Hirokazu Yasuhara

Hirokazu Yasuhara (安原 広和, Yasuhara Hirokazu, born October 12, 1965), also credited as Carol Yas, is a Japanese video game designer. He is best known for designing the gameplay and stages of the initial Sonic the Hedgehog video games for Sega Genesis in the 1990s, based on technical demos and engines programmed by Yuji Naka.^[1] Yasuhara stayed with Sega until 1999.^[2] He then worked for Naughty Dog from 2002 to 2008, working on the Jak and Daxter series and Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, collaborating again with former Sega employee Mark Cerny. He was the senior design director at Namco Bandai Games America from 2008 to 2012.^[2] In April 2012, Yasuhara joined Nintendo where he accepted a position at the Nintendo Software Technology division.^[3] He left Nintendo in 2016 and has since worked for Unity Technologies.^[4]

Hirokazu Yasuhara
安原 広和
Yasuhara in 2018
Born	(1965-10-12) October 12, 1965 (age 59) Japan
Other names	Carol Yas
Alma mater	Tokyo University of Science
Occupation	Game designer
Years active	1988-2013
Notable work	Sonic the Hedgehog series Jak and Daxter series

Works

Year	Title	Role
1988	Altered Beast	Game design
1990	Fatal Labyrinth	Game design
1991	Sonic the Hedgehog	Game design
1992	Sonic the Hedgehog 2	Game design
1994	Sonic the Hedgehog 3	Director, game design
	Sonic & Knuckles	Game design
1996	Sonic 3D Blast	Game design
1997	Sonic R	Map design director
2001	Floigan Bros.	Game design
2003	Jak II	Game design
2004	Jak 3	Game design
2005	Jak X: Combat Racing	Game design
2007	Uncharted: Drake's Fortune	Game design
2010	Pac-Man Party	Senior game design
2013	Mario and Donkey Kong: Minis on the Move	Game design

References

1. "75 Power Players". Next Generation (11). Imagine Media: 54. November 1995.
2. "Experience - Hirokazu Yasuhara". LinkedIn.
3. Curtis, Tom (April 4, 2012). "Sonic the Hedgehog co-creator Hirokazu Yasuhara joins Nintendo". Gamasutra. Retrieved April 4, 2012.
4. Gilbert, Ben (2021-06-23). "Sonic boom: Sega designer tells the origin story of a gaming legend". TechRadar. Retrieved 2021-09-03.