Kishotenketsu: The Nintendo formula for level design

Kishotenketsu is a narrative structure used in Asian literature and prominent in four panel japanese comics. This structure is defined as follows (src: Wikipedia):

• Introduction (ki): Topic toss or introduction, what characters appear, era, and other important information for understanding the setting of the story.
• Development (shō): Receives or follows on from the introduction and leads to the twist in the story. Major changes do not occur.
• Twist (ten): Turn or twist to another, new or unknown topic. This is the crux of the story, which is also referred to as the yama (ヤマ?) or climax. It has the biggest twist in the story.
• Conclusion (ketsu): Resultant, also referred to as the ochi (落ち?) or ending, it wraps up the story by bringing it to its conclusion.

Nintendo has been using this structure to design the levels of some of their best games by decades now. It seems this concept was introduced in the company by almighty videogame god Shigeru Myamoto and has been polished through the years.

The levels in Mario games usually focus on a main mechanic and develop it through the level, making the player understand it and gain knowledge about it until they usually master it by the end of the level. This mechanic can be an ability of the player like the spin jump in SMW, a powerUp like the feather, an obstacle, or even combinations of simple elements. It is also important to note that usually there is a mechanical progression in Mario games as well: the player may be introduced to some simple mechanics in World 1 and later those mechanics can return in a later part of the world to serve as the foundation or part of a new main mechanic. This is one of the reasons why Mario games flow so well, because all the necessary concepts are gradually introduced and have their time to shine before more tricky concepts appear.

Applied to level design, Kishotenketsu results in something like this:

• Introduction (ki): Presentation of the level´s main mechanic. The player is provided a safe place to use it and understand it with no risk of suffering any penalty.
• Development (shō): The main mechanic is developed and presented in different ways, making the player learn and understand different concepts around it and develop the skills relared to this mechanic.
• Twist (ten): The mechanic is used in an unexpected way, thanks to the addition of other elements or by any modifications that turn it upside out. The player must use his knowledge of the mechanic to find a new solution to the proposed challenge.
• Conclusion (ketsu): The conclusion of the level will usually present a hard-ish challenge requiring mastery of the main mechanic to beat it. In later Mario games like 3D Land and 3D World these challenges are usually optional, have no penalty and are placed right before the goal. They are used to reach the top of the goal, but if you fail/skip them you can still beat the level and receive no penalty like harm or death. Another way to look at it is as subversion: the player may need to look at the mechanic in a totally different way, maybe trying not to use it to get through that last challenge, thus showing he´s totally understood how the mechanic works.

This is a nice formula to set the main structure of a level before designing the detailed parts and will be used in Kitsune extensively.