Naoto Ohshima

Naoto Ohshima (大島 直人) (born February 26, 1964) is a Japanese artist and video game designer, best reknowed for designing the Sonic the Hedgehog and Dr. Eggman characters from Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog franchise.

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 before coming to Sega. Though Yuji Naka created the original tech demo around which Sonic's gameplay was based, the character in his prototype was a ball that lacked any specific features. Sonic Team 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, creating games like Pinobee and Blinx: The Time Sweeper, and in 2004, Blinx 2: Masters of Time & Space. In 2010, Artoon was absorbed into AQ Interactive. That same year, he and other key members of Artoon left to form Arzest.