Yuji Naka

Yuji Naka
Naka in 2015
Born	(1965-09-17) September 17, 1965 (age 61) Hirakata, Osaka, Japan
Other names	YU2
Occupation(s)	Game designer, producer, programmer
Years active	1984–present
Employer	Square Enix
Notable work	Sonic the Hedgehog series

Yuji Naka (中 裕司, Naka Yuji) is a Japanese video game programmer, designer, and producer. He is best known as the former head of Sonic Team, where he was the lead programmer of the original Sonic the Hedgehog series of games on the Sega Genesis. In 2006, he created Prope, an independent game company. In January 2018, he joined Square Enix.

Career

Naka learned how to program by copying and debugging video game code printed in magazines. The experience made him want to study assemblers and practice writing code during his school classes. After graduating high school, Naka decided to skip university and stay in his home town.

Around 1983, Naka saw that Sega was looking for programming assistants. He decided to apply. After a short interview, he started working for Sega in April 1984. His first task was designing maps and checking floppy disks for a game called Road Runner for the SF-7000. Naka can't remember if the game was ever released. His first major project was a game called Girl's Garden. He and Hiroshi Kawaguchi created it together as part of their training process.

Production history

References

Other websites

• Official Prope website (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