Who created the Pokémon franchise and helped design its original game concept?

Satoshi Tajiri created the Pokémon franchise and helped design its original game concept.

Tajiri founded Game Freak, the development company that created the first Pokémon games. His childhood interest in collecting insects influenced the idea of finding, collecting, and exchanging creatures. The Game Boy Link Cable gave him a way to turn that idea into an interactive game in which players could trade creatures between separate systems.

Ken Sugimori was also essential to Pokémon’s early development. He illustrated the original Pokémon and served as an important creative collaborator, but the franchise concept is credited to Tajiri. Junichi Masuda later became a major Game Freak composer, director, and producer, while Shigeru Miyamoto advised the project at Nintendo.

The original games took years to complete and were released in Japan in 1996. Tajiri continued to be involved with the series after the first games, although his role later shifted from hands-on direction toward executive production. His insect-collecting inspiration remains one of the best-known origin stories in Pokémon history.