Super Mario 64
Nintendo started making the game with the creation of the characters and camera system. Miyamoto and the other designers were initially unsure of which direction the game should take; months were spent selecting a camera view and layout that would be appropriate. The original concept involved the game having fixed path much like an isometric type game (similar to Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars), before the choice was made to settle on a free-roaming 3D design. Although the majority of Super Mario 64 would end up featuring the free-roaming design, elements of the original fixed path concept would remain in certain parts of the game, particularly in the three Bowser encounters. One of the programmers of Super Mario 64, Giles Goddard, explained that these few linear elements survived  to force players into Bowser's lair rather than to encourage exploration. The development team placed a great amount of attention, time, and effort on getting Mario's movements right. Before levels were created, the team was testing and perfecting Mario's animations on a simple grid. The first test scenario used to try out controls and physics involved Mario and a golden rabbit named "MIPS" by the developers (named for the MIPS-type CPU used by the Nintendo 64), the latter of which was included in the final release of the game as a way to find two of the Power Stars. At first, the developers tried to make the game split screen co-op using both Mario and Luigi. Initially, the two characters would start at separate points in the castle and work their way through the game together. However, developers were unable to make the gameplay work.