With Pikmin 4 releasing nearer to the end of this week, Nintendo has seen to it to make sure Pikmin 4 was the latest game to get the “Ask the Developer” interview treatment. Across the interview’s multiple instalments, we got to hear from the likes of Shigeru Miyamoto, Yuji Kando and more.
During the interview, Masamachi Abe discussed how the original Pikmin name came to be:
Abe on How the Pikmin name Came to be:
Masamachi Abe: During development, we were using the word “ippiki” to count these characters. (In Japanese, the word “ippiki” means “one small animal”.) Colin-san (7), who was working with us on the program, heard us counting these creatures and mistakenly thought that we were calling them “Piki”. (Laughs)
“Piki” evolved to “Picky”, and when deciding its official name, we settled on “Pikmin”. We thought it sounded a bit like “pick me”.
For the full interview, why not click here to check out Ask the Developer Vol. 10, Pikmin 4 – Chapter 1Ask the Developer Vol. 10, Pikmin 4 – Chapter 1.
Ask the Developer | Pikmin 4 (Participating Developers)
- Shigeru Miyamoto | Representative Director Fellow
- Yuji Kando | Entertainment Planning & Development Department, Production Group No.10
- Shigefumi Hino | Entertainment Planning & Development Department, Production Group No.10
- Masamichi Abe | Entertainment Planning & Development Department, Co-Production Group
- Junji Morii | Entertainment Planning & Development Department, Production Group No.4
