3. Stage Builder

Simply stated, the Stage Builder enables players to build their own stages. Just like the name says, right? (laughs) (See document) By combining several different components, like platforms, the width of the stage, and traps, players are free, to a certain extent, to create their own stages. They can upload these stages to Nintendo’s server, where it is then sent to other players. In other words, once each day, a new stage made by someone somewhere can be sent to your Wii.

And the stages sent in this way then disappear.

Right. We figured making these stages available for just one day would make it more interesting.

Treasuring every encounter, right?

Right. We wanted players to look forward to these encounters.

And, if the stages piled up, it would be difficult to choose from such an endless supply. I think it’s the right decision considering that players have a limited amount of time to play games.

Right. I thought it would be easier to understand and more fun if a new stage was available for play everyday. Personally, I’m a fan of having new experiences each time you play.

I see.

Ultimately, I think the reason for bringing people together to play via the Internet is to make each gaming experience unique. After all, the incentives for going online to view blogs that are continually updated and those that are not are very different.

I agree. But the required time and effort increases when you try and make something like that. Enabling players to design their own stages, upload them to the server and then send them to other Wii consoles, well, it’s clear doing things like that will be pretty difficult.

You can say that again. (laughs) At the same time, however, these are things you can accomplish with the right amount of effort and it’s not something that you can’t do if you find the help and build the system.

So it’s not impossible.

Right. The more effort you invest, the bigger the payoff in terms of fun. This is true of exchanging Snapshots too; players come up with forms of gameplay that we would never think of on our own. In this way, our resources are limited only by the number of our players, and it would be a waste not to let players enjoy the ideas of other players.

I agree. Nowadays, just looking at the Mii Contest Channel shows how the ideas of our players outpace our own.

Right.

I’m truly impressed by Wii players. They come up with ways to play and use Wii that would never occur to us.

Another reason we incorporated the Stage Builder was simply to make it possible for players to get more out of the stages. In Smash Bros. Melee, for example, Big Blue and Poké Floats were known as challenging stages to play.

It’s not that they were hard per se, but there were so many formidable obstacles that caused the unexpected to happen.

Exactly! (laughs) This time around, however, we refrained from using many stages like these. The backgrounds might change dramatically, but most large walls and ceilings were removed since we were aiming for simple, easy-to-maneuver stages. Yet, part of the appeal of the Smash Bros. series is that the unexpected can happen on more extreme stages. It would feel wrong if these challenging stages were missing from this title, so we decided to use the Stage Builder as a means of filling the gap.

I see. In addition to offering conventional stages with standard play, you were hoping that players would make stages encouraging a high degree of improvisation.

Exactly. We wanted players to make some messed up stages for others to try.