Game Freak developed Pokémon Red and Green, the first main Pokémon games.
The Japanese studio was founded by Satoshi Tajiri and began as a video-game magazine before becoming a development company. Tajiri’s interest in collecting insects inspired the central idea of finding, collecting, and exchanging creatures.
Game Freak worked with Nintendo, which published the games and supplied the Game Boy platform. Ken Sugimori handled much of the artwork and character design, while other collaborators helped with programming, music, and production. This division is why Nintendo is closely associated with Pokémon even though Game Freak developed the original games.
Game Freak has remained the principal developer of the core Pokémon role-playing series. Its later mainline projects include Pokémon Gold and Silver, Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, and the modern Nintendo Switch entries. Creatures, another important partner, contributes to areas such as Pokémon modeling and trading-card development, but it was Game Freak that created the original games.