Would you like to play Mario 64 in HD? With a bit of luck you can - Aryok Piñera is re-creating the game in the Blender game engine and it looks absolutely stunning!
Aryok writes:
Hi, I'm a big fan of Super Mario 64, that's why I'm remaking the game, it will be a very difficult task, but I'm putting all my effort to achieve it. I will need all the feedback from you guys, especially if you're a speed runner.
I'll be interviewing Aryok shortly - if you have any questions for him, leave them in a comment!
You can follow Aryok's progress on his YouTube channel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RA-aXpl6f8s
22 Comments
Do you think such a Mario game would be easier to reproduce in Unity3D, or Blender? I don't have any experience in either one. Currently I just use Blender for modeling.
Depends on the developer, really.
I think Unity is a bit easier for complete beginners, only for the fact that you can get a quick prototype up, there's a lot more documentation to walk you through your first game in Unity, and running faster sooner without touching very much coding (which you'll do in C#, and there are tons of pre-made assets available to aid with faster development. You can also use blend. files in Unity to import models in Unity, though textures till have to be applied manually.
I think Blender is probably harder for beginners to use, but more rewarding and a lot more freeing in ways. You'll have to rely on coding a lot more, but Python's pretty easy to learn (it's the coding concepts that are a bit trickier to learn over time, but still, there's plenty of documentation and tutorials around for such).
awesome
As a massive fan of Mario 64 I can instantly see the attention to detail he's put in the animation, movement and mario character modelling. This could be a stunning remake!
Brilliant! this is super amazing! the things you can do with blender continues to blow my mind!
I can't wait to see the finished work!
I do have a question, if they can be answered here,
Is he working on this alone?
I am totally exhausted after watching that. I held my breath the whole time in case Mario fell off the platforms. Great fun.
I wonder if he knows about Super Blender Galaxy ... http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?205853-Super-Blender-Galaxy-(DEMO-RELEASE!!!!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGqyvX4P6Pg
I was thinking the same thing. Also, Nintendo sent the developer a letter to cease and desist development of that game. Thats why it was left in such a incomplete state.
Really? So sad... Is there any chance this might happen with the Mario 64 attempt? I hope not, as Mario 64 being ported to Blender (BGE) would be one of the best advertising the engine have ever received. The current progress of the attempt is already an astounding success!!!
Good advertising or not, it would still be a very controversial way of doing it. Appropriating Nintendo's top intellectual property would be akin to the incident when those folks in China tried to rebrand Blender as "Illusion Mage" or "3D Magix" and advertise it by recreating (stealing) the work of other Blender artists (and they stole well-known published artwork from Maya users, et. al., as well for use in their ad campaign.) Wouldn't be a smart thing to do, following the Illusion Mage model.
Good point! What you just said helped me to understand that, as good as
it appears to be, the "game recreating" model has a lot of practical
limitations. However I wonder whether the only "trouble-free" way to
advertise the BGE is through original content creation only or if there
are other ways to achive this. I mean, there has to be a way in-between.
Nonetheless, thanks for the clarification!
It's not quite the same copyright-wise, as this is all self-created content (admittedly copying the aesthetic design, gameplay and characterisation of Mario and therefore infringing Trade Marks), whereas the Chinese rebranding was essentially stealing other people's code and images and passing them off as their own.
I would say that that's almost a certainty. As soon as they see this, expect a cease and desist. I'd strongly suggest changing the assets to use non nintendo proprties. After they notice, it'll probably be too late.
Looks very funny, I want to play it......
IMHO there's no sense in recreating Super Mario 64 on Blender, it has to be a new adventure for anyone to become interested.
I understand your point. From a gamer's point of view a new adventure would be both more interesting and exciting. However, a recreation of a game, specially a very renowned one, would serve as a testimonial to whichever engine used in the implementation (as well as the programmer's abilities). In this case I think it would make perfect sense.
Nonetheless, I think both Mario and Sonic (and, why not, Megaman) franchises would greatly benefit from some new (and well thought) adventures.
Does he have permission from the Game Owner to do this?
Very, very good advertising for Blender (BGE)! Congratulations, incredible achievement so far!
lotta work for one person... all those sets to recreate, etc...
and then to not even be able to make money off it?
you're a young guy, probably... I spent a lot of time at the computer
in my day and all I really got from it was hand and wrist pain from the
mouse and hip and back pain from the chair... a warning to all you geeks
that you might want to spend your time doing something that is going to
strengthen your body AND fill your wallet, but good luck just the same...
Awesome! I'm a big fan and I was just recently searching for something exactly like this to see if anyone had done it. Glad to see it exists! I'm super excited to try it out.
This looks pretty impressive, can't wait to see the full thing!
I hope you don't get problems with the Copyright :)
I have Super Mario 64 on my Mac with Sixtyforce to run it. I still play that old game even today to run it in blender I hope to see the multi-system controller, view finder and textures improved...... everything else's seems ok. so that we still get the old movement and style the old game had/has today