Obviously Yoshis Woolly Worlds development involved actual knitting

Come on, if you're going to build a platformer that's practically overflowing with cute, you might as well go the whole hog and make it in real-life, too. If you're game happens to be made of colourful yarn, much like Yoshi's Woolly World, well then it's probably time to break out those knitting needles...

"We've always felt that Yoshi deserves to have a handcrafted feel to the graphics, and we've strived to bring this into games like Yoshi's Island and Yoshi's Story," says Nintendo producer Takashi Tezuka in the latest issue of Edge. "With those previous titles, it was just that - an aesthetic - and didn't really have much influence on the gameplay itself."

Just like the official amiibo for Yoshi's Woolly World(which are so adorable its almost criminal), the team wanted to create a real-life Yoshi that would help inform the game's unique textures. "We decided to use wool in Yoshi's Woolly World since we felt we'd be able to provide some interesting mechanics and gameplay that we weren't able to do in previous games. But it was also the toughest challenge we've faced!"

Using such an unusual design element called for some unusual and unconventional concept art, such as the one show above. Just at look that plush lil' Yoshi! S'cute! "Actually making real items using wool to test our representations in the game was obviously necessary, but it took a huge amount of time!" adds Good-Feel executive producer Etsunobu Ebisu. "We made these while we were establishing which direction to go with for the graphics, for example."

The latest issue of Edge, with Guitar Hero Live on the cover, is out now. Buy a copy here or subscribe to future issues.