I admit, my philosophy of Mario platformer level design changed a lot from just two years ago and that there are certain things I once agree I now disagree and vice versa, let alone a few constants.

Here are some to get the conversation rolling.

- The first level not only should introduce basic mechanics of the player, but should be expositional to the plot of your 2D Mario creation. Sequels have more or less a license to have their levels be a refresher course on what you learned from a previous game.
- All gimmicks need to be implemented non-threateningly at first.
- Later levels should be an evolution and mutation of basic ideas seen earlier.
- Environmental themes are mostly there for asthetical reasons, though I do not disagree that it should pose its own unique hazards.
- There has to be a clearly-defined point b, no matter how confusing or long they can get.
- Most effective nonlinearity happens when you give the player choices in how they want to maneuver over an obstacle.
- If a level is long, be sure to make it interesting and fair to the player to play on, otherwise, either make it shorter or split sections into their own levels.
- Levels that are higher than their world's difficulty should be either placed at the end of the world, be in on an alternate path, moved to another world, or have their difficulty nerfed.
- Kaizo levels have their own rules of play.
- The minimum number levels for each World should be 4 (one level has to have a World boss, if not, then it must end with an iconic structure.)
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Edited by: TDW, Aug 14th, 2014 @ 5:27 pm