All gamers have a favorite game. Maybe that game was actually amazing on its own merit, and maybe the nostalgia that is laced within your memories is enough to elevate it to grandiosity.
Alain Wildgen wanted to pay homage to a retro game in his own way. About a year ago, he created the first level of Super Mario Brothers. He says that this first one, made from foam and paper, took roughly 20 to 30 hours.
He has refined his process since then. The workflow he now follows is fairly strait forward:
- Decide which game to feature
- Search for good graphics to use, typically from Spriter’s Resource or VGmaps
- Load the image into Gimp and clean it up or stitch together multiple images
- Print on Din3 or Din4 paper
- Cut each layer with a scalpel
- Cut pieces of foam rubber to create the different elevations
- Paste it together
He has been doing this for a little over a year now and has created 18 dioramas. These are all for his personal collection and are not for sale. He does upload his files for others to be able to assemble on their own. Typically he posts links to the downloads on his facebook page, like the Zelda map he shared recently, which you can download here.
Alain says he has a whole list of projects just waiting to be done, including Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Day of the Tentacle, Megaman, and the Illusion of Time. If you want to follow along and see what he comes up with next, you an follow him on Tumblr as well as his Facebook page
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