Zener Works was originally working on a game for the Panasonic M2 prior to that system's cancellation. Sony would later contact them in June 1997 about making a game for the original PlayStation, thus leading to Okage's development. However, the project was moved to the PlayStation 2 per Sony's request the day before they announced their next-generation console on March 1, 1999. This lead to the graphics and coding being redone in order to be compatible with the Emotion Engine. Programmer Yasushi Takeda noted that debugging proved to be a challenge due to the company working with the console in an early state, and the appropriate tools not being available.