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Sonic the Hedgehog's origin story, according to the devs who made him

Alex, Wawro,. 2018. “Sonic the Hedgehog's origin story, according to the devs who made him.” Game Developer (GDC 2018 report). Game Developer.

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Game Developer, Sonic origin (2018)
Original
https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/-i-sonic-the-hedgehog-i-s-origin-story-according-to-the-devs-who-made-him
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https://web.archive.org/web/20220201110459id_/https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/-i-sonic-the-hedgehog-i-s-origin-story-according-to-the-devs-who-made-him
Accessed
2026-10-26
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© Game Developer / Informa
Credit
Alex Wawro, reporting the GDC 2018 talk by Hirokazu Yasuhara and Naoto Ohshima
Notes
Quotes Ohshima and Yasuhara on the hedgehog choice (a ball you can roll), the Central Park sketch poll (hedgehog first, Eggman second, dog third), and the blue-as-Sega-brand design.

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Claims (3)

At GDC 2018 Hirokazu Yasuhara said a hedgehog was chosen because it can be imagined attacking by curling into a ball and rolling, and Naoto Ohshima said that when he showed his sketches to passers-by in Central Park, the hedgehog was the most popular, ahead of Eggman and a dog.GDC 2018 talk reportGDC 2018 talk reportGDC 2018 talk reportGDC 2018 talk reportWeb
Game Developer's report of the same talk says the pair called Sonic blue because Sega's brand is blue.GDC 2018 talk reportWeb
1UP's retrospective names three people from Sega's AM8 division, later renamed Sonic Team, as the original team; character designer Naoto Ohshima, game and level designer Hirokazu Yasuhara, and programmer Yuji Naka, who it says almost single-handedly programmed the game.GDC 2018 talk reportGDC 2018 talk reportWeb