 Development on Donkey Kong Country Returns started in April 2008 , soon after key personnel of Retro Studios had left the company . At that time , Shigeru Miyamoto wanted to create a new Donkey Kong game and , at his request , producer Kensuke Tanabe recommended Michael Kelbaugh , the CEO of Retro Studios , who had previously worked on the Donkey Kong Country series while he was employed at Nintendo of America . Satoru Iwata frequently referred to this turn of events as " fate " in his meetings with Retro Studios , which is why Kelbaugh suggested the homophonous project codename F8 for the game . 
