Editing Space Channel 5 (section)

===Design===
The earliest versions of the game were described by Mizuguchi as "very cool, but not so fun", as players simply pressed buttons in time to the music while a non-interactive video changed. To make the game more interesting, Mizuguchi drew inspiration from the rhythm troope [[Stomp (theatrical show)|Stomp]]; a particular piece which inspired him was a segment where a performer would have the audience copy their clapping, with the rhythm becoming more complex over time. Mizuguchi wanted to incorporate this into the game, combining it with a narrative and distinctive music. The rest of the team found it difficult to understand Mizuguchi's vision as they were confused by his wish for comedy to be a part of the game's style, so he hired a pantomime artist to school the team in physical comedy.<ref name="1UPinterview"/> The production team also went to a comedy workshop to practise miming and physical comedy routines to further inform their understanding of the game.<ref name="GSinterview2"/> The name of the game's aliens "Morolians" was a derivation of the surname of artist Mayumi Moro; it came about as the team often used her last name around the office. Moro found its use in the game funny.<ref name="GSinterview1"/>

A key aspect of the game was that while the gameplay involved shooting, Ulala never actually killed anyone, allowing the game to be approachable to a wider range of players.<ref name="IGNinterviewA"/> When pitching the gameplay in his design document, Mizuguchi distilled the basic cycle of effort and reward, then came up with a means of realising them in the game. To ensure the team fully understood the gameplay concept of matching button presses to music and character actions, all extraneous effects were stripped away, leaving a basic version the team could focus on.<ref name="IGNinterviewB"/> While some animations were created using motion capture, the rest were animated by hand.<ref name="GSinterview1"/> The vocalization "Chu" emerged during voice recording. The original word was "Shoot", but the actors had difficulty pronouncing it using the necessary single syllable, resulting in the word being contracted and altered into its current form.<ref name="4Gretro"/>

Ulala's motion capture actions were performed by Japanese dancer Nazu Nahoko.<ref name="UlalaVoiceA"/> The Morolians' movements were scripted by the mime artist Mizuguchi hired to help the team during early production.<ref name="IGNinterviewB"/> The idea of streaming polygonal models over CGI movies was suggested by Yuta.<ref name="GSinterview1"/> They made use of [[ADX (file format)|ADX]] technology to synch the movement of models over the movies. The game content filled just over 99% of the Dreamcast [[GD-ROM]] disc.<ref name="DCMag"/> The space usage was attributed by Mizuguchi to the large amount of video and audio streaming used in the game.<ref name="GSinterview1"/> In hindsight, Mizuguchi cited the use of pre-rendered movies as a challenge to the team.<ref name="VGD"/> Due to the amount of space used, some planned comedy segments had to be cut.<ref name="GSinterview1"/> An early tech demo was put together for the game; in this prototype version, the player character was a man, and only the most basic elements of its gameplay and theme were in place. A later version featured a prototype design for Ulala.<ref name="GWIsecret"/> The game's visual aesthetic of a "retro future" was present in that demo, and stayed throughout production.<ref name="DengMusic"/> Influences on the characters and art design came from across the production team, with tastes ranging from ''[[Star Wars]]'' to ''[[Doraemon]]'' to [[Monty Python]].<ref name="IGNinterviewA"/> Mizuguchi was inspired by the contrasting styles of orchestral music and science fiction setting used in ''Star Wars''.<ref name="VGD"/>

The character of Ulala was a collaborative creation, though much of her design was attributed to the game's art director Yumiko Miyabe.<ref name="GSinterview1"/> Ulala's early actions were deemed too "cool and stylish", and her overall movement too stiff. Her design was also adjusted several times so she would appeal to male gamers (who favored looks) and female gamers (who preferred personality).<ref name="GSinterview2"/> Another notable artist on the project was Jake Kazdal, who worked as a concept and model artist.<ref name="Kazdal1"/> Kazdal said that one of Ulala's key design inspirations was the titular lead of the science fiction film ''[[Barbarella (film)|Barbarella]]'' (1968). The art style continued to evolve from there, with the staff often laughing at the "sheer ridiculousness" of some later characters.<ref name="Kazdal2"/> Her costume's orange colour was a reference to the Dreamcast logo and signified Sega's new direction.<ref name="SpaceChannel3"/>