"Viewtiful Joe" was developed by the design staff "Team Viewtiful", a part of Capcom Production Studio 4. The game was announced in late 2002 as part of the Capcom Five, a line-up of five then-upcoming GameCube games to introduce new content to the console. It was directed by Capcom alumnus Hideki Kamiya, whose previous credits include the planning of "Resident Evil" and "Resident Evil 2" and the direction of "Devil May Cry". It was produced by Atsushi Inaba, who previously worked on the "Ace Attorney" series and "Steel Battalion". In its earliest stages of development, "Viewtiful Joe" went under the working title "Red Hot Man", but the name was changed due to copyright conflicts with the American rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers. "Viewtiful Joe"s development team initially consisted of six people working under a twelve-month deadline. As work continued, the size of the team grew, and development ended up taking a full 21 months to complete. The game was conceived as a "staff-focused project" aimed at increasing the skill of its creators, specifically director Kamiya.