People get introduced into the world of video game design, music and art in different ways. But I’ve been surprised to discover how many people got into it the same way I did; through a little Super Nintendo cart called Mario Paint, released back in 1992. This was my first introduction into the world of tracker programs for making synthesized music as well as learning how the pixel artwork of early video game systems was created.
It turns out, I’m not alone. Lots of well-known flash animators – including the Chapman brothers of Homestar Runner fame – got their start making little derpy animations in Mario Paint. The program features a pixel-level editor, tiling system, basic animation functions and most importantly, a tracker-like song creation program that let you put together a basic piece of music using provided samples. It came with a mouse, which was just a weird thing to have with a console game at that time. Continue Reading…