Yamamura's Dojo



Yamamura's Dojo is a Dojo for players that can view lessons on how to make courses. Yamamura and his assistant Nina teach the player when viewing a lesson. Maker lessons come from three categories: Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced. Players can also view Mario's moves on all game styles. In the Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World game styles, players can view how to use the Super Leaf or Cape Feather. The background music is from the World 1 map of Super Mario 3D World.

Maker Basics
Yamamura: ''Coo. (In this introductory lession, we'll cover the basics of making courses.)

Nina: ''The basics are REALLY important, so you should probably pay close attention. The mode we're in right now is called Course Maker.''

Yamamura: ''Coo. (First, we'll expain how to place parts. "Parts" are the various elements you can place in a course.)''

Nina: ''The menu that runs along the top of the screen is called the Palette. This magnifying glass button is the best way to find parts. Tapping it will open the parts menu. The parts menu is where you'll choose which parts you want to put in your level. You can place a part in your level by touching the spot you want to place it. All right, let's practice by placing a ? Block. Good job with those ''? Blocks''. Very...creative.''

Yamamura: ''Coo, coo. (Keep in mind that there's a limit to how many parts you can place in a course.) Coo..coo. coo coo. (As you can see...parts you recently placed will appear along the Palette for later use.) Coo coo, cooo. (You can quickly check out the parts you placed by running a test.)

Nina: ''Go ahead and touch the Play button to test your level. If your test didn't go so well, try moving your parts around. To do that, let's touch the Make button to go back to edit mode.

Yamamura: ''Coo coo coo, coo coo. (After placing parts in edit mode, it's good to quickly test to make sure they're set up right.) Coo coo, coo. (Keep repeating the edit-test process to make your course.)

Nina: ''Next we'll explain how to erase parts. Press this button to go into erase mode.''

Yamamura: ''Coooo coo. (When in erase mode, simply touch parts to erase them.)

Nina: ''OK, let's mess around with erase mode for a little while. YOU MONSTER! Those ? Blocks had families! But don't worry-their pain is only temporary. Because we have Undodog on our side! Just hit the button, and this good boy will undo the last action you made. Now then, let's just go ahead and undo our last...action. YAY! The ? Blocks that you brutally erased are back! You're a hero! (Kind of...). Moving right along... Let's talk about some other tools that'll come in handy. Press /  to activate multigrab and copy.

Yamamura: ''Coo coo coo. (This enables you to move many parts at once and copy parts that you've placed.)

Nina: ''And now for something incredibly handy... The Reset Rocket! Press and hold this button to instantly destroy the world.

Yamamura: ''Coo coo. (To be clear, it will erase all of the parts from your course so you can start fresh.) Coo coo. (Let's move somewhere with a lot of parts so we can test it out.)]

Nina: ''OK, go ahead and hold down the ignition button. Congratulations. You ruined everything.

Yamamura: ''Coo coo. (Well then, I guess that's all for the basics of Course Maker.)

Nina: ''Oh! But first I should probably tell you how to save. Press this button to sace or load levels that you've made. "Save early, save often," I always say. Welp...That's it for the basics of Course Maker!''

Intro to Making
Yamamura: ''Coo, coo coooo. (Before we start making courses. I should probably explain what a "course" is.)

Nina: ''Courses? Where I'm from we call 'em levels!''

Yamamura: ''coo, COO, coo... (Last time I checked, this was YAMAMURA's Dojo. We call them courses here...) Coo... Coo cucoo. (Ahem... A course is the space that Mario travels across from the starting point all the way to the goal.) Coo coo coo, coo, Coo. (On his way to the goal, he'll likely encounter various obstacles and enemies. Let's take a look.) Coo coo. (Courses always begin from the starting point.) Coo coo. (From here, Mario will head toward the goal.) Coo coo coo, coo. (If he can make it all the way to the goal, he'll clear the course.) Coo coo. (In short, the course is everything between the start point and the goal.) Coo coo, coo. That's a basic overview of courses, though I'm sure it's old news to anyone who's played a Mario game before.)''

Nina: Have fun making levels!

Workflow Basics
Yamamura: ''Coo coo. (If you haven't played Super Mario Maker before, you might not know the first thing about making a course.) Coo. (So we are going to show you how.)

Nina: ''Wait... We're gonna make an entire level? Like...right now?

Yamamura: Coo coo. (Yes. We are going to create a simple course.)

Nina: ''Aww yeah! Take it away, Kawamura!''

Yamamura: ''COO! Coo coo? (MY NAME IS YAMAMURA! All right, let's start with some terrain, shall we?) Cooo coo. (Next, we'll make some platforms that force Mario to jump.) Coo, coo. (OK, Nina. Please test the course of me.)

Nina: Easy peasy!

Yamamura: Coo coo. (Indeed. Now I'll go ahead and build until the goal.)

Nina: ''You have a lot of Ground in there. Hoe about an enemy or two to spice things up?''

Yamamura: Coo. (Good idea, human. I'll add some Goombas and Koopa Troopas.) Coo. Coo. (OK, give it a shot, Nina.)

Nina: ''Nice. It was definitely harder than the first half.''

Yamamura: ''Coo, coo coo. (Most enemies move, which forces the player to have good timing.} Coo coo. (When making a course, think about how you want the player to feel during each moment.)

Nina: Placing and erasing parts is a snap, so unleash your inner mad scientist!

On Inspiration
Nina: Sometimes making a level can feel overwhelming because there are just so many options!

Yamamura: ''Coo, coo coo. (In times like that, it helps to have some kind of inspiration for the course you're making.) Coo, coo. (So let's talk about different sources of inspiration.) Coo, coo coo. (The area you see here is a simple series of platforms for Mario to jump on.) Cooo coo? (So what can we do to make this area more exciting?)

Nina: ''Ooh! Place an enemy on the highest platform! Then maybe the enemy will drop down to challenge Mario.''

Yamamura: ''Coo. (Very well. Let's try putting an enemy there.) Coo coo, coo. (The single Goomba made this area slightly more challenging.)''

Nina: ''Pshh. One Goomba? Wake me up when there's a real challenge.

Yamamura: ''Coo, coo? (You want more enemies, do you?) Coo, coo. (There you go, Nina.)''

Nina: You're one sick bird...

Yamamura: Coo, coo cooo. (There's a lesson to be learned here. You must strive for balance in all things.) Cooo, coo coo. (As you may guessed, I used stairs as my inspiration for this area.) Coo coo. (Now we'll change areas and look at another source of inspiration.)

Nina: ''Whoa! It looks like a house!''

Yamamura: ''Coo cooo, coo. (Yes, Mimicking the shapes of objects can be a great source of inspiration.) Coo coo coo. (Recognizable objects allow you to establish a theme and give your course a story.)

Nina: Yeah, like what if this house was turned into an enemy hideout?!

Yamamura: ''Coo. (A fine idea.) Coo, coo coo. (To make this feel like an enemy hideout, I added a variety of enemies and obstacles.) coo, coo coo. (As you can see, thinking about the story you want your course to tell makes it feel much more inspired.) Coo, coo? (This area looks much more unique than an area that's nothing but Ground, don't you think?)

Nina: ''Yeah, all of the Pipes here make this area look awesome!

Yamamura: ''Coo, coo. (Up until now, we've been talking about using inspiration to shape the terrain.) Coo. (But you can also develop a theme for your course by using primarily one type of object or enemy.)

Nina: ''In other words, instead of throwing a disconnected jumble of parts into your level, try using a few parts you like in creative ways!

Yamamura: ''Coo. coo. (Exactly. There are no rules to making a course, but try to put thought into which parts you're using.)