The forthcoming release of Pikmin 4 has prompted Nintendo to talk about the origins of the saga, specifically how it was born cute creatures. A lot of players don’t know the story behind Pikmin and how the idea, a concept I had in mind, came about. Shigeru Miyamoto, producer and director of the game. Now the team has revealed many details about the creation of the Pikmin and its members Connection to the Nintendo 64 system for whom it was originally intended. Did you know that Pikmin have a specific? Tim Burton inspiration?
The capital N has published its special feature “Ask the developer” section. which brought together various members who worked on the original Pikmin. According to Shigefumi Hino, “The project started during Transition from Super NES to Nintendo 64“. They wanted to use the possibilities of the new console to show a many characters on the screen that would be controlled with AI. Each Pikmin had a status chip on its head that the player could exchange.
With experience, the chip would increase and “You would get smarter”Hino continued. “Depending on what emotion chip the character had, the reaction would change, like ‘attack’ or ‘defend’.”. Hino reveals that the Pikmin had something in mind I would identify your genderbut finally they put a sheet on top of the sketches. “I can’t remember why we put a leaf on his head, but since the figure is small I thought maybe he needed it.” something to help you stand out visually”explained Junji Moriii, who joined the project a year later.
The Pikmin and its inspiration in Tim Burton
In the end, the design was chosen unanimously. Miyamoto thought so “It would be nice if Suck the water out of the leaf you have in mind”. But that’s not all, as the team took inspiration from Tim Burton. “I wanted the designs not only to be adorable, but also to be special restless feeling or some emotional weight”Said Morii. The Pikmin world had to be more “Dark, mature and mysterious”.
The idea took shape until they invented the Pikmin they will pounce on the enemy like rockets. Miyamoto then asked if they could stay in the enemy’s rear or weak spots. “Everyone got excited and said, ‘Ooh, I threw them and they got stuck!’ After defeating an enemy, we thought it would be satisfying to have ltake him home. So we actually had the creatures attack the enemy, and they looked like ants carrying a cicada“Miyamoto intervened.
With the death of the Pikmin, they wanted to represent a real ecosystem “with a touch of sadness”. They were eventually merged with a number of game design aspects that Miyamoto used to develop a game game flow diagramat this point the Pikmin are still there they were called Piki (from Japanese ippiki, small animal) in concepts. Miyamoto remembers that he got engaged Game master with all the consequences: “I’ll be coming in as director, so give me three months. I will quit if it fails.” The idea was so successful that we can now celebrate it Pikmin 4 release. If you want to learn more about development, don’t miss this Complete conversation on Nintendo.
