Nitrome began development of Mouse Work before the Nintendo Switch 2's mouse functionality was officially revealed, with the concept being based on industry rumors and a tease of the feature from the system's official announcement video. As they hadn't received a software development kit from Nintendo, they instead used Joy-Cons duct-taped to computer mouses to prototype and develop the game. Nitrome founder Mat Annal attributed the company's experience in making browser games with allowing them to develop the game so rapidly.