Who created the Pokémon concept and designed the original game series?

Satoshi Tajiri created the Pokémon concept and designed the original game series.

Tajiri grew up fascinated by insect collecting, an interest that inspired Pokémon’s central idea of finding, collecting, and studying creatures. He developed the concept with Game Freak, the company that grew from a fanzine into a video game developer.

Tajiri proposed a game in which players could exchange creatures through the Game Boy’s Link Cable. That trading feature became a defining part of Pokémon because it encouraged players to connect two systems and complete collections together.

Ken Sugimori created the original Pokémon artwork, while Nintendo published the games and Creatures contributed to the wider project. Junichi Masuda later became a major composer, director, and producer, which is why he is sometimes mistakenly credited as the franchise’s original creator.