Yuji Naka

**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

|scope="col"|Year|scope="col"|Game|scope="col"|Role|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1984|_Girl's Garden_|Game designer, programmer||||
|1986|_Spy vs. Spy_ (Master System port)|Programmer||||
|_Black Belt_||||||
|1987|_Phantasy Star_|||||
|1989|_Phantasy Star II_|||||
|_Ghouls 'n Ghosts_ (Genesis port)||||||
|1991|_Sonic the Hedgehog_|||||
|1992|_Sonic the Hedgehog 2_|||||
|1994|_Sonic the Hedgehog 3_|Programmer, producer||||
|_Sonic & Knuckles_||||||
|1996|_Nights into Dreams_|||||
|1998|_Burning Rangers_|Producer||||
|_Sonic Adventure_||||||
|1999|_ChuChu Rocket!_|Director, producer||||
|2000|_Samba de Amigo_|Producer||||
|_Phantasy Star Online_||||||
|2001|_Sonic Adventure 2_|||||
|_Sonic Advance_||||||
|2002|_Sonic Advance 2_|Director, producer||||
|2003|_Sonic Pinball Party_|Producer||||
|_Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg_||||||
|_Sonic Battle_||||||
|_Sonic Heroes_||||||
|2004|_Sonic Advance 3_|||||
|_Puyo Pop Fever_||||||
|2005|_Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love_|||||
|_Shadow the Hedgehog_||||||
|_Sonic Rush_||||||
|_Puyo Pop Fever 2_|General producer|||||
|2006|_Sonic Riders_|Executive producer||||
|_Phantasy Star Universe_||||||
|2008|_Let's Tap_|Producer||||
|2009|_Ivy the Kiwi?_|||||
|2011|_Fishing Resort_|||||
|2013|_StreetPass Mansion / Monster Manor_|||||
|2014|_Hi-sCoool! SeHa Girls_|Voice acting ("Center-sensei")||||
|2015|_Rodea the Sky Soldier_ (original Wii version)|Producer||||
|_StreetPass Fishing / Ultimate Angler_||||||
|2016|_StreetPass Chef / Feed Mii_|||||
|2017|_Legend of Coin_|||||

## Other websites

- Official Prope website (Japanese)
- Sonic Team Speaks (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

## Infobox (person)

- **name**: Yuji Naka
- **image**: Yuji Naka' - Magic - Monaco - 2015-03-21- P1030036 (cropped).jpg
- **caption**: Naka in 2015
- **birth place**: Hirakata, Osaka, Japan
- **employer**: Square Enix
- **other names**: YU2
- **years active**: 1984–present
- **occupation**: Game designer, Video game producer, producer, programmer
- **notable works**: _Sonic the Hedgehog_ series