As with most Pokemon spin-off games, New Pokemon Snap is being worked on by a third-party developer outside of Gamefreak and The Pokemon Company. This time, the developers are Bandai Namco, specifically the team who worked on Pokken Tournament.

Fans who have played Pokken Tournament may have noticed that it features some surprisingly fleshed out background environments in its stages, where Pokemon and humans can be seen going about their daily lives outside of battling. In an interview with IGN, New Pokemon Snap Director Haruki Suzaki revealed that it was their work on Pokken Tournament that led to the team being chosen to develop New Pokemon Snap, making Pokemon “appealing in a new way.”

“Pokkén Tournament utilized Bandai Namco Studio’s strengths and it made Pokémon appealing in a new way, Because of this, we got another opportunity to do something together again and this led to the development of New Pokémon Snap. We were able to talk with the developers [from the original game] and the project started with the involvement of many people.”

Suzaki also reiterated that creating a believable world where Pokemon might actually live was a main focus for the team, echoing similar sentiments he shared in a previous interview with Gameinformer.

“The main focus was to build the world where wild Pokémon actually live in this game, to do this, we first set out to create an exciting world by thinking about the environment in which Pokémon live, creating scenery in detail, and also using Switch hardware’s capabilities to the fullest. While doing so, we tried to make Pokémon the star of the game by making them move naturally and with the feel of presence so that it’s fun to just watch them and it’s even more fun to take pictures of them.”

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