Yuji Naka (中 裕司) is the director of Balan Wonderworld, and is one of the founders of Balan Company.
Information[]
Yuji Naka is a Japanese video game programmer, designer, and producer, who programmed the first Sonic the Hedgehog game in 1991. Alongside Naka, Naoto Ohshima created the characters (including Sonic) and is now the character designer of Balan Wonderworld.
Involvement on Balan Wonderworld[]
Naka began working with Square Enix on January 1, 2018 and ended work on April 30th, 2021.[1] He founded Balan Company alongside Naoto Oshima. In Balan Wonderworld's credits, he is credited as the director.
Lawsuit[]
Six months before Balan Wonderworld was launched, Naka was given a work order to remove him as the director. The work order was executed by mainly staff, including the producer, the advertiser/publicist, the sound director, the director in charge, and the human resources department. The first reason for the work order was due to his protest against an arranged version of the score of an original song written by a ghostwriter (possibly the BALAN WONDERWORLD x marasy promotion). The second reason given was because Oshima talked to the producer, Fujimoto, about what Naka said about Arzest releasing the game without fixes even when there were glitches during the development of the game, and the relationship between him and Arzest breaking down due to him making comments on how to improve the game. Another point given was how Oshima wrote to Fujimoto in an e-mail, about how he gathered the staff to tell them the matter of shifting the trial version, which was a decision by Fujimoto. The staff were happy at the news. He also mentioned part of a quote, "...The staff, who had tended to be down lately, has been revitalized. Thank you very much. The entire staff will do our best." Meaning on how happy the staff were at the release of the demo version. The schedule was decided on the producer and not Naka, which was strange to him. Interactions made by Naka on social media for Balan Wonderworld were not allowed, so he could not interact with any post.[2]
Trivia[]
- Yuji Naka was given one chance to create an action-platformer game.[3]
- This might be a reason on why he left Square Enix, but it remains unknown if this was his or Square Enix's decision.[1]
Links[]
- Wikipedia:Yuji Naka
(Source for abridged information, includes a list with all of his work) - Official Facebook Page
- Official Twitter Page
Sources[]
Video(s)[]
Yuji Naka and Naoto Ohshima present BALAN WONDERWORLD (Closed Captions)
Yuji Naka and Naoto Ohshima present BALAN WONDERWORLD