Abdel’s Mario + Cartoons = Perfection

Meet Abdel! He’s part of our Accelerate program here at Game-U, and he works with Zack, one of our instructors. Ever wish you could create your own game, just to fill it with things you love? Ever feel convinced that you have a great idea that should be shared with everyone? Abdel did! Since he loves Mario (who doesn’t?!?), and cartoons (again, who doesn’t?!?), he decided to take those two things and design a chocolate-and-peanut butter quality game combo. Abdel created a Mario game that uses cartoon characters, like Dora the Explorer, as enemies and collectibles. Now that’s pretty awesome! So is the work that Abdel put into the project. Games don’t just work because someone has a great idea – games work because their designers, like Abdel, invest a lot of effort into coding even simple game events like defeating enemies. To make the game playable, Abdel and his instructor taught the game to understand what triggers make Mario jump or go forward, what jumping on an enemy means to the enemy and the game score, and what a losing game looks like on the screen. Next lesson, they’re going to work on giving Mario moving platforms to use! Check out their progress so far in the video, and stay tuned for more updates. We’re looking forward to playing your game, Abdel!