Yuji Naka
Yuji Naka | |
|---|---|
 Naka in 2015 | |
| Born | September 17, 1965 Hirakata, Osaka, Japan |
| Occupation | Game designer, producer, programmer |
| Years active | 1984–present |
| Employer |
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Notable work | |
Yuji Naka (中 裕司, Naka Yūji) (born September 17, 1965) is a Japanese video game programmer, designer, and producer who was the former head of Sonic Team, where he was the lead programmer of the original Sonic the Hedgehog series of games on the Sega Mega Drive. With Sonic Team, Naka also led development on games including Nights into Dreams (1996), Burning Rangers (1998), Sonic Adventure (1998), and Phantasy Star Online (2000). In 2006, he left Sega to found Prope, an independent game company. He also worked under Square Enix in the late 2010s, directing Balan Wonderworld (2021).[1]
Early life[]
Naka learned how to program by replicating and debugging video game code printed in magazines. The experience prompted him to study assemblers and practice writing code during his school classes.[2] After graduating high school, Naka decided to skip university and stay in his home town.[3]
Career[]
Early Sega projects (1984–1990)[]
Around 1983, Naka saw that Sega was looking for programming assistants and decided to apply.[4] After a brief interview,[4] he began working for Sega in April 1984.[5] His first task was designing maps and checking floppy disks for a game titled Road Runner for the SF-7000. Naka cannot remember if the game was ever released.[5] His first major project was a game called Girl's Garden, which he and Hiroshi Kawaguchi created together as part of their training process.[4] Their boss was impressed and decided to publish the game, and it earned them notice among their peers and Japanese gamers.[2] Naka's abilities as a programmer were further demonstrated in 1987 for his work on Phantasy Star for the Master System, where he was responsible for the impressive pseudo-3D animation effects present in the game's first-person dungeons.
Sonic Team (1990–2006)[]
His true breakthrough, however, came in 1991 when he programmed the original Sonic the Hedgehog game for the Mega Drive, with Naoto Ohshima designing the characters and Hirokazu Yasuhara creating the stages. The origins of Sonic can be traced farther back to a tech demo created by Naka, who had developed an algorithm that allowed a sprite to move smoothly on a curve by determining its position with a dot matrix. Naka's original prototype was a platform game that involved a fast-moving character rolling in a ball through a long winding tube, and this concept was subsequently fleshed out with Oshima's character design and levels conceived by Yasuhara.[6]
Following Sonic The Hedgehog's release, Naka moved to Sega's U.S. branch, Sega Technical Institute, where he worked with famed American designer Mark Cerny on the follow-up in conjunction with the original team back in Japan, now known as "Sonic Team". This partnership between the Eastern and Western teams continued through the development of Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic & Knuckles, though the bulk of the development duties shifted back to Sonic Team in Japan for those titles, which Naka had also returned to by that time.[citation needed]
After the release of Sonic & Knuckles, Naka was moved up to the role of producer at Sega Enterprises in Japan. During his tenure in that position, he oversaw games including Nights into Dreams and Burning Rangers for Sega Saturn; Sonic Adventure and Phantasy Star Online for Dreamcast; Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg for Nintendo GameCube; and the "EyeToy" game Sega Superstars for PlayStation 2.[citation needed] As of 2005, senior Sega figures including Toshihiro Nagoshi and Yu Suzuki were reporting to Naka; according to Takashi Yuda, he was involved in all Sega game development.[7]
Prope and Square Enix (2006–present)[]
On March 16, 2006, Naka announced that he would leave Sega to create his own game studio, Prope.[8] Naka stated that he considered it a benefit to be able to create games other than Sonic the Hedgehog games.[9] Naka also explained that the video game industry was young, leading to quick promotions; he felt his senior position had given him less time to be close to development.[10] Naka was awarded with the Bizkaia Award at the Fun & Serious Game Festival in 2016.[11]
Naka joined Square Enix in January 2018.[12] In September 2019, Naka announced he was working on a game for the company called Balan Wonderworld.[13] He was no longer working at the company by 2021, with him stating that he was considering retirement.[1][14]
Works[]
References[]
- ^ Jump up to: a b "Yuji Naka is no longer working at Square Enix". Sonic Stadium. Retrieved 4 June 2021.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Szczepaniak, John. "Before They Were Famous". Retro Gamer. Imagine Publishing (35): 74 – via Internet Archive.
- ^ Horowitz, Ken (22 June 2005). "Sega Stars: Yuji Naka". Sega-16. Archived from the original on 27 June 2016. Retrieved 5 July 2016.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c "The Making of OutRun". NowGamer. 29 April 2016. Archived from the original on 20 April 2016. Retrieved 8 April 2016.
- ^ Jump up to: a b "名作アルバム - 『ガールズガーデン』". Sega (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 23 March 2016. Retrieved 24 December 2018.
- ^ GI Staff (August 2003). "Sonic's Architect: GI Interviews Hirokazu Yasuhara". Game Informer. Vol. 13 no. 124. pp. 114–116.
- ^ "Kikizo | Sonic Team Interview November 2005 (Page 3)". archive.videogamesdaily.com. Retrieved 2021-06-25.
- ^ Edge Staff (2006-05-08). "Confirmed: Yuji Naka Leaves Sega". Edge. Archived from the original on 2012-09-04. Retrieved 2010-02-18.
- ^ "Sonic Creator Left Sega to Avoid Making More Sonic Games". Archived from the original on 2014-02-22. Retrieved 2014-02-09.
- ^ "Yuji Naka On New Beginnings At His Studio, Prope". www.gamasutra.com. Retrieved 2021-06-25.
- ^ "Yuji Naka , premio honorifico del Fun & Serious Game Festival".
- ^ Phillips, Tom. "Sonic creator Yuji Naka joins Final Fantasy maker Square Enix". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on 23 January 2018. Retrieved 22 January 2018.
- ^ Moyse, Chris (September 18, 2019). "Yuji Naka is developing a new action game for Square Enix". Destructoid. Retrieved 2020-06-08.
- ^ "Yuji Naka leaves Square Enix". Gematsu. Retrieved 5 June 2021.
- ^ Nick Thorpe; Yu Suzuki (August 13, 2015). "The Making Of: Space Harrier". Retro Gamer. No. 145. Bournemouth: Imagine Publishing. pp. 22–31. ISSN 1742-3155.
- ^ Naka, Yuji [@nakayuji] (12 December 2017). "It is a work that I, Yuji Naka, was involved as a programmer for the first time in about twenty years. It took longer since I was studying Unity, C# and PHP and developing at the same time, but I believe that it came out great. Programming is really enjoyable" (Tweet). Retrieved 2 September 2019 – via Twitter.
- ^ McWhertor, Michael. "Sonic the Hedgehog creators reveal new 3D platformer, Balan Wonderworld". Polygon. Retrieved 23 July 2020.
External links[]
- Official Prope website (in Japanese)
- Sonic Team Speaks[dead link] (archived by the WaybackMachine)
- Sega's Yuji Naka Talks!
- Yuji Naka On New Beginnings At His Studio, Prope
- Life after Sega: The Sonic creator talks about being free of the hedgehog
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| Sonic the Hedgehog | |
| Nights | |
| Phantasy Star | |
| Puyo Puyo | |
| Other games | |
| Key people | |
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Authority control  |
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- Sega people
- 1965 births
- Living people
- Japanese video game designers
- People from Hirakata
- Japanese video game programmers
- Square Enix people
- Japanese video game directors
- Japanese video game producers
- Game Developers Conference Lifetime Achievement Award recipients