Pokémon’s Game Boy Development Process Took A “Great Deal Of Trial And Error”

Although Pokémon has become a global powerhouse over the past 30 years, the series’ beginnings didn’t necessarily happen overnight.

In a special video message during the New York Game Awards recently (where Pokémon received the prestigious ‘Andrew Yoon Legend Award’ for industry impact), The Pokémon Company president and CEO Tsunekazu Ishihara reflected on the origins of the series and the challenges the team faced during the development of the original Pokémon games.

These Game Boy titles started as a “simple concept” where players would be able to catch creatures and trade them with friends. However, making this come to life wasn’t exactly easy with such “limited resources” and it actually required a lot of “trial and error” over a six-year time frame, according to Ishihara, who worked as a producer on these titles.

Tsunekazu Ishihara: The development process, however, was not quite as easy. It took a great deal of trial and error to figure out how to actulize this idea with the limited resources we had available.

In the end, it took six years to complete the first games, Pokémon Red and Pokémon Green.

Still, we all felt confident in the main gameplay elements that would become the foundation of the Pokémon video game series: catch, raise, trade, and battle.

The team believed this formula would work because the elements were tied to “fundamental experiences” everyone had as children when they were out catching bugs, growing plants and raising animals.

Ishihara also admits he was “uncertain at first” about the game being able to appeal to people overseas, but he realises now it’s been able to transcend language, cultural barriers and truly has the “power to connect the world”. He adds how he’s using this as a “major driving force” when it comes to producing the next game, and how to make it “more enjoyable for everyone”.

Pokémon will celebrate its 30th anniversary next month on Pokémon Day, which takes place on 27th February 2026.