(born February 26, 1964) is a Japanese artist and video game designer, best known for designing

Sonic the Hedgehog is a Japanese video game series and media franchise created by Sega. The franchise follows Sonic, an anthropomorphic blue hedgehog who battles the evil Doctor Eggman, a mad scientist. The main ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' games are platformers mo ...

and

Dr. Eggman Doctor Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik is the main antagonist of Sega's '' Sonic the Hedgehog'' franchise. Eggman was created and designed by Naoto Ohshima as part of many design choices for Sega's new mascot. After the creation of Sonic the Hedgehog, Oh ...

characters from

Sega is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its international branches, Sega of America and Sega Europe, are headquartered in Irvine, California and London, r ...

's ''

'' franchise. Although

Yuji Naka , credited in some games as YU2, is a Japanese video game programmer, video game designer, designer and video game producer, producer. He is the former head of the Sega studio Sonic Team, where he was the lead programmer of the original ''Sonic t ...

created the original tech demo around which ''Sonic'' gameplay was based, the character in his prototype was a ball that lacked any specific features.

Sonic Team is a video game developer owned by the Japanese video game company Sega as part of its Sega CS Research and Development No. 2 division. Sonic Team is best known for the long-running '' Sonic the Hedgehog'' series and games such as '' Nights ...

considered numerous potential animal mascots before deciding on Ohshima's design, with an armadillo or hedgehog being the top choices because their spikes worked well with the concept of rolling into enemies. After leaving Sonic Team, Ohshima formed an independent game company called

Artoon Artoon Co., Ltd. (株式会社アートゥーン Kabushiki-Gaisha Ātūn) was a Japanese video game developer established in 1999. It became a subsidiary of AQ Interactive in May 2004 and became a wholly owned subsidiary in June 2005. The team w ...

. There he went on to work on such games ''as Pinobee'' and '' Blinx: The Time Sweeper'', and in 2004, the sequel to ''Blinx'', '' Blinx 2: Masters of Time & Space''. In 2010, Artoon was absorbed into

AQ Interactive AQ Interactive, Inc. was a Japanese video game developer and publisher. AQ stands for Artistic Quality. It was the parent company of the developers Artoon, Cavia and feelplus, and most recently the U.S. publisher Xseed Games. AQ Interactive an ...

. That same year, he and other key members of Artoon left to form

Arzest Arzest Corporation (Japanese: アーゼスト, Hepburn: Āzesuto) is a Japanese video game development company that develops games for video game consoles. It was formed on June 25, 2010 by key members of Artoon, which was also founded by Execu ...

. Early in his career, he was credited under the nickname "Big Island" in a number of games, which is a literal translation of his

family name In some cultures, a surname, family name, or last name is the portion of one's personal name that indicates one's family, tribe or community. Practices vary by culture. The family name may be placed at either the start of a person's full name ...

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Sega Stars: Naoto Ohshima
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ohshima, Naoto 1964 births Japanese video game designers Japanese video game directors Living people Sega people Video game artists

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