Masahiro Sakurai Shares Early Kirby Game Development Secrets

Masahiro Sakurai shared development secrets from the first Kirby game. In the latest video on his YouTube channel Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games, he shared some facts about the development of Kirby’s Dream Land. Many details shared in the video were originally seen in a presentation given at the Kirby 25th Anniversary concerts in 2017. Sakurai shared them with a wider audience to celebrate the 100th video on his channel.

At one point in the video, Sakurai shows off the original dev kit that was used to make the games Kirby’s Dream Land and Kirby’s Adventure. It was a special Famicom called the Twin Famicom, and all development took place with this device. Sakurai shows off the sprites and menus used in development. He also treats us to a bonus cat appearance.

Throughout the video he shows off how enemy designs were made specifically to save space. He reveals that all enemy movement was manually programmed by Sakurai himself. He also shows off the original design document for Kirby’s Dream Land, featuring an early concept for the Super Smash Bros damage system.

Sakurai previously looked back at Kirby’s Dream Land in another video on his channel as part of his Game Concepts series. He also shared stories about other Kirby games.