We're pleased that we were able to allude to various stories from Hokkaido in the north to Okinawa in the south in the Doodle. Besides drawing inspiration from stories known across Japan, we also hoped to convey the rich and diverse natural beauty of the country, including underwater, sandy tropical beaches, forests, and snowy mountains. Sport: Table tennis! The combination of Tengu and table tennis is not something you'd find in the traditional folktale, but we think it was a fitting combination given the nature of the Tengu, who holds a fan and moves swiftly. Character: The stone guardians. They can be a bit scary given that they’re lions, but we love how charming they are in the game’s final design. We think the fact that they serve as gatekeepers in Japanese culture made it interesting to have them serve as guides in the game.

First, we identified stories and folktales from all over the country with characters that are highly recognized. Next, we connected those folktales and characters with each of the sport events included in the game. In the design process, each event champion was selected from those unique stories. The team mascots and the characters in the city such as Kappa, Yatagarasu, lion dance, were also chosen as they are very well known across Japan. Each character’s design was based on their original story image, but then adapted for the game. 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 Mark Ivey, Eric Arnold , Daniel Dovali, David Lu, Audrey LoVan, Conner Lane, Jacob Katzeff, Jacob Howcroft, Kathy Lee, Stephanie Gu, Leah Sandacz, Jonathan Shneier

Go behind-the-scenes of today’s interactive Doodle, made in partnership with Tokyo-based animation studio, STUDIO 4°C! The cutscene animations and characters for Doodle Champion Island Games were created by Tokyo, Japan-based animation studio, STUDIO4°C. Below they share their thoughts behind the making of this Doodle: