Once upon a time, there were two brothers, Mario and Luigi. They were humble Italian American plumbers whose prospects didn’t seem particularly bright. For all their hard work, they couldn’t seem to find a better job than pest control in the New York sewers.

But one fateful day in 1985, Mario and Luigi were offered an opportunity. They were approached by a panicked citizen from the Mushroom Kingdom, who was clearly in need of help. Princess Toadstool had been captured by Bowser, king of the Koopas, and Mario and Luigi were the only ones who could save her.

Little did they know that their response to the challenge would change their lives forever.

Luigi spoke first. “Hello, mushroom man. This is most troubling news, and I certainly hope that Princess Toadstool is rescued as soon as possible. But what exactly would saving her entail? Would it be a fairly straightforward quest?”

“I’m afraid not,” the mushroom man answered. “Bowser has taken over the whole Mushroom Kingdom. Our people have been turned into inanimate objects, and Bowser’s thugs now roam the land. You will be greatly outnumbered.”

“But I’m not a fighter,” Luigi replied. “How can I defeat all these enemies? I don’t even know how to beat one of them, let alone a whole army.”

“You won’t at first,” the mushroom man said. “But you’ll learn with practice. Every enemy has a weakness that can be exploited, and once you get the hang of it, it won’t seem so hard.”

Luigi was still having grave doubts about this whole thing. “But I don’t want to have to go through a big learning curve,” he said. “I only want to face enemies that are really easy to beat, and no danger at all.”

“I’m afraid that won’t be the case here,” the mushroom man said. “Even the smallest enemy is bigger than you, and if one so much as touches you, you’ll die!”

“Egads!” Luigi shouted. “I can’t do that! Only a fool would choose to do something so risky. If I’m not sure that I can succeed, then why would I take such a big chance?”

“Oh, it’s not as bad as you think,” the mushroom man replied. “You’re more powerful than you know. You can jump on the enemies and smush them. There are also power-ups scattered throughout the land to help you. A magic mushroom will make you double in size. A fire flower will let you throw fireballs with your bare hands. And a starman will even make you invincible for a brief period of time.”

“Invincible?” Luigi asked. “That sounds a little hard to believe. Is it completely guaranteed?”

“Well, no,” the mushroom man admitted. “You would still be vulnerable in some ways. You could fall down a bottomless pit, or your time could run out. Nothing is ever perfectly safe, and you’re not immortal.”

“Now you tell me!” Luigi was now getting quite agitated. “This is starting to sound really iffy. I don’t know if I can take such a big risk. Do I have enough talent? Am I too old? Do I have enough life insurance?”

“Don’t worry,” the mushroom man said reassuringly. “It’s really not that big a risk. You’ll start out with three lives, and if you need more, you can find the hidden 1-Up mushrooms or collect coins to get extra lives. And if all else fails, you can always continue not far from where you left off. You haven’t really failed until you stop trying.”

“OK, mushroom man,” Luigi began. “Here’s what I’m gonna do for you. Yes, I’ll save Princess Toadstool, but only if you agree to my conditions. I want you to draw me a map showing the locations of all the hidden mushrooms. I want to start out with all the power-ups and infinite lives. I want to know about all the secret worlds and warp zones. I don’t want to go near fire, I don’t want to jump long distances, and I don’t want to get wet. Oh, and I also don’t want…”

The mushroom man had stopped listening by now. “Maybe I’m talking to the wrong brother,” he said. He turned to look at Mario, but he wasn’t there anymore – he was already off on his quest! Because Mario had simply decided that he was going to save the princess, and that was enough to get started. He’d figure out the details on the way.

Mario ended up saving the princess, and Luigi may have tagged along, but it was clear who was running the show. They had no choice but to name the game Super Mario Bros., and it became the best-selling video game of all time (it was finally outsold by Wii Sports in 2009, 24 years later).

Mario went on to star in many other games that bore his name, and he took his rightful place in history. He got his own TV show, movie, comics, and merchandise line. And Luigi was there for the ride, but he was always known as Mario’s sidekick.

Now, when duty calls, will you be a Mario or a Luigi?

Steve Pavlina often mentions a computer game he wrote in 1999 called Dweep. He talks about it mainly because of some important lessons he learned from writing it. I finally got around to playing it recently, and instantly became a huge fan.

I found two posts of Steve’s that tell the story of how he created Dweep: Self-Discipline: Hard Work and What I Learned From Going Bankrupt in My 20s That Proves to Be Immensely Valuable in My 30s.

You can read those posts for the details, but I’ll give you a summary of what happened.

He landed a deal with a game publisher, but they inexplicably stopped communicating, then stopped paying, then pulled out of the deal, then filed a frivolous lawsuit against him (then got caught in an accounting scandal, being fined millions of dollars by the SEC). The next year he got a deal with a more honest publisher, but they got into financial trouble and had to pull out.

The end result was that Steve had turned his life savings of $20,000 into $150,000 of debt. He and his wife Erin got kicked out of their apartment for not paying their rent, and they had to declare bankruptcy.

But before giving up, Steve wanted to make one last game, one he’d really be proud of.

Of course, he was broke, so he couldn’t compete with the flashy graphics of high budget games. Instead, he decided to make a game that was truly original and very well designed. He spent a whole 4 months just working on the design of his game. This is the step that most people skipped, choosing instead to copy an existing game. After that, it only took 2 more months to do everything else. He got the whole thing done for no money.

Dweep won the Shareware Game of the Year award in 2000. Steve was interviewed in the New York Times, and his company became profitable for the first time.

You can download the trial version of Dweep here. (It’s always a good idea to run downloads through your antivirus program.) If you like puzzle games, you’ll really appreciate how well designed this is. I was quickly hooked.

Unfortunately, Dweep has since been discontinued, so the full version isn’t available for sale anymore (though it must be out there somewhere). The most similar game I know of is Adventures of Lolo, which you can play for free at that link.

Both games will challenge your logical abilities and prevent you from getting any work done today. Dweep has a tighter design, but Lolo has more action. If you’re into puzzle games, give them a go. If you get stuck, I can provide support in the comments.