As a longtime Pokémon fan, visiting the place where they design the Pokémon Trading Card Game has long been a childhood dream of mine, and it finally came true when I visited Japan to cover the 2023 Pokémon World Championships. This is the first time Worlds has been hosted in Japan, the birthplace of Pokémon, so to mark this momentous occasion, The Pokémon Company International brought a group of press to the Tokyo office of Creatures for a tour.
As Pokémon fans know, Creatures is one of the owners of the Pokémon brand and is best known for producing the Pokémon TCG. We walked through Creatures’ incredible reception area, saw the common area, talked to the art team, did a hands-on art project, watched a playtest demo, and spoke to the lead game designer. Here’s all the juicy Pokémon trivia we learned along the way.
The Creatures Lobby Is the Stuff of Pokémon Dreams
Walking into the Creatures lobby is a bit of a disorienting experience. I expected it to be full of colorful creatures, characters, and places from the world of Pokémon, but instead it’s a completely white room.
The Creatures logo is softly glowing on the wall, and then as the wall continues, small, white metal Pokémon cards start to appear, until the whole wall is made up of nothing but thousands of them. The walls start to bend and bulge and curve around, like an ocean wave of Pokémon cards. As you can imagine, it’s a bit trippy walking around inside.
The best part of the lobby is the three massive stone tablets carved into Pokémon cards hanging on the walls. There’s the iconic Pokémon PokeBall card back and the original Charizard and Blastoise cards from Base Set. (Venusaur’s absence is a crushing blow to us Grass Starter Enjoyers.) They’re intricately detailed and impressively sculpted, paying tribute to the classic cards that started it all. Each of the stone cards is cracked and broken in various places, and out of those crevices, various crystals and precious metals are sprouting out. I feel like I’m in an ancient temple, a white void where the Pokémon card creative process begins.
We’re told that among the thousands of little Pokémon cards on the wall, there are nine Energy cards hidden among them, so we set out like kids on an Easter egg hunt trying to find them. In the end, I only managed to find Water (next to the Blastoise card), Fire (next to the Charizard card), Darkness, Metal, Fighting, and Fairy. Given that Fairy-Type cards were removed from the TCG a few years ago, I’m touched to see that Fairy is still remembered in this way here at Pokémon TCG HQ.
Creatures Has a Great Place to Kick Back and Relax
Next, we went downstairs to the Creatures “relaxation zone,” but we weren’t allowed to use our cameras because it’s next to the desks where they’re actively developing new secret Pokémon stuff.
The area is a space where Creatures employees can come to relax, eat lunch, and play games. There are several tables, a TV with a Switch and PS5 hooked up, and a coffee bar designed to look like the Hi-Hat Cafe from the Pokémon Detective Pikachu movie, complete with a furry Pikachu maquette sitting on the bar. There’s also a glowing neon sign of the movie logo.
Best of all, there’s all sorts of Pokémon hidden around the area, like a Snivy and Alolan Sandshrew hiding in the planters.
Not so hidden is the giant, life-size Snorlax plush laying on its back, with a Poké Flute resting on its tummy. Our tour guide encouraged us to pet the Snorlax, and it’s quite soft and comfy. I don’t know if naps are allowed here, but if they are, I know where I’d curl up.
Meeting the Illustrators Who Bring Pokémon Cards to Life
We sat down for a Q&A with some folks from the Illustration Team at Creatures, which included Illustration Director Haru Saito and artists Yuka Morii, GIDORA, and Teeziro. We were given an ear piece to wear so we could hear their answers in real-time in Japanese.
The artists talked about what kinds of Pokémon cards they draw. Teeziro said she loves drawing giant monsters, so they always assign her those kinds of Pokémon, like the colossal, UFO-esque Orbeetle VMAX abducting a poor kid.
GIDORA said he’s become known for showing aggressive Pokémon, such as Raichu and Lurcario preparing to launch into battle.
Conversely, Morii said it’s her job to make the Pokémon look cute. She’s known for her signature clay models that are photographed to make Pokémon card art. I’m a big fan of her work, which indeed is super cute.
Creating My Own Pokémon Model… With Questionable Success
Artist Yuka Morii prepared a very special activity for our group – making our very own clay model of the Pokémon Magnemite, just like she did for the new Magnemite card from the Pokémon TCG: Scarlet & Violet—151 expansion.
We were given a kit including different colored clays and an assortment of Magnemite’s various magnets and screws.
She showed us how to mix the colors to achieve Magnemite’s signature blue-gray metal color, then work the clay into a ball and create an expressive eyeball. I accidentally handled the clay too much and dried it out, so I decided to play into my Magnemite’s cracks and dents and make its eye look a bit sad and depressed.
To finish it off, we’re instructed to insert the screws and magnets, making sure to have the red and blue magnet ends on the right way, just like in the picture. Everyone else in the group made really good, expressive Magnemites, so maybe mine won’t be so depressed once he makes friends with theirs.
The Philosophy Behind Pokémon Card Design
Our next Q&A is with Atsushi Nagashima, Director at Creatures. As lead designer, it’s his job to oversee developing mechanics, game development, and art. My big takeaway from our talk was how impressive it is that he puts so much thought into making sure the game as a whole captures the fantasy of being a Pokémon trainer. I’m a competitive player who has competed at Worlds and only focuses on the best meta cards, but he says his job isn’t necessarily to make cards that help you win, but to create an environment where you can have fun. He said he always imagines the Pokémon on the cards battling in a big stadium, and creating that feeling is always at the forefront of his design decisions, so all aspects of a card from HP to attacks are done in service of attaining that exciting vision.
On the subject of the metagame, he said that they introduce strong cards on purpose and pretty much design what the metagame will be and aren’t often surprised. That said, there was one card that caught him off guard, Mega Audino EX, which was used by Japanese player Shinatro Ito to win the 2016 World Championship.
Most players considered it useless, and it clearly wasn’t designed to be that good, but a creative player found a way to use it in an unexpected way. I remember being in the crowd watching that happen, so it’s nice to know the game designers were just as shocked as we were.
Achieving Balance in the Pokémon TCG
So, whose job is it to ensure Pokémon cards are balanced? The Pokémon TCG playtesters, which sounds like a dream job if I’ve ever heard it. We went into a new room where they showed us the proxy cards they use to test new cards. They print out the cards on paper and glue it to a real card, not unlike I would do at home, but theirs look way better.
Satoru Inoue, Manager of the Game Design Team at Creatures, showed us an example of how they balance cards by setting up a scenario with three Venusaur-ex that have a healing ability. They had to adjust the amount it heals to ensure it would offer adequate healing (60 HP) but not create a squad of immortal Venusaurs.
They said an important skill playtesters need to have is the ability to come up with weird board states like that to really explore what a card can do, which is a lot different from the skills that make a good competitive player, and that’s when I realized, I would be terrible at this job.
Finally, they tell us they have a play-testing room where their group of 18 playtesters play the game seven hours a day, and in that room are all these filing cabinets containing a copy of every single card ever created. I’d always dreamed of what this place would be like, and I suddenly felt a bit emotional, like Charlie walking into Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory… but with fewer death traps.
Ending the Creatures Tour
That wraps up my visit to creatures. To say I had the time of my life is an understatement. I never wanted to leave! But seeing how much security they had around that place, it’s probably best I left of my own accord. Getting a look behind the scenes at how they make the Pokémon TCG gave me a new appreciation for the game I love so much, and at the very least, it showed me I’ll always have a career as a clay model artist waiting for me, should I choose to pursue it.
Check out our other coverage on Pokemon Worlds:
