Growing up, I was constantly playing games on my GameBoy Advance and later my Nintendo DS. I played many of the Nintendo classics like Mario and Kirby games, but the games I spent the most time playing were Pokémon FireRed and Pokémon Diamond. Since then, I have always been drawn to games with a similar look and art style as FireRed. I loved the idea of roaming around an expansive world and collecting little creatures. Satoshi Tajiri, the designer of the original Pokémon games, liked that idea as well. Although instead of collecting creatures in a virtual world, he spent his days as a young kid collecting bugs in the real world. Years later, he used his experiences as a child to design the game he pitched to Nintendo that he called Capsule Monsters.
Young Satoshi
As Satoshi grew out of his bug collecting, his interests shifted as arcades are gaining popularity. He spent lots of time playing Space Invaders, which got him interested in video games and wanting to learn more. Seeing a lack of media coverage about games, he decided to create his own magazine about video games called GameFreak. Satoshi Tajiri graduated from the Tokyo National College of Technology and converted his newspaper company into his video game production company with the same name.
The Creation of Pokemon
At GameFreak, Satoshi Tajiri worked as the game designer for a few games including, a couple of Mario spinoff games, Mario and Wario, and Yoshi. In 1990, he pitched his idea for the Pokémon game to Nintendo. Inspired by the GameBoy’s linking cable, he set out to make a game where players could explore a world collecting and trading creatures, just like he did with bugs when he was young. Shigeru Miyamoto saw great potential in the game and became a mentor to Satoshi Tajiri throughout the six years of development. The game was finally released in 1996 towards the end of the GameBoy’s life as a console. Despite being released on a “dead console” and not seeing much success after its release, it grew in popularity until it became one of the best-selling games of all time.
Satoshi’s Career and Advice
After the success of the original Red, Blue, and Green Pokémon games Satoshi Tajiri, continued his work as the game designer for the follow-up games in the Pokémon series Gold and Silver. He later worked as an executive director, still overseeing much of the design, for the next two iterations of the games Emerald, Sapphire, and Ruby, and the remakes FireRed and LeafGreen. Since then, he has worked as a producer on all of the Pokémon games. When asked about why Pokémon has gained such popularity in a 1999 Time article, he replied: “When you’re a kid and get your first bike, you want to go somewhere you’ve never been before. That’s like Pokémon. Everybody shares the same experience, but everybody wants to take it someplace else. And you can do that.” As a young game designer, I see this as great advice to any young designer hoping to create the next international phenomenon like Pokémon. With your game, give players the tool to take themselves somewhere, and players will go where they want to go.
Satoshi and Pokemon’s Influence
Like myself, many young people grew up playing Pokémon, and kids today still play the newest games or even visit Satoshi Tajiri’s original games. The influence of Satoshi Tajiri’s creation is undeniable. Pokémon has completely embedded itself into the international culture in a way that few things can. Satoshi’s creation has influenced me personally in both the games that I play and the games I hope to create. I have a great affection for the visual style of both the FireRed game and Emerald and always want to emulate it in the games that I make. His ideas for creating a world for the players to explore and become enveloped in is also something I appreciate in games I play but also in games I want to make. Satoshi Tajiri’s ambitious idea for a game based on his childhood experiences has been played by millions across generations and will continue to be for the years to come.
Ryan Circelli 