Continuing with the 2nd semester of the Mario Maker Workshop, the next week will focus on understanding player skill. We use the DKART system (dexterity, knowledge, adaptation, reflex, and timing) for evaluating the skill players can exert through their gameplay. This week is all about TIMING skills.

An important element, the essence... was the feeling of pressing buttons to exact timing. — Iwata

TIMING requires an awareness of the past, present, and future. It is the skill of comprehending many moments simultaneously. The history of music gives us a robust language for analyzing various timings. The magic of music is its essence is not found within a single note. And it's not found in all the notes together. The spaces between the notes are just as important as the notes themselves. Likewise, in video games, it's not just the times Mario has to jump to survive that are important. Every moment before and after, when Mario doesn't have to jump at all, are just as important.

Sub-Facets of TIMING

• Static / Simple — Any event, action, or situation where the timer is the same. Often times static timers are created through repetition.
• Complex — Any timer that is not simple. This includes off-beats, melody like rhythms, asymmetric input sequences, etc.
• Acceleration / Deceleration — Any timer (static or complex) that is repeated with increasing or decreasing tempo.
• Internal — A timing challenge that has no audio/visual/tactile stimuli to accurately judge the exact timing
• External — A timing challenge that has at least one audio/visual/tactile stimulus to accurately judge the timing
• Tracks — Processing two independent timer challenges or events simultaneously.

The DKART system and the sub-facets of these skills give us a framework to compare effortful activity. The sub-facets build on top of the established language of music. (see video above for more details on DKART TIMING).

Comparing classical music in all of its structural complexity to Mario level design has been the cornerstone of @KirbyKid's Mario design research. The combination of ridged presented structures (challenges players must overcome) within a flexible application (the many ways players can overcome them) creates an endless variety gameplay experiences that we can better compare to each other. Part of the fun is seeing how other people can get the job done.

In Wii Music, the melodies and rhythms of the songs aren't fixed. There's a basic and simple rhythm.... Within that broad framework, you can do whatever you want. ... it's like you're arranging the song yourself. You might see someone else elaborating on the same song and wonder how they did it. — Miyamoto

For Mario platforms we express our TIMING skill thusly...

• Static / Simple — Many elements in Mario move predictably making their motion a static timer. P Switch active time, bob-omb lit fuse time, and Yoshi's hatch time are all examples of elements with a fixed timer.
• Complex — Challenges that feature multiple moving elements tends to result in complex timers. Multiple fire bars alone can swing through the space creating a complex rhythm of openings. Enemies that interact with other enemies or the environment can easily upgrade their static timers to complex ones. A joy of Mario platforming involves changing timers from simple to complex and visa versa.
• Acceleration — The rhythm of Mario's moves can become accelerated depending on the course’s basic layout. Jumping over large gaps that steadily get smaller requires the player to accelerate their JUMP input rhythm.
• Internal — When elements move off screen, keeping track of their position requires internal timing. Also, memorizing and executing specific tricky jumps requires an internal sense of the timing for the inputs.
• External — The position of enemies and other elements are determined by their visuals making external timing the most stressed sub-facet of timing skill. Furthermore, elements like bob-ombs and snake blocks have additional visual tells. Video games are primarily designed around visual feedback.
• Tracks — In some advanced levels, players have to juggle multiple events with independent timers. But even a simple Koopa about to pop out of its shell combined with another timer challenge can stress this sub-facet. Mario challenges often multiple timers going on simultaneously.

To learn more about TIMING skills, the Workshop took on the final assignment for the semester.

Assignment #8: DKART - Timing

The challenge is to find examples in existing courses that stress a particular sub-facet of TIMING skills. For the DKART Bingo, we had to scan through 2D Super Mario Bros. platformers in search of gameplay challenges (big or small) that stressed a particular sub-facet. And like the previous assignments, we had to create a triple-spread of examples while increasing the stress of the skill.

Recap Stream for Week 10

An extemporaneous stream in which KirbyKid recaps the week in detail. Content includes a walk through the DKART: TIMING submissions for Assignment #8.