Bug! was conceptualized as one of three candidates for "would-be" mascots for Sega's upcoming Sega Saturn console in 1994, due to the lack of a Sonic the Hedgehog game upon the console's launch. The other potential candidates were 2.5D platformers Clockwork Knight (which came out shortly before Bug!, at the Saturn's North American launch[12]) and Astal, which was released later in 1995.[10] The titular character Bug was thought to have imitated Sonic the Hedgehog's appearance and attitude in order to make it an effective mascot. At the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show in 1995, Steven Spielberg declared that Bug was the character "that is going to do it" for the Saturn.[10] Realtime Associates developed the game using Silicon Graphics workstations, which were then used to pre-render the game's characters and then convert them into sprites – in similar vein to the process used in Donkey Kong Country.[10]