If you have ever played the first Super Mario Bros., the influential video game from the ’80s, you have probably also ventured into the many subsequent games and levels for Mario created by Nintendo.

Now, about 30 years after the franchise began, Nintendo is offering a new Mario game that can hypothetically be played forever on levels created by gamers themselves.

At the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3, Nintendo announced Mario Maker, a new game that allows people to build and play unique courses on the Nintendo Wii U. The gameplay looks just like its predecessors, including showing off the gold coins, brown bricks and green pipes that are a staple of Mario games.

With the announcement of Mario Maker, Nintendo takes on LittleBigPlanet by Sony and Project Spark by Microsoft Studios, both competing products that allow players to customize a game and build unique and complex worlds.

Nintendo will be able to stand apart from its competitors by standing on the shoulders of Mario and his brother, Luigi, the stars of the Super Mario franchise. The franchise has been one of the most popular in gaming since its introduction.

The style of the new game allows players to switch between the old blocky, 8-bit style from the original Super Mario Bros., to the smoother visual style employed in later versions of the franchise.

Nintendo’s game director, Masataka Takemoto, has said in the past that the company wanted to create games that work for both avid gamers and novice players alike.

“It has to be something that is uniquely Nintendo. Where a beginner can easily make something and have a good time, and simultaneously, someone who is really into Mario can delve into it deeper and make something more complex,” Mr. Takemoto told GamesTM magazine. “So that is a challenge we will need to tackle in the future.”

Nintendo said Mario Maker will be available for consumers sometime in 2015.