Assets used in the Pikmin series

The Pikmin series and its world is built with distinct pieces of imagery, audio, and typefaces. A large portion of the assets used in the games are made from scratch and are proprietary to Nintendo, though occasionally, some of these assets may be taken or contain elements from external sources. This can include commercially-available software libraries, or real-life objects and hardware.

Stock photography
Since the objects and environments within the Pikmin series are often based on human technology and nature in the real world, photography of real items and locations on Earth are a common resource for textures. For the first game, a large amount of these images were taken in Japan by members of the game's own staff. However, it was not uncommon for some few pieces of foliage to be made using graphics from stock photography libraries. For more unnatural materials, this occurred a lot more often. During the development of and, these libraries were primarily sold and distributed on CD-ROMs.

Sozaijiten
Sozaijiten is a series of stock image libraries by Datacraft that is advertised and sold as volumes. The content of each volume is themed (usually around a type of material, part of nature, or event), and were originally distributed on singular CD-ROMs. For and, photographs and artwork from Sozaijiten are used very often and in a myriad of ways.

On Sozaijiten's website, low-resolution previews of every image are available for browsing. The previews come with descriptions; these reveal the original shooting location of certain photos, or some miscellaneous information about the photographed material.

Bakku no Oni
Bakku no Oni is a series of stock image libraries that was distributed by A&P CO-ORDINATOR JAPAN. Its volumes were themed after specific types of aesthetics. Images from "Bakku no Oni SABI 2" were often used as textures for the caves in.

VisualDisk
VisualDisk is a series of stock image libraries that was distributed by dizáin. Similar in scope to Sozaijiten, there was a very large amount of volumes released and high variety in its content. However, it is used sparsely in.

Audio
Similar to graphics, creating game audio often involves the sampling of various sound libraries. The games within the Pikmin series are a good example, where a large amount of audio can be sourced back to a number of different commercially-released products. These products are used to create the individual instrument samples and sound effects in the games, as well as pieces of streamed music. All of the music in Pikmin, Pikmin 2, and Pikmin 3 use audio from digital instruments and synthesizers; instances of musicians performing live on real acoustic instruments are highly uncommon in the games. The new music composed by Babi for is one of the very few occasions where this was done.

Since there is a history of many different composers and sound effect programmers contributing to the games, there is a large variety of synthesizers and sample libraries that have been used. Listed below are all of these currently known products.

A more detailed list that includes the specific songs these products are used in can be viewed here.

Kurzweil K2500
The Kurzweil K2500 is a synthesizer manufactured by Kurzweil Music Systems in 1996. The Kurzweil K2500R is its rackmount variant, and the specific model that was owned and used by Hajime Wakai. Typically, rackmount versions of synthesizers are identical in functionality, but they lack a physical keyboard. This makes them more compact and easy to cram into a studio space; however, it is intended that they be connected to an external MIDI device, such as a musical keyboard, a computer, or some other MIDI-compatible instrument in order to use them.

A lesser-known synthesizer, it is the signature synth of Hajime Wakai, and a staple of the audio design in the Pikmin series as a whole. It is used in Pikmin, Pikmin 2, Pikmin 3, Pikmin 3 Deluxe, and Pikmin 4. In some parts of Pikmin 3, Asuka Hayazaki uses this synthesizer. Soshi Abe uses samples from it for Pikmin 3 Deluxe and Pikmin 4.

Also used within the Pikmin games is the "K25 FARM". It is a collection of several hundred new programs for the K2500. These exclusive presets came on a floppy disk with brand new purchases of the synthesizer.

Roland SC-88
The is a General MIDI-based synthesizer, manufactured by Roland in 1994. An entry in the Roland Sound Canvas series, it has 654 default instrument presets and 22 drumset presets that are designed to perfectly conform to the General MIDI standard, making it excellent for the playback of MIDI songs. It is still useful as a compositional tool; the sounds from the Roland Sound Canvas line of synthesizers are very common in video games. Compressed samples of audio from a SC-55 are even utilized for the Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth, the default "soundfont" for MIDI playback on most computers.

It is used primarily in the music of Pikmin and Pikmin 2, by Hajime Wakai. Alongside the Kurzweil K2500, these two synthesizers make up the vast majority of instrument samples in those games.

Yamaha S90
The is a synthesizer manufactured by Yamaha Corporation in 2002. It has 384 instrument presets and 48 drumset presets, and its acoustic instruments in particular are much more realistic than the older Kurzweil K2500R and Roland SC-88.

The Yamaha S90 is commonly used by Kazumi Totaka; in the Pikmin series, it has only been used in the music of.



Expansion boards
Many of Yamaha's synthesizers produced around 1998 to 2003 featured support for the "Modular Synthesis Plug-in System". This allowed for the synthesizers's preset count to be expanded by plugging in an expansion board. In total, 12 of these boards were produced. A few of them contain just basic sets of waveforms, while others are fully-fledged synthesizers. The "PLG150-AN", for example, generates sound with.

Along with his Yamaha S90, Kazumi Totaka uses the PLG150-DX and PLG150-VL expansion boards for some songs for Pikmin 2. The two boards use and  respectively.

Fonts
Most of the fonts used in the Pikmin games are commercially-available fonts created by Dynacomware or Fontworks. Originally, they were sold bundled together with many other typefaces and distributed on CD-ROMs, but the individual fonts are still available online. Because of their availability, usage of these fonts in other media may be mistaken as a reference to the ''Pikmin series.

DF Craft Sumi
DF Craft Sumi is a typeface created by Dynacomware. "DFCraftSumi Std W9" is used in and  for the bubble-like letters that appear in some menus and cutscenes, and for the end credits in the Pikmin Short Movies. In and, a modified version of this font is used.

DF POP 1
DF POP 1 is a typeface created by Dynacomware. "DFPOP1 Std W3" is used as the main text font in, such as for Olimar's monologs.

Seurat
Seurat is a typeface created by Fontworks. "Seurat Pro DB" is used as the main text font in and, as seen in the ship's dialogs and other various menu elements.

Rodin NTLG
Rodin NTLG is a typeface created by Fontworks. It is one of the most commonly used typefaces by Nintendo, and has distinct usage within the Pikmin series:
 * Carrying numbers in, , and all use "RodinNTLG Pro UB".
 * The text for "World Map" in an early menu for Pikmin uses "RodinNTLG Pro DB".
 * Poko totals of objects returned to the Research Pod in Pikmin 2 (when they do not trigger a cutscene) use "RodinNTLG Pro UB".
 * The health and safety warning in Pikmin 2 uses Rodin NTLG in three different weights.
 * Mission Mode's timer in Pikmin 3 uses "RodinNTLG Pro UB".
 * Cardboard and tin boxes in Pikmin 3 use "RodinNTLG Pro EB" for the 20 written on them.

RodinNTLG Pro DB is also the main text font in Pikmin 3. It is used for on-screen character dialog, text displayed on the KopPad, and other various menu elements.

New Rodin
New Rodin is a typeface created by Fontworks. "NewRodin Pro DB" is used in for the numbers in the countdown at sunset. In, a modified version of the typeface is used commonly throughout the game.

DF Gothic P
DF Gothic P is a typeface created by Dynacomware. "DFGothicP W3" is used for the staff credits in. The characters have been resized so that they take up similar amounts of horizontal space.

Chiaro
Chiaro is a typeface created by Fontworks. "Chiaro Std B" is used exclusively on the saved game selection menu in and.

Pop Fury
Pop Fury is a typeface created by Fontworks. "PopFury Std B" is present in as an unused font texture,.

Rowdy
Rowdy is a typeface created by Fontworks. "Rowdy Std EB" is used in for the icons of the +10 Pikmin and +5 Rare Pikmin Roulette Wheel items in Bingo Battle.

Proprietary fonts
Some text that appears in the games use fonts that are uniquely created for the Pikmin series itself.

Pikmin 3 bubble-like font
An updated variant of DFCraftSumi Std W9 is used in and. It highly resembles the original typeface, but many minor changes have been made to improve readability, such as making the tails of certain characters longer and their widths more consistent.

Hocotate Freight text
The logo for Hocotate Freight uses a uniquely designed font. It is alien-like, but still legible English.

Koppaite text
In and, an in-universe written language appears very frequently on technology and as a background element throughout various in-game menus. The text appears as an assortment of illegible alien symbols, but these characters are actually translatable into the 26 letters in the English alphabet, which reveal some small secrets when various instances of the text are deciphered.

Trivia

 * The Kurzweil K2500R and Roland SC-88 alone make up nearly 90% of the soundtrack for, and over 55% of the soundtrack for.