Nintendo lent some of its greatest minds to the development of Mario's Picross, sending legendary creators such as Yoichi Kotabe, Tsunekazu Ishihara, and Mario's father, Shigeru Miyamoto, to the third-party studio in order to "personally" teach the team Mario's fundamentals.
In an interview with Famitsu, CEO and founder of Mario's Picross's studio Jupiter Corporation, Makoto Nakayama, recalls Nintendo's involvement in the puzzling spin-off. Nakayama previously worked at the gaming giant's first-party studio Intelligent Systems, where he made connections with Nintendo bigwigs like Satoru Iwata, Masahiro Sakurai, and Shigeru Miyamoto.
