Finally getting down to it, I asked Kouno why he became a game designer and why he made Loco Roco. He told us, "In elementary school I did AI programming and then again in college. I always liked to snowboard and wanted to make a snowboarding game." Instead of doing dangerous tricks, he watched videos of snowboarders but wanted to speed up and slow down the action, as well as change the angle. Obviously this couldn't be done and it inspired the game design of Loco Roco.