Viva Piñata originally began as a game called "My Garden", and later "Amazing Garden", for Microsoft's Pocket PC PDA mobile phone. Players could attract animals to their garden and trade them with other players. Development was later moved to the Xbox with the prototype running within Grabbed by the Ghoulies and later onto the Xbox 360. The decision to use Piñata animals was made when the game's concept artist, Ryan Stevenson, looked at the original animal designs which reminded him of Piñata which he'd seen in a Mexican restaurant in New York.