Development of the game took under three years. It was originally conceived as a larger, non-linear open platform game for the GameCube. However, a simpler design and simpler concept were adopted due to the Microsoft buyout and increasing time constraints. After Microsoft's purchase of Rare, the studio re-affirmed their "simple design" of the game so that players would be able to easily adapt and devote less commitment to it. In a retrospective interview, Mayles stated that the change from GameCube to Xbox was difficult and required a lot of changes as "Grabbed by the Ghoulies" was "an original game that started life as a Nintendo product".