The game that would become
Sonic the Hedgehog was developed by a team of seven: two programmers, two sound engineers, and three designers,
[29] although it began with just Naka and Ohshima.
[24] People came onto the team as content for the game increased.
[24]After being assigned a project with the code name "Defeat Mario", Naka and Ohshima began working together on the game. However, they eventually encountered problems: Ohshima's Rabbit proved hard to program. In addition, catching items and throwing them broke the action's rhythm. Furthermore, Naka stated that the rabbit was not suitable for his game engine and that he wanted the game to be playable with only one button. As such,
Hirokazu Yasuhara joined the team to supervise Naka and Ohshima and develop levels. Eventually, his greater experience led to him becoming the game's lead designer. He also found the way to make the game playable with only one button by having Sonic
do damage while jumping. From there, the trio came up with the idea of Sonic
rolling into a ball. After the hedgehog character was chosen, many characters were redrawn, and the team agreed on the environments' visual complexity, with particular focus on the colors. After this, four people came onto the team to speed up the development.
[30]