Nintendo's StreetPass on 3DS has been a successful and fairly unique approach to socializing on a gaming platform, thanks in part to the handful of StreetPass-fueled games available on the system. Mii Plaza director Kouichi Kawamoto says that the team aimed for a single-player-like approach to their designs, with the social aspect serving to help the player accomplish their goals.

"During the planning phase, I wanted something that, as opposed to all the countless other social services already out there, used StreetPass to make meeting other people seem more like a single-player game," Kawamoto told Kotaku. "Trying different things from what other people are doing is always seen as a good thing at Nintendo. With StreetPass Mii Plaza, the player's the only true hero in the plaza world, and there are as many of those plaza worlds out there as there are 3DS systems. It's not a social approach, but more of a single-player-game way of thinking."

In the original two StreetPass games, that single-player approach defined how the player progressed. "Both of the games got their start from our drive to make players feel like they accomplish something by using StreetPass," Kawamoto explained. "The idea behind Puzzle Swap was to have players complete something as they engaged all sorts of people around them with StreetPass. With Find Mii, both me and the rest of the staff are fans of fantasy RPGs, so the project began with us wanting to make something fantasy RPG-like which had that 'I accomplished something' element I mentioned above."