, even if the original execution started out awkward. editing existing levels is much easier than making new terrain from scratch…!

the final result plays beautifully, though, and i get excited anytime someone goes for the speed tech on their first try. it's a really fun and accessible level in that regard, especially as a follow up to the rest of the first world – i'm proud of myself for seeing it through!

this section is kind of a Mari0 signature of mine – the way the platforms get lower and lower as the blue gel keeps you bouncing high in the air. i've put it in like three mappacks at this point, and frankly, it hasn't gotten old ✨

one last thing! i struggled a bit with the art design on this level. in my attempts to make this level look sufficiently lively, i bounced around a couple of ideas that never saw the light of… er, night. like this ferris wheel background!

Nectarine Nocturne (1-4) | Retrush

Neon lights and gel-powered flights combine for a level that's almost as fun to watch as it is to play! The gels take time to master, but the shortcuts they create are super satisfying to pull off~

Dijon Dunes (1-3) | Retrush

This one's a technical, tricky trek across the desert and its ruins. The enemies here have a bone to pick with you – but if you get the drop on them first, the bounce will carry you over the sandy steps!