People will often be surprised by what inspires various things in video games. You might think that a developer or publisher will attempt to “do everything their own way,” when in fact, they look at the games they’ve played recently, or that inspired their own journey into game development, and pull what they did…and then just tweak it a bit. An excellent example of this came from the designer of It Takes Two, the hit co-op title that won the 2022 “Game Of The Year” Award at The Game Awards. Filip Coulianos did an interview with Kiwi Talkz, and apparently, while the team was working on certain design elements, they referenced key Mario titles, stating:
“We had a bunch of guys in the design team who were very into Nintendo games, very into Super Mario and stuff. I was like, ‘dude this is not Half-life. What is this?’ Yeah sure, I played Super Mario 64 which I think is still absolutely amazing, and I think that the movement is still today incredible. The camera however, not so much. But that was like the first game that ever had it, so it’s fine. So we did a lot of studies, how does the camera work in the latest and greatest Mario.”
Should we really be surprised by this? After all, the game had some clear “Mario stylings,” but with a co-op twist. Plus, there were key platforming elements, and we all know the beloved plumber helped make the platformer stylish in all the ways that matter. Regardless, it was nice hearing Filip give credit where it was due, and given the sales and accolades for It Takes Two, pulling from the Nintendo hit franchise paid off.
Source: YouTube
