tl;dr: A 2001 interview with Nintendo programmer Giles Goddard reveals behind-the-scenes details on Super Mario 64's development: a ~15-person team prototyped the game on SGI Onyx emulators before N64 hardware existed, with Miyamoto obsessively iterating on Mario's movement and the camera system (which went through thousands of revisions). Goddard discusses tricks like vertex morphing (used for the Mario face intro), fake water with no texture below the surface, and compact level design that disguised size without needing fog—plus notes that the quiet, secretive Japanese office culture shielded devs from outside feedback.