With my latest post, the first area, 1-1, is open. All of you may proceed as you wish, finding a path or not, alone or together, in what's essentially a Mario level inhabited by early enemies from a variety of game worlds. 

You have some autonomy and creative liberty when it comes to moving forward through areas I've described previously, and you can describe encountered terrain and creatures if you choose to, or just go somewhere and leave it up to me to lay out the situation for you. 

If you decide to make up your encounters yourself, I would prefer to have control over any enemies you encounter to avoid just steamrolling through.