The concept for Shipwrecked 64 first came about in 2016, when creator Squeaks D'Corgeh was making fangames based on Five Nights at Treasure Island, a Five Nights at Freddy's fangame featuring Disney characters. In 2020, he scrapped the Disney characters and replaced them with original characters, those being Bucky Beaver and his friends. He dropped the project for some time, but was reminded of it again after discovering a satirical Super Mario 64 Iceberg Tiers meme. The deepest fact below the iceberg, asserting that "every copy of Mario 64 is personalized", inspired the gameplay loop for Shipwrecked 64. He would restart development in 2021, which would ultimately lead to the version of the game released on Steam.