News

Yuji Naka is Working on New Smartphone Game

Game programmer and director Yuji Naka revealed on Twitter on Friday that he has been studying programming again and is making a "simple" game for smartphones with Unity by himself.

Naka resigned from Square Enix at the end of April. Naka had stated he could not currently explain the reason why he resigned, but when the time comes he would talk about it publicly. He had also been considering retirement since he was 55 years old. Naka turned 56 on Friday.

Naka worked for 22 years at Sega. He is the former head of the Sonic Team and lead programmer of the original Sonic the Hedgehog games for Sega Genesis. He also worked on such games as Nights into Dreams and Phantasy Star Online while at Sega.

Naka is the president, and CEO of the PROPE game development company, which he founded in 2006 after leaving Sega. At PROPE, he worked on such games as Fishing Resort, Buddy Monster, and Legend of Coin.

Naka joined Square Enix in January 2018. He directed the Balan Wonderworld game, which Square Enix released for Xbox One, Xbox Series X, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam on March 26.

Square Enix announced in July 2020 its launch of Balan Company, a new action game brand. The "Company" in the name refers to the cast and staff of a theater group or musical. The brand brings together professionals from Square Enix's internal and external action game development, as well as video and music production sectors.

Source: Yuji Naka's Twitter account via Siliconera