Google’s Doctor Who doodle is the largest doodle it’s made.
Tomorrow the Doctor Who 50th anniversary special airs as a look back on the eleven doctors so far. Just in time for this anniversary is a special doodle Google put together – a game in which you navigate through time as the Doctor.
Google’s doodles are special logos Google makes for holidays, birthdays of famous people, and major events. Matthew Cruickshank has been making doodles for Google for over a year, and he notes that this Doctor Who doodle is the first game he’s designed. When visiting the Google homepage, visitors are greeted with an animation of the eleven doctors. When clicking on this and the redesigned Google logo, a Dalek, one of the Doctor’s antagonists, scurries across the screen, and you’re prompted to select one of the doctors. You then travel through different areas by clicking on the ground to walk. The goal is to collect the letters spelling out Google, and it doesn’t take long to do so. If you let the Doctor be caught by one of his goes, he will regenerate.
Cruickshank is one of five people who made the “Whodle,” as it’s known inside Google. “It was about four months ago that an employee here who’s a massive Doctor Who fan added it to our list of potential doodles,” Cruickshank said. “We looked through it and realized this was something special, a chance to really celebrate a national institution.”
The BBC helped the team by providing sound effects from the show. “I think they were maybe expecting a static doodle, or perhaps something that moved or animated, and we actually said, well, we’d really like to try a multi-level platform game.”
The doodle will only be up temporarily, so check it out before it’s gone. The Doctor Who 50th anniversary episode “The Day of the Doctor” premieres tomorrow on BBC.
Source: Google, The Guardian
