The Birth of Mario: How the World’s Greatest Game Franchise Came to Be
Miyamoto originally named the character “Mr. Video”, and he was to be used in every video game Miyamoto developed.[7] According to a widely circulated story, during localization of Donkey Kong for North American audiences, Nintendo of America’s warehouse landlord Mario Segale confronted its then-president Minoru Arakawa, demanding back rent. Following a heated argument in which the Nintendo employees eventually convinced Segale he would be paid, they opted to name the character in the game Mario after him.[8][9]
Miyamoto commented that if he had named Mario “Mr. Video”, Mario likely would have “disappeared off the face of the Earth.”[6] By Miyamoto’s own account, Mario’s profession was chosen to fit with the game design. Since Donkey Kong was set on a construction site, Mario was made into a carpenter. When he appeared again in Mario Bros., it was decided he should be a plumber, since a lot of the game is played in underground settings.[10] Mario’s character design, particularly his large nose, draws on western influences; once he became a plumber, Miyamoto decided to “put him in New York” and make him Italian,[10] lightheartedly attributing Mario’s nationality to his mustache.[11] Other sources have Mario’s profession chosen to be carpenter in an effort to depict the character as an ordinary hard worker, and make it easier for players to identify with the him.[12] After a colleague suggested that Mario more closely resembled a plumber, Miyamoto changed Mario’s profession accordingly and developed Mario Bros.,[4] featuring the character in the sewers of New York City.[13]
Due to the graphical limitations of arcade hardware at the time, Miyamoto clothed the character in red overalls and a blue shirt to contrast against each other and the background. A cap was added to let Miyamoto avoid drawing the character’s hairstyle, forehead, and eyebrows, as well as to circumvent the issue of animating his hair as he jumped.[4][10] To make him appear human onscreen despite his small size, Mario was given distinct features, prominently a large nose and a mustache, which avoided the need to draw a mouth and facial expressions on the small onscreen character.[14]
I love how every single aspect of Mario’s character exists for a reason, but there was no big master plan behind him… Every part of Mario got picked for a practical reason.
On a smaller scale check out the Chop Chop games for a successful “microfranchise” on the iPhone: http://gamerizon.com/games/
