This is sensational, I love it

Creator of Sonic the Hedgehog presents his story at Fresno State The original Sonic the Hedgehog level designer, Hirokazu Yasuhara, came to Fresno State on Feb. 20 to talk about how he first got into the gaming industry, how to design video game levels to be enjoyable to the player and the creation of Sonic the Hedgehog. Lori Clune, a history professor at Fresno State, and...

"(Hirokazu) Yasuhara talked about the long hours he worked at Sega, which were sometimes up to 18 hours a day, during the process of Sonic’s creation."
fscollegian.com/2026/02/crea...

Sources 3/3:
xcancel.com/NaotoOhshima/status/847104354020552706
Beep Mega Drive, 1990/08
Mega Drive Fan 1990/08, p. 76
news.denfaminicogamer.jp/megadrivecx/kibe2
www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqK5ewDzrDk
xcancel.com/v_SUPERFLY_v...

Sources 2/3
note.com/beep21/n/n5336480dfcd0
web.archive.org/web/20081221044910/www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3769/game_d...
www.famitsu.com/news/201606/24107383.html
Famitsū 1993/06/04, p. 150
www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYO1ZmRuZ_U

And that’s it for part 2. In part 3, we’ll finally take a look at that legendary corporate character contest and how it figures into the whole (often mistold) origin story.

Sources 1/3:
note.com/beep21/n/na74a4524cc18
Sega Magazine 1997/01, p. 12-13
archive.hitsave.org/ark:/78322/6634/12386

Some of Ōshima’s hand-made pop-up displays for Sonic’s Tokyo Toy Show debut. From Sonic Origins

Screenshot of Naka’s zoom and rotation tech demo, featuring a scene with Sonic and Madonna. This same demo was later used at store displays for the Tera Drive for some reason. Snapshot of www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqK5ewDzrDk

Ōshima recalls they had no PR budget, so he made some pop-up displays by hand. His drawings are based on Taku Makino’s 3D Sonic model.

Also on display at the show is a Mega Drive tech demo programmed by Naka, showing off the 3D scaling and rotation effects he'd originally made for Metal Lancer.

Screenshots of the Tokyo Toy Show demo from the August 1990 issue of Beep Mega Drive. The demo doesn’t appear to have been playable, showing just a short clip of Sonic running through an early version of Green Hill. The words “デビュー接近” (debut approaching) appear in big red letters on the screen. We can also see a “nightmare” enemy, indicating Thirteen and the dream world may still have been part of the setting at this point. Naka had wanted to include this original demo as a bonus feature in Sonic Mega Collection on GameCube, but unfortunately it’s been lost. Scan from note.com/beep21/n/na74a4524cc18

In the demo, we can see the aviator badge inspired title screen (based on Yasuhara’s frame story) as well as an early Green Hill.

No gameplay except for Sonic running, but Naka laughs that he and Ōshima were determined to show Nintendo up, so they made sure the background had 7 layers of scrolling.

Concept art of Sonic with Madonna. We can see his still has his pre-Makino design messy spines.

Photo of the Sonic 1 demo running behind some dude’s head at the 1990 Tokyo Toy Show. From note.com/beep21/n/na74a4524cc18

This is probably also around the time Sonic’s Jessica Rabbit-esque girlfriend Madonna was created, and also when Hirokazu Yasuhara wrote the “ace pilot” frame story apparently for an internal presentation.

June 6-10, 1990: Sonic is shown publicly for the first time at the Tokyo Toy Show in Chiba.

Taku Makino at work on December 16, 1988. The photo is cropped for clarity’s sake, but that’s actually Michael Jackson standing behind him in the red jacket, and to Makino’s credit he appears entirely nonplussed as the king of pop looks over his shoulder. Photo from https://web.archive.org/web/20111011163227/https://insertcredit.com/2011/08/16/michael-jackson-at-sega/

Photo of several copies of Taku Makino’s 3D Sonic model. Shared by Ōshima on twitte

Jina Ishiwatari circa 1994. From Harmony vol. 131, scan originally posted by John Harrison of Mega Drive Shock: https://xcancel.com/MegaDriveShock/status/1561505942675800066

Rieko Kodama circa 1993. From the September 1993 issue of Beep Mega Drive, page 38.

Arcade dept artist Taku Makino makes a 3D model of Sonic, defining his spine shape and really bringing the character to the final form we know today.

New employee Jina Ishiwatari joins the team as a graphic artist. (Veteran artist Rieko Kodama joins a little later, but it's not clear exactly when.)

We still don’t know who came up with the name Sonic. 光速—Light Speed—was considered, but it didn’t sound good in English. Naka recalls the discussion dragging on late into the night when someone finally mentioned that 音速—the speed of sound—in English is “Sonic.”

Meanwhile, at Ōshima's request...

Partial photo of another page from the March 27, 1990 proposal document. The rolling attack here is described as the “Wonder Hedgehog” attack. We can also see that Thirteen and his boss minions are still part of the setting. Photo from note.com/beep21/n/na74a4524cc18

Sketches of the nearly-final version of Sonic as seen on the cartoon game draft document. He is still just called “Hedgehog” at this point. From the Sonic 3 history video: archive.hitsave.org/ark:/78322/6634/12386

Sonic’s design seems to be mostly pinned down, but he doesn’t have a name yet, and the setting still seems to be the world of dreams with nightmare boss Thirteen as the main villain.

April – June, 1990: Sonic’s design is finalized and he gets his name while work begins on actual in-game graphics.

Yasushi Yamaguchi’s “cool” hedgehog sketch. From the Sonic history video given away with the Japanese version of Sonic 3: archive.hitsave.org/ark:/78322/6634/12386

Partial photo of the second proposal document for the as-yet unnamed action game, here described as the “cartoon game.” The proposal was prepared by Ōshima with the help of planning section chief Kōtarō Hayashida. In this same stack of documents we see a separate paper labeled “cartoon game draft” that shows a more complete version of the character Sonic, but it's not entirely clear if this “draft” is part of the 2nd proposal document (looks like it might be the cover page?) or if it was prepared separately at another time. If we assume they are part of the same document, we can see Sonic's look was mostly finished by this point. He doesn't appear to have a name yet. Photo from note.com/beep21/n/na74a4524cc18

He still couldn’t crack the design. He again turns to his colleagues for help and finds exactly the spark he's looking for in a “cool” heroic hedgehog sketch by future Tails designer Yasushi Yamaguchi.

March 27, 1990: Ōshima makes his second formal pitch for what is now called the “cartoon game.”

Ōshima’s original brainstorming doodles of a very simplistic cartoon armadillo and cute hedgehog with an oversized bowtie. In the hedgehog we can already see some of Sonic’s trademark design elements, including the connected eyes, rounded muzzle and belly, and elongated pointy nose. Picture taken from Sonic Origins

The decision to go with a rolling attack also helped Ōshima hone in on a character design: he felt it would be weird to use an animal that couldn’t roll into a ball in real life, which narrowed the options to an armadillo or a hedgehog.

The hedgehog was the more visually appealing option, but...

Naka working on terrain collision for the as-yet-unnamed high-speed rolling game, from a news program. Though no graphics are in place yet, we can clearly see the sloping terrain he was so obsessed with. I haven’t been able to find the original program, but Naka recalls it was filmed/aired in February of 1990. Posted by Naka on his Youtube channel: www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRphv7x97uw

Highlighted quote from Ōshima in the January 1997 issue of Sega Magazine, page 13: “Naka-san was playing dirty before [telling us his own idea for a rolling attack], demanding ‘Whatever ideas you’re hiding, spill ‘em!’”

A rolling attack, an idea he alleges he’d been sitting on since high school and shared with the team only very reluctantly, as he’d been saving it for an indie game later on.

Ōshima recalls with a laugh how Naka desperately tried to get everyone else to spill their ideas before giving up his own.

Yasuhara recalls the struggle to find an engaging game mechanic without compromising speed. The rabbit’s main attack action was to pick up and throw things, but Naka felt that broke the flow and was also insistent the game be playable with only a single action button. He already had the solution:

Some of Ōshima’s rejected designs, including a proto-Eggman. From Sonic Origins and archive.hitsave.org/ark:/78322/6634/12386

Some of the character ideas offered by other artists. Unfortunately, we don’t know who drew any of these. From archive.hitsave.org/ark:/78322/6634/12386

The rabbit character used as a placeholder, drawn by Ōshima. From Sonic Origins

Hirokazu Yasuhara at his desk circa 1989. From note.com/nidan_jump/n/n6897d791751b

Ōshima struggles to come up with a new hero. He creates numerous designs, but none of them are working, so he solicits help from his art department colleagues. Meanwhile, a rabbit character is used as a placeholder for prototyping.

This seems to be around the time Hirokazu Yasuhara joins the team.

We don’t know exactly when Naka joined—probably fall but could’ve been winter.

From then to March of 1990 is the period when the gameplay and character were hammered out. Right off the bat, the original twin protagonists are dropped, but the villain—Thirteen—and the dream world setting remain.

Image 0: Timeline of Sonic 1 development, part 2: First half of 1990. Fall/Winter 1989 – March 1990: Hirokazu Yasuhara joins the team. Gameplay and character design are hashed out. March 27, 1990: Naoto Ōshima makes his second formal pitch for the project. Sonic’s design seems to be mostly nailed down, but he doesn’t have a name yet. April – June 1990: Sonic’s design is finalized and he is given his name. Jina Ishiwatari joins the team. Rieko Kodama may have joined around this time as well, or a little later. June 7-10, 1990: Sonic is shown publicly for the first time at the Tokyo Toy Show in Chiba.

Photo of Naoto Ōshima with a giant Sonic plushie circa 1991. Shared by Ōshima on twitter

Tiny illegible scan of Ōshima’s original 22-page Twins Special proposal document. The final page has a screenshot of Super Mario World copied, evidently, from the August 18, 1989 issue of Famimaga. Shared on twitter by former Sega game designer Tetsuo Shin’yu

Yūji Naka with a costumed Sonic circa 1992. From note.com/beep21/n/n5336480dfcd0

Timeline of Sonic 1 development, part 2

Bitty recap: In summer or fall of 1989, after the July reveal of Mario World, Naoto Ōshima pitches his first og game, Twins Special, outlining the ways he plans to outdo the new Mario. His pitch falls flat, but Yūji Naka joins him and helps get things moving.

Concept Art of Metal Overlord from Sonic Heroes (2003)

See him as he is, no longer afraid of anything.

Sonic Heroes (2003)

As always, thanks to @leeonbluesky.bsky.social for braving the nuclear wasteland that was once twitter to find this stuff. I knew he was good for something

Masahiro Sugiyama just posted his original sketch of Honey the Cat from 30 years ago

xcancel.com/NCC_1701_D_A...

Someone asked him about that on twitter awhile back and he insisted there was no connection between Twins Special and NiGHTS, but. I mean, obviously there's a connection, haha

Sources 3/3:
xcancel.com/tetsu_skytree/status/1617535599459848193
xcancel.com/tetsu_skytree/status/1619383872395034625
www.chrismcovell.com/secret/SFC_1...

Sources 2/3:
note.com/beep21/n/na74a4524cc18
xcancel.com/NaotoOhshima/status/1616849524710068227
xcancel.com/NaotoOhshima/status/1616853153324097536
sega.jp/fb/segahard/md/soft.html
Famitsū 1989/09/01, p. 144

...head planner at the time and helped Ōshima write his second formal proposal.

But now I’m jumping ahead, so let’s continue this story in another thread!

Sources 1/3:
Game Machine, 1988/11/01, p. 1
Micom BASIC, 1988/12, p. 267
Dengeki Dreamcast, 2000/07/21, p. 97
note.com/beep21/n/n5336480dfcd0

...we don’t have a specific start date. Fall of 1989 seems likely, but it could’ve been as late as winter or even very early 1990.

Naka also recalls a third planner on the starting team, but it was not Hirokazu Yasuhara, who joined a little later. It may have been Kōtarō Hayashida, who was…

So Ōshima himself approached Naka who was like like, “okay, let's do it”

Either way, Ōshima credits Naka with drumming up support and getting the project off the ground. He goes so far as to say he doubts the game would've been made at all if not for Naka's influence

Now the real work begins, but

...including an F1 game (which was his own top pick) and an action game to rival Mario. His boss picked the Mario killer, and he was teamed up with Ōshima who was working on that very thing.

Ōshima, on the other hand, says his boss would only approve his game if Naka would agree to join him on it.

As it became increasingly obvious the hardware wasn’t up to the task, they were forced to give up and scrap the whole project.

Now that Naka was free again, he was teamed up with Ōshima, but they have conflicting accounts of how this happened. Naka says he proposed several new projects to his boss,