On 27th April Google announced that over the next couple of weeks it will bring back its 10 most popular google doodle games from the past years. This is to help people de-stress during the coronavirus lockdown, and we really like the initiative. However, this also made us curious about what exactly Google doodles are and how did Google come up with this unique idea. So here’s a brief history of Google doodles, followed by our selection of the top 5 Google doodle games.
History of Google Doodles
In order to commemorate certain events, holidays, and birthdays of popular personalities, Google makes certain “doodles” on its home page, which includes either artwork or interactive games to generate curiosity and awareness among its users. I’m sure you must have seen Google doodles on Indian special occasions like Republic Day, Gandhi Jayanti, etc.
The first Google doodle, which you can see in the cover image on top, came out on 31st August 1998, to celebrate the annual Burning Man event in the US. It was designed by Google’s co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, to inform Google’s then nascent user base that the founders will be unavailable to tend to the servers if they crash as they’ll be off to Burning Man. Subsequent doodles were contracted out, till 2001 when Google started making the doodles themselves again. A dedicated team was set up just to create doodles, and they fondly came to be known as “doodlers”.
Initially the doodles were fairly simple, which were just images in which the word Google was creatively written. When you hovered your mouse on top of them then you saw a small pop-up text which showed what the doodle was commemorating. But since 2010 the Google doodles have become much more creative. In January 2010 Google launched its first animated doodle to commemorate Sir Isaac Newton’s birth anniversary. In May 2010 Google launched its first interactive doodle game in which users could play Pac-Man. In the past decade Google has focused more on regional doodles to celebrate the histories of various countries. Till now Google’s team of doodlers has made more than 4000 doodles.
Since 2008 Google has also set up an initiative known as “Doodle 4 Google”. This is an annual competition in which school students can make and submit doodles. If their entry wins then they get a college sponsorship of upto $30,000 along with some other unique gifts. Their doodle is also featured on the Google homepage. This is an annual event for which Google gives a specific theme and students from various countries can participate. Since 2009 this competition has also been organised in India. Hence if you know any creative school students you can ask them to submit their doodle entries to Google the next time the competition opens up.
Top 5 Google Doodle Games
- Our favourite Google doodle game has to be the Pac-man one. It was Google’s first interactive doodle made to celebrate Pacman’s 30th anniversary. https://www.google.com/doodles/30th-anniversary-of-pac-man
- In the second spot we have a basketball tool game which came out in 2012. This is also one of our favorites. https://www.google.com/doodles/basketball-2012
- In 2013 Google came out with the unique doodle to celebrate the 100th anniversary of crosswords. https://www.google.com/logos/2013/crossword/crossword13.html
- If you are looking for a mental challenge then you can try Google Rubik’s Cube doodle game which came out in 2014. https://www.google.com/logos/2014/rubiks/iframe/index.html
- Lastly, if you want to try some DJ mixing skills then you can check out this doodle game from 2017 which was made to celebrate Hip Hop’s 44th anniversary. https://www.google.com/doodles/44th-anniversary-of-the-birth-of-hip-hop
These are our top favourites from Google’s doodle games. Let’s see what Google has lined up for us in the coming few days, and we hope you have fun playing all these.
Update :
Happy Halloween doodle Game
The 2016 Halloween Doodle game also known as ‘The Magic Cat Academy’ follows a cat, Momo, on her mission to save her school of magic. The idea of this feline magical game originated from a genuine black cat named Momo owned by the Doodler Juliana Chen. You have to go with Momo on a journey of 5 levels ( library, cafeteria, classroom, gym and a building rooftop) by tracing out the symbols over the heads of the apparitions on screen so that Momo can stop the ghost that took her master spellbook. You get to live your paw-fectly magical day with this game !
The Pony Express
Google put out its doodle game ‘The Pony Express’ in which the riders on horses go about collecting letters and hustle their way across obstacles such as the cacti, fences and rocks. Their mission is to move around the old West and meet a target of collecting 100 mails that need to be delivered. Originally founded by William H.Russell, Alexander Majors & William B Waddell on April 3rd 1860, the Pony Express was revamped into a Google Doodle game on it’s 155th anniversary on 14th April 2015.
Narender Kumar
Always on the quest to learn and share the knowledge. Big fan of books (but not the self help ones) specially fiction. A grammar Nazi who loves to eat, cook, travel and watching thunderstorms.