Splatoon was developed by
Nintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development. In mid-2013, one member of the
Animal Crossing development team, Shintaro Sato, created a four-versus-four ink-based territory control game set in a featureless arena.
[24] After management approved making the prototype into a full game, the team started expanding its concepts, creating the ability to hide in ink,
[25] and wanted to somehow incorporate squids.
[26] After coming up with these ideas, the developers had trouble "filter[ing] it down" to a "simple, fun game."
Shigeru Miyamoto told the team that there was "no appeal" to the game in that state. Afterwards, the developers added the ability to hide in ink and verticality to the maps, but it still felt unfocused.
[26] The art director sketched different ideas for the player character, including animals, "macho men," robots, and
Mario,
[25] but the co-directors wanted to include a playable squid.
[27] They also needed the character to be human in order to hold weaponry, but thought that a squid-human hybrid "wouldn't sell".
[27] In January 2014, they realized they could make the player character switch between human and squid forms, which allowed them to come up with other ideas, such as swimming through ink or sustaining damage while maneuvering in enemy ink.
[27] From the beginning, the
GamePad could display a real-time overview of the map so the player could see which team was ahead,
[2] and at some point, the team considered using urinals and sinks as
warp points.
[28] The development team was determined to make interesting sound effects, so they repeatedly pounded slime to create the sound of a squid diving into ink.
[1]
The team working on the game is composed of much younger members compared to other teams that work on Nintendo franchises. Game director Tsubasa Sakaguchi and producer Hisashi Nogami admitted that they, along with the rest of the team, play first person shooters and games on other companies' hardware (such as
Call of Duty and
Battlefield) as part of their job, and also because they love video games in general.
[24] Monolith Soft also assisted Nintendo on the development of the game.
[29] Splatoon was revealed in a trailer during Nintendo's E3 2014
Digital Event video presentation, and a demo of its multiplayer mode was playable on the show floor.
[30][31] The game's single-player campaign, was further detailed in a later
Nintendo Direct.
[32]
) to stop the homebrew exploit.
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