How to Design a Good Puzzle Level in Super Mario Maker 2!

Puzzle stages are by far the most difficult levels to design in Super Mario Maker 2. Normal Super Mario Maker 2 levels are just so much easier to playtest, to design and to get working than puzzles are. But playing a great designed puzzle stage in Super Mario Maker 2 is also one of the most rewarding experiences out there.
But what does a good Super Mario Maker 2 puzzle stage actually look like, how do we design great puzzles, what are some traps to avoid, and most of all, how do we even approach designing a single puzzle in the first place? In this video we are going to take a closer look at how to create great puzzle stages in Super Mario Maker 2.

--- Super Mario Maker 2 Level shown in the Video:
The Dangerous Deku Tree
007-KWC-6NG

--------------------Credits for the Music--------------------------
Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga OST - Teehee Valley
Super Mario Sunshine OST - Bianco Hills

------Holfix
HolFix - Beyond The Kingdom

------Kevin MacLeod
"Adventure Meme", “The Builder”, “Amazing Plan”
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

[Camkitsune]

2:18
*OBJECTION!*
This puzzle's _design_ is actually perfect.
There is an obvious problem(door is too high), an obvious solution (the spring), and something confounding the obvious solution (the spring is too far away to use).
If a player didn't already know that Mario can carry springs, this would be the perfect way to teach that mechanic to the player; games like _Baba Is You_ and _The Witness_ are full of these incredibly simple puzzles to establish basic mechanics in a way that will prime the player to look back on them in later puzzles.

The problem is that by this point in the Super Mario series, most players are already going to be aware of this simple fact, so the puzzle appears tedious. It can, however, be used as part of a series of escalating 'carry the spring' puzzles.
However, even then, this puzzle can still serve a purpose!
If the next room involved a labyrinthine death trap with a seemingly inconsequential spring by the entrance, the player would be much more likely to assume that they need to carry that spring to the end of said death trap without further prompting. This innocuous little puzzle therefore makes it that much easier to iterate on a theme of 'carry the spring' in a series of puzzles because of that simple priming mechanic.

[D__]

When it comes down to it, troll levels are just puzzle levels with a bit of deception and a lot of death,

[ItsTrinton]

Two things I wish would be done by every puzzle maker: 1)do not require knowledge from outside the level (glitch or mechanic you didn't teach). 2) no soft locks (make wrong answers reset-able).

[the_rabidsquirel]

"Remember something puzzles" are what I love so much about Zelda games. It's always so cool when you get the next item from a dungeon and see what it does, and then you're trying to remember all the places in the world you've seen where you can use the new item to get various treasure. Link to the Past is one of my favorites, and I still remember some of those moments, like getting the flippers and then trying to remember everywhere you might be able to get heart pieces now that you can swim.

[megadaddysean]

Petition for Nintendo to add Ceave’s “Hooray” sound effect into the game.

[friskdreemurr]

There was only one Suprisingly Simple on this episode:

10:57

[lemonsok]

from now on I’m calling school an “evil learning chamber”

[charliechimento]

Hi Ceave! I hope you are well, and I hope those real-life problems get solved! Take your time, please! I love your videos!

[minerharry]

I absolutely love this video. It is a systematic and rigorous approach to something many creators feel is unapproachable, and is a wonderful dive into not just how creators make puzzles (although that as well), but what a puzzle itself is.

[EviEviE]

"When link got added, puzzle levels started to *SPIKE* up"

[micahlehrke]

I don't own the game or the system, yet I still enjoy these videos. I'm




Puzzled.

Not sorry.

[levithend]

13:36 "but after a while our arrow-shooting not-a-plumber" ceave i absolutely love the way you call things

[chamtheman]

Hey Ceave just want to say that your level in SMM2 was absolutely amazing and that it must've been very hard to make it AND the vid. I can't imagine the work you put into these masterpieces!

[midasmagnezone]

0:24 "Basically, the arrival of Link, caused a *spike* in puzzle levels."
I'm not sure if that was a pun or not.

[crunchyduck]

Hey Ceave! I'd like to start off with a huge thank you for this video in particular. It's helped me in a pretty unexpected way.
I've actually never played Mario Maker... Or any Mario game for that matter. But I've always watched your content for you delivery and explanations.
For the past week, I've been stuck on how I should start a puzzle game I'm working on. I just couldn't crack how I should frame my game elements so that they could be expanded upon easily. The way you lay it out here is exactly what I needed though - Viewing things not as unique puzzles every time, but as clearly defined nodes, that have a problem and a solution, locks and keys.

I'll be sure to give a little bit of credit to you if I some how get far enough in this for that to matter :)

[Sigma-xbkn]

What I would also classify as a noteworthy puzzle would be the 'seemingly impossible puzzle'. You are given a very obvious and easy solution to a problem (An on-off-block needs to be triggered to disable a red wall blocking the path to a door) however trying to solve it that way causes another problem (Triggering the on-off-block activates a blue wall, trapping you near the on-off-block). Solving one problem causes the other, making it seemingly impossible to solve the puzzle. The solution generally is to trigger the main mechanism from a distance (Using a shell against the on-off-block near the red wall at the door).

[petery]

It feels like it has been so long since we have had a Ceave video

[arrestedeffort]

As someone who recently started making puzzle stages, this video helped a lot in giving me ideas for future levels! I just want to find a way to implement some of those ideas in unique ways so that the puzzles feel fresh and not like something anyone's played hundreds of times before.

[kitthekat]

*Have someone playtest your puzzles!*
For you, it might look simple, because you *made* the puzzle, you know the solution. But for someone else, it could take them ages due to errors in the puzzle, or it's too confusing, or it's too complicated...

[pokestep]

Ceave, the reason I love your videos is the thinking and explanation process, and I believe a lot of others do so too, but I've not seen anyone voice it.



The way you think about things and analyze them - breaking up the way puzzle levels are created, the types, how to chain things, etc. - is super good to help others learn. I love and do so myself, but not with games; here I see all of this applied within a game, as a way to make it more fun and enjoyable, and I think that is great.

You also structure the videos in a really nice way, so they are logical, there is a progression, so it really teaches you something (if you let it), which not many people know how to do. Plenty creators can make great levels but they would not be able to explain it just as well, or it's just a lot of figuring out and randomness, but I like to see this thought process.


So, thanks for the great content! I love thinking about things and figuring them out and explaining them, and I really appreciate the quality your videos have.



(Yes, I just analyzed your video where you analyze stuff haha. That's what I do lol.)