 In an interview , Zoë Mode executive producer Paul Mottram claimed that the game concept was envisioned in 2002 , but work did not actually begin until 2006 . The initial concept was built on the crushing mechanism between 2D and 3D , and they only had to create appropriate obstacles to prevent players from simply " crushing " across the level . Mottram noted that during the development of Crush , the gameplay of Super Paper Mario had not yet been revealed , and thus the team was surprised to learn that it shared a similar feature . 
