Nintendo Developer Talks About The Process Behind WarioWare's Nose-Picking Game

If you're a fan of the WarioWare series, you'll no doubt be aware that the games feature a strange and often rather comical collection of minigames that you wouldn't usually see in a 'normal' release. Among the countless oddities that players will have experienced is Gold Digger - a nose-picking minigame that has appeared in several WarioWare games including WarioWare Touched!, WarioWare: D.I.Y. and the latest release on 3DS, WarioWare Gold.

On the surface, a three-second game like this might seem almost pointless, as if hardly any thought process would have gone into its creation, but even the silliest of minigames need careful planning and consideration. Speaking to Kotaku about the game in question, longtime Nintendo developer Goro Abe explained how it came into being during the development of 2003's WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$!.

“The basis for Gold Digger was a note that was written by our director at the time. All that was on the note was a picture of a finger and a nose, and the word ‘Pick!’. I was a programmer at the time, and when I saw that note, a design came to mind for a game where you pressed the A Button at the right time to stick a horizontally-moving finger into a nose."

These notes formed the basis of WarioWare's entire creation; the development team would come up with hundreds of ideas for tiny games and stick them up on a board to share inspiration. Abe goes on to explain how the concept had to be immediately understood by the player, and the process behind creating different difficulty levels.

“I figured the player’s eyes would focus on the moving finger, and the act of pressing the A Button to make the finger thrust forward would read naturally as syntax for a game. I took the note to my desk and proceeded to draw some 2D sprites. I made the thickness of the finger the same size as the nostril, thinking how satisfying it would be to have the finger go into the nostril when you succeed, and I made the nose deform a little bit when you fail. Using these, I programmed and completed the basic game.”

“I had only created the index finger at that point, but a thinner finger would probably be easier stick into the nose, so I decided to set the index finger to level 2, and added a pinky for level 1.”

With a final addition of a double-pick for even more difficulty, a back and forth of feedback and adjustments, and the creation of some sound effects to go with it, the game was finally complete, ready to join the countless others already created - and those still yet to be thought up.

The WarioWare minigames might only last for a couple of seconds, but they still have a lot of love and care going into their creation. Also, coming up with nose-picking minigames for a job sounds great to us.