MANILA, PHILIPPINES — As the Tokyo 2020 Olympics begins today, Google kicks off with a new interactive Doodle that invites users to immerse into a culture-rich adventure minigame.
The Google Doodle Champion Island is an interactive world filled with seven sport mini-games, legendary opponents, dozens of side quests, and tons of interesting characters.
Upon clicking on today’s Google Doodle, users are welcomed with an animated short featuring characters and places reminiscent of Japan’s rich culture.
Users get to play as Lucky, the feline (c)athlete whose ultimate goal is to defeat each sport Champion to collect all seven sacred scrolls—and complete extra hidden challenges across Champion Island.
The interactive Doodle features a pixel-art style game universe, reminiscent of the retro video games a lot of people grew to love over the last few decades.
The games people can play on the island are: table tennis, running (marathon), archery, rugby, rock climbing, swimming, and skateboarding—each offering a unique challenge to conquer.
Today’s interactive Google Doodle is made in partnership with Tokyo-based animation studio, STUDIO4°C. Throughout the game’s development, the studio identified stories and folktales from Japan with notable characters, in which they connected with the various sports events included in the game.
Some users well-versed in Japanese mythology may immediately recognize mythical creatures such as the oni and tengu, while notable animals in Japan such as owls, cats, and the tanuki also make an appearance.
In a Q&A with Google, the studio shares what they hope people would take away from this Doodle game: “First, we hope people enjoy the game and make it to the end! But also convey that by completing the mini games, Lucky brings happiness in the form of flowers and dangos… which will be a treat to everyone in the world! Also, only Champions know how hard Lucky worked. In other words, we want to convey that joy can result from the focus and hard work of every one of us, which is not always recognized by others. We’re also hoping for a sanshoku dango (three colored dumplings) trend.”
Are you feline Lucky? Click on today’s Doodle, join one of the four color teams to contribute to the real-time global leaderboard, and let the games begin!
CREDITS:
The Doodle Champion Island Games Team (Google)
Art + Story: Nate Swinehart, Sophie Diao, Ben Tobias, Hélène Leroux
Engineering: Mark Ivey, Eric Arnold, Daniel Dovali, David Lu, Audrey LoVan, Conner Lane, Jacob Katzeff, Jacob Howcroft, Kathy Lee, Stephanie Gu, Leah Sandacz, Jonathan Shneier
UX Design: Diana Tran, Anthony Irwin
Producer: Colin Duffy
Marketing + Partnerships: Perla Campos, Sierra Menzies
Google Japan Marketing Support Team: Midori Okamura, Sayuri Tawara, Ken Miura, Mai Fukue
Business Affairs + Partnerships: Madeline Belliveau
UX Copy Support: Mark Sherbin
UX Research: Dave Sharek
Doodle Team Leads: Jessica Yu, Brian Kaas, Tom Tabanao
Cinematic Score + In-game music S/FX: Qumu Music
Animation Studio: STUDIO4°C
Director, Storyboard, Character Designer, & Key Animation: Takahiro Tanaka
監督・コンテ・キャラクターデザイン・原画 | 田中孝弘
CGI Director, Compositor, & Editor: Masaya Inaba
CGI監督・撮影・編集 | 稲葉昌也
Art Director & Background: Hisako Akagi (Orange Co., Ltd.)
美術監督・背景 | 赤木寿子 (有限会社オレンジ)
Color Stylist & Color Coordinator: Wakako Takahashi
色彩設計・色指定 | 高橋和歌子
In-between Supervisor: Hidemi Okusaka
動画検査 | 奥坂英珠
In-between: Miyu Nakazawa, Chiharu Haraguchi, REVOROOT, qIXIE STUDIO, studio Hibari Osaka studio, STUDIO GIMLET, STUDIO MASSKET, STUDIO・MOO, M.S.C, StudioL, OLM Asia
動画 | 中沢海友, 原口ちはる, レヴォルト, qIXIE STUDIO, スタジオ雲雀 大阪スタジオ, スタジオギムレット, STUDIO MASSKET, スタジオ・ムー, M.S.C, スタジオエル, OLM Asia
Desital Ink & Paint: D-COLORS, studio step, Defa, M.S.C, STUDIO MASSKET, Jumondou
仕上げ | D-COLORS, スタジオ ステップ, （株）デファー, M.S.C, STUDIO MASSKET, 寿門堂
Legal & Coordinator: Ayumi Inoguchi
法務・翻訳 | 井ノ口歩
Animation Assistant Producer: Sayuri Yoshiyama, Moruto Yamashita
制作進行 | 吉山小百合, 山下諸人
Animation Producer: Tomoko Ogiwara
アニメーションプロデューサー | 荻原知子
