To celebrate the holiday most associated with romance, this year’s doodle stars two members of an endangered species looking to find love. We got an inside look at where doodles come from.
For Valentine’s Day, Google made a game where you play a rolling pangolin looking for love. This is how a team of artists, engineers and designers made one of Google’s most complex Doodles to date.
Think of Valentine’s Day and the first thing that comes to mind probably isn’t wildlife conservation.
But that’s one of the themes of Google’s Valentine’s Day doodle, which premiered on the search giant’s homepage early Monday. It’s one of the most in-depth Google Doodles the company has ever created and includes an interactive video game. It took about a year to develop and involved a six-person team of animators and engineers.
The doodle stars two lovestruck pangolins, scaly mammals native to Asia and Africa. They look like a cross between armadillos and anteaters. Google notes in the game that pangolins are the most poached and trafficked mammals in the world. The game also includes a link to a World Wildlife Fund page , which invites people to donate to protecting them.
Google’s Valentine’s Day Doodle took almost a year to develop.
„If they’re endangered, they really have to meet,“ Helene Leroux, the head artist for the Doodle, said during an interview at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, California. „So it was a perfect theme for Valentine’s Day. “
Step foot in the Google Doodle office and you might think you’re at Pixar. A large blow-up version of Baymax, the health care robot from Disney’s „Big Hero Six,“ greets you in the hallway. Desks are lined with Star Wars and Batman toys. There are tiny drawers full of sticker versions of past doodles.
