Hirokazu Yasuhara

Hirokazu Yasuhara (安原 弘和, 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 under the lead of Yuji Naka. Yasuhara stayed with Sega until the late 1990s. He then joined Naughty Dog, 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. In April 2012, Yasuhara joined Nintendo where he accepted a position at the Nintendo Software Technology division.

• Altered Beast (1988) — Game planner
• Fatal Labyrinth (1990) — Game planner
• Pyramid Magic (1991) — Special thanks
• Pyramid Magic Special (1991) — Special thanks
• Sonic the Hedgehog (1991) — Game planner
• Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (1992) — Game planner
• Sonic Spinball (1993) — Special thanks
• Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (1994) — Director, lead game designer
• Sonic & Knuckles (1994) — Director, lead game designer
• Sonic 3D Blast (1996) — Playfield design
• Sonic Xtreme (1996) — Head designer
• Sonic R (1997) — Map design director
• Sega Smash Pack 2 (2000) — Special thanks
• Floigan Bros. (2001) — Game designer
• Jak II (2003) — Game designer
• Jak 3 (2004) — Game designer
• Jak X: Combat Racing (2005) — Game designer
• Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (2007) — Game designer
• Afro Samurai (2009) — Special thanks
• Pac-Man Party (2010) — Senior game designer
• Mario and Donkey Kong: Minis on the Move (2013) — Game designer
• Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars (2015) — Special thanks
• Mini Mario & Friends: Amiibo Challenge (2016) – Special thanks