>>107332433Mr. Tezuka majored in design at university before starting at Nintendo. As a child, he liked arithmetic and drafting, but says he was poor at languages. In fact, many on the Mario team say they were poor at languages. Indeed, many people who think in images rather than words were assembled (on purpose?) for this team.
Tezuka also often looks to movies, music, events, art exhibitions, etc. for ideas. He often watches music shows on TV and reads lots of comic books. While to some this might look like play, it is serious work to him. After this, he conducts a brainstorming meeting with the staff. It might be called a meeting, but most of the time is spent chatting about things not directly related to the theme. In many cases, fresh ideas are discovered out of these chats. For example, he got the name "Koopa" from once when he was hungry (a Korean dish's name); and a mushroom he drew resembled more of a chestnut, so he named it "Kuribo" ("Goomba" in the west.) Even the name "Mario" and the idea for his moustache were borrowed from a man living in the same apartment as a Nintendo employee in the United States.
If an idea comes in a flash and Tezuka makes a new character, he will always see how it looks animated on the TV screen.
No matter how interesting an idea, there are certain restrictions placed on it when moving it on-screen. Thus thinking about how to make it move in a fun way inside of those limitations is difficult. Other small items, such as a boomerang, also have to be animated.
