Miyamoto talks about the origin of Pikmin

In an interview with video gaming magazine GamesMaster, one of the things Miyamoto talked about was the origin of Pikmin. Among what he mentioned was that there was no clear-cut vision in developing the game, and Olimar came late in development.

“There are a variety of different ways for us to create videogames. Sometimes from the very outset we have some clear-cut goals towards which we start working. On the other hand we have cases when we don’t have any kind of clear-cut image as to what kind of game it will eventually be but rather we have a very vague image of whatever we would like to establish or realise. In the case of Pikmin 1 our original idea was how it would be nice if we would be able to see a bunch of small creatures doing something. Something like, they are protecting their own village and at the same time they are trying to grow and expand that village. Later on we added the feature so that the player character will be there. But at the beginning I thought that it wouldn’t be interesting enough because in that original development mode the Pikmin were used as if [they were] weapons. To be utilised, to be shot by the player themselves.”

http://nintendoeverything.com/108544/miyamoto-talks-pikmin-origins/

Yeah wasn't the original title supposed to be Adam and Eve? Where Miyamoto got the inspiration by looking around his back garden.

I always thought that the Super Mario 128 tech demo turned into Pikmin.

Lemme check that.

Edit: Yep, Miyamoto confirmed that most of the elements from Super Mario 128 were used in Pikmin. The rest of the project eventually died out, with the remaining bits used for Super Mario Galaxy.