Kirby was conceived by Masahiro Sakurai, a video game designer then under HAL Laboratory's employment when designing a game for Nintendo's Game Boy. He was originally created as a blob placeholder sprite for the game, originally titled "Twinkle Popo" (ティンクル・ポポ Tinkuru Popo).
Over time, Sakurai grew fond of the placeholder sprite, and preferred it over the conception of the original protagonist of the game it was being designed for, so Kirby became the star of his first game. Despite the developers keeping Kirby's model, he was known as ポポポ (Popopo) for a time before being renamed Kirby.
