Today’s a Miyamoto kind of day, isn’t it? Alongside the new Nintendo hardware announcement at the Japan Media Arts Festival, Shigeru Miyamoto clued listeners in on his inspiration behind Super Mario Galaxy–a hamster in a ball.

He revealed that he was taking care of a hamster during the development of the game and believed that putting Mario on a spherical world in a 3D environment would allow even inexperienced players to run freely and not get lost, while still providing a rich gaming environment to players.

Seems like such a banal thing to draw inspiration from, huh? I guess that’s why Nintendo doesn’t want Miyamoto divulging his hobbies–other people could start stealing his brilliance!