The Mathematics Of Mega Man
Game maker Akira Kitamura, who once worked for Capcom, was interviewed for a behind-the-scenes Mega Man fanbook called the Rockman Maniax Collection. The book only came out in Japan in 2011, and a fan translation wasn’t made until recently. Kitamura worked as main planner for the Mega Man series, and in the interview he revealed a LOT about the process. What follows is the level of thought and detail it takes to create the average Blue Bomber platformer, which is more precise and calculated than you might think: Kitamura: Two of my personal goals for Mega Man were to create a game where all the stages could be cleared in an hour, and to make something that players would want to come back to again and again. To that end, I actually calculated the total number of stages by measuring Mega Man’s walking speed and seeing how long it would take to get through each stage. I then split that up so that the first half of the game would