One of the world’s most recognisable platforming mascots is of course none other than Sonic the Hedgehog. Former SEGA gameplay designer Hirokazu Yasuhara and artist Naoto Ohshima revealed the famous blue hedgehog’s origins at this week’s GDC 2018.
I planned a trip to New York while this discussion was going on internally,” Ohshima said. “And so, the company [was] talking and they said ‘You know what, we definitely want to see something like an old guy with a mustache. We also want to see something that’s spiky like a porcupine, and then we also want to see a dog.’ So I drew these on a board and I went to the middle of Central Park — this is a true story — and I’m showing people these [boards]. I’m taking a survey and the result was that the hedgehog was the most popular over the [others]. …
And blue because?
The reason why Sonic is a blue hedgehog is simply because SEGA’s logo is blue so they thought it would be the perfect colour and it has stuck ever since.
Well sometimes things come from weird requests, the deep and just sometimes things are not as deep as we think they are.
