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Breakdown: Super Mario dev team size by game

6

69wpm

Member
Just read an article (in German) on nintendo-online.de which highlights the dev team size of every Super Mario game. Unsurprisingly SM3DW has the biggest one.

43z8Jsf.png


Maybe somebody has time to translate interesting bits, I sadly don't right now.

PS: In two weeks the same site will release an article about The Legend of Zelda.

Edit: Updated graph with a good one. Thanks Evon.
 
Wow that's an interesting chart if true.

Why did SMB2 have more people working on it than SMB3?

And the NSMB titles have as many people working on them as the modern 3D games? What the fuck? o_0


Does this include contractors?
 
That SMG2 number is really weird too. I can sorta understand you might need less people since it was basically an expansion pack, but wasn't it confirmed in one of the Iwata Asks that there were more people that worked on it than SMG?
 
So an 80% increase from the last 3 games made? I do wonder about the budgets of some of the Wii U games as they must be significantly higher than earlier Nintendo efforts but Nintendo tends to have a better track record with keeping budgets in check
 
Hasney said:
Different team. Nintendo just reskinned it.
Click to expand...

Actually, that's not true, Doki Doki Panic was developed by Miyamoto's team, and the majority of those people went on to make Super Mario Bros. 3. The Japanese Lost Levels (Super Mario Bros. 2) was the one made by a completely different group.
 
this is so meaningless without knowing project lengths and such. the teams would have naturally grown regardless of the project, especially with the expansions following the wii era.
edit: oh and of course the game lengths/content I guess. Really depends what conclusion they are gunning for
 
According to Iwata Asks on SM3DW:

Hayashida

At first, about 40 to 50, but there were about 100 in the end. When that many people threw out ideas, there was about three times more than ever before. In any case, there was a ton.
Click to expand...

Of course, he could have just been rounding up.
 
Probably every series that has lasted a long time has consistently increasing sized dev teams. In any case it's amazing what Nintendo can do with just 90 people.
 
Those are relatively small teams all things considered. Return on Investment for the Wii mario games must have been huge.
 
Tratorn said:
Dev team size alone doesn't say much. Would be nice to also know the dev times to have the whole context.
Click to expand...

Here are the ones I do know:

SMB - 6 months
SMB3 - 2 years
SMW - 3 years
SM64 - 2 years
SMG - 2 years
 
Oblivion said:
Here are the ones I do know:

SMB - 6 months
SMB3 - 2 years
SMW - 3 years
SM64 - 2 years
SMG - 2 years
Click to expand...

Is SMG actually 2 years? I find that hard to believe. Same with SM64.

Also are these pure programmers, or does it include composers, designers, artists and the like as well?
 
Mysterious said:
Is SMG actually 2 years? I find that hard to believe. Same with SM64.

Also are these pure programmers, or does it include composers, designers, artists and the like as well?
Click to expand...

SMG began development a few months after Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat was released.

SM64 was said to have been about 5 years if you include the conceptual and pre-planning stages. But actual production was only about 2-2 1/2 years.

And yeah I'm pretty sure this does include all those staffers you mentioned.
 
Oblivion said:
SMG began development a few months after Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat was released.

SM64 was said to have been about 5 years if you include the conceptual and pre-planning stages. But actual production was only about 2-2 1/2 years.
Click to expand...

Shouldn't we count SM64 as 5 years, since a lot of that time was necessarily spent on prototyping controls and the 3D environment?

Oblivion said:
SMG began development a few months after Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat was released.

SM64 was said to have been about 5 years if you include the conceptual and pre-planning stages. But actual production was only about 2-2 1/2 years.

And yeah I'm pretty sure this does include all those staffers you mentioned.
Click to expand...

Hm, then why were SMG2 credits significantly longer than SM3DL? Contractors?
 
The big surprise to me is the relatively small step from Yoshi's Island to Mario 64, and then the massive leap to Sunshine.
 
If this article is not including contractors, then it's not very accurate. Also consider that the credits for SM64, SMS, SMG, NSMBWii, NSMB2 were considerably longer than SM3DL.
 
Twice as many people to make Sunshine as make 64 only to end up with a game that wasn't even half as good?

MAFFS HERT BRANE!
 
Mysterious said:
Shouldn't we count SM64 as 5 years, since a lot of that time was necessarily spent on prototyping controls and the 3D environment?
Click to expand...

Possibly, but the problem is that we don't know how much time within those first 3 initial years they spent experimenting. For all we know it could have been a grand total of one month per year.

Hm, then why were SMG2 credits significantly longer than SM3DL? Contractors?
Click to expand...

It's the reverse actually.
 
Love that graph. Easy to put together, but so revealing about modern game development. Explains in very simple visual terms why I continue to prefer games made by smaller teams.
 
Wow small dev team all around, I wish we knew the budgets for these games. Im guessing most of nintendos games don't need to sell many copys to turn a profit which is nice.
 
Outtrigger888 said:
Wow small dev team all around, I wish we knew the budgets for these games. Im guessing most of nintendos games don't need to sell many copys to turn a profit which is nice.
Click to expand...

Judging the amount of people who worked on Nintendo games can not be determined from their game credits alone. Most importantly because they tend to list their middleware, environment, infrastructure, and debugging developers as groups rather than individual people.

Very different from say a SCE or Ubi Soft game where everyone from their China Distribution Offices get listed in the credits for good measure.
 
Oblivion said:
Wow that's an interesting chart if true.

Why did SMB2 have more people working on it than SMB3?

And the NSMB titles have as many people working on them as the modern 3D games? What the fuck? o_0


Does this include contractors?
Click to expand...

obviously every sequel is easier than the third ESPECIALLY if they are using thesame assets from previous game... in which they won't have to create from scratch.. so yea.. it totally makes sense for less people = less work.
 
I made a less shitty version of the diagram. The original version is awful and the people who made it should feel bad.

43z8Jsf.png
 
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