Naoto Ohshima (大島 直人, Ōshima Naoto) was born on February 26, 1964. He is a Japanese video game designer and artist, most famous for creating Sonic the Hedgehog and Dr. Eggman for Sega’s Sonic the Hedgehog series. Yuji Naka created an early test version that inspired Sonic’s gameplay. However, the character in Naka’s early version was a ball without specific features, based on Ohshima’s game idea. Sonic Team considered many animal designs as symbols for the game. An armadillo or hedgehog were top choices because their spikes fit well with the idea of rolling into enemies.

After leaving Sonic Team, Ohshima started his own game company called Artoon in 1999. He worked on games such as Pinobee (2001), Blinx: The Time Sweeper (2002), and Blinx 2: Masters of Time & Space (2004). In 2010, Artoon was taken over by AQ Interactive. Ohshima and other important members of Artoon left to form a new company called Arzest. Early in his career, he was credited using the nickname "Big Island," which is a direct translation of his family name.