Pokemon TCG staffers explain how the series got started

The Pokemon Trading Card Game has been around a very long time, and it continues to be popular to this very day. Wondering how the entire series got started? Famitsu spoke with Pokemon Card project manager Kouta Okamoto and director Atsushi Nagashima from Creatures, Inc. to get the details.

Famitsu: Firstly, please tell us about the process of development up to October 1996, when Pokemon Cards began to be sold in stores.

Atsushi Nagashima, director: “At the time, I had yet to be involved in Pokemon Cards, so this is what I’ve heard, but it was Creatures founder [Tsunekazu] Ishihara who at the time was studying board games of all sorts. At the time, Pokemon Red & Green were still in development, but from how you could collect 151 species of Pokemon, and the game’s turn-based battle system, it was very compatible with the TCG format. That’s how development began, so I hear.”

So it started with Ishihara-san’s idea. So even when Pokemon Red & Green were in development, people were already looking for expand the series beyond games.

Kouta Okamoto, project manager: “Right. Because it was born as a new way of producing the Pokemon series, the Pokemon Card TCG has emphasized “pretending to be a trainer” from the very start. For example, the deck basically has the same role PCs do in the main games. Also, there’s only one battle space, and five bench spaces, meaning you follow the rule of only having six Pokemon. The fact your turn ends after you attack is the same way.”