Shigeru Ohmori conceived Pokémon Pokopia as a game about creating Pokémon habitats.
Ohmori was thinking about new approaches for the Pokémon series during development of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. He remembered his earliest work on Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, where he served as a map designer, and considered how appealing it could be for players to create their own Pokémon habitats.
That idea developed into Pokopia’s central structure. Instead of treating the world mainly as a route between battles, the game asks players to shape environments, build facilities, place furniture, and make spaces attractive to different Pokémon. The project became a social simulation and sandbox spin-off.
Ohmori is also associated with directing major Pokémon role-playing games, including Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, Sword and Shield, and Scarlet and Violet. His involvement in Pokopia is therefore easy to confuse with his role on those mainline projects, but the habitat-building concept specifically led to this spin-off.