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Mario's Picross creator and CEO of Jupiter Corporation, Makoto Nakayama, says that he couldn't coax developers from his former workplace to join him at his new company, because he was worried that Nintendo would no longer work with him.
Nakayama was previously one of the founding members of Nintendo first-party developer Intelligent Systems, which helped develop Mario Bros., Metroid, and Fire Emblem during his tenure. While he worked with a number of omega-talented superstars over the years, such as Satoru Iwata, Masahiro Sakurai, and Mario's dad Shigeru Miyamoto, he knew that if he coaxed "even a single employee" from his former studio to his new company, he would no longer be able to take advantage of his juicy connections.
In an interview with Famitsu that's been translated by GamesRadar+, Nakayama describes the struggles of hiring talented employees, while not upsetting his closest ally. "At the time that I started the company, I had just finished working for Intelligent Systems," Nakayama explains. "If I took even a single employee from Intelligent Systems with me I knew that I would lose the ability to work with Nintendo. It shows a lack of decency."
That doesn't mean that Nakayama wasn't able to start his company without any of his former co-workers, as he was able to recruit Mario Paint creator Noriaki Teramoto. In fact, Nakayama describes working closely with Intelligent Systems to hire talented developers. "I spoke to someone who had already left the company, Mario Paint creator Teramoto, and asked if he would do programming," Nakayama says. "But there were still a lot of roles to fill. The head of human resources from Intelligent Systems would say to me 'there are 10 people left in the interview process, but we're only going to take five. I'll introduce you to the other five.'"
Jupiter's first game ended up being Mario's Picross thanks to Nakayama's connections. In fact, it was Miyamoto himself that suggested the company use Mario's name for their first game. After discussing the idea of turning a popular type of magazine puzzle into a video game, "Miyamoto said 'you can use Mario'," Nakayama recalls.
The relationship was beneficial for both parties. Nintendo was between Mario games, and was looking for a way to keep the Italian plumber in the public consciousness while developing the next entry. If only I could find someone to introduce me to Shiggsy.
