Kazuyuki Hoshino

• • Name: Kazuyuki Hoshino

• Notable creations and work:

  • Sonic CD (1993)

  • NiGHTS into Dreams (1996)

  • Sonic Adventure (1999)

  • Sonic Adventure 2 (2001)

• Born: Unknown

• Died: Present

Biographical Summary

Kazuyuki Hoshino is considered one of the core artists for Sega's Sonic Team. Hired in 1993, Hoshino began his role at Sonic Team as Character, Special Stage, and Visual Designer for Sonic CD for the Sega CD. During working on Sonic CD, Hoshino created two of the Sonic franchise's iconic characters; Amy Rose and Metal Sonic. Amy Rose has been a staple in the sonic franchise ever since her appearance in Sonic CD Likewise Metal Sonic, and variations of his character design have also become a staple of the franchise, even replacing Dr. Robotnick as the , appearing both the Sonic Adventure Series, as well as Sonic Heroes.main antagonist for Sonic Heroes. In 1996 he worked on NiGHTS into Dreams as a character designer. Hoshino's next step forward was to work as the Art Director, Lead Field Artist, Enemy Character Designer, for the Sonic Adventure series. Through his art direction characters such as Chaos, Big the Cat, an E-102 Gamma, were introduced into the Sonic franchise.

Work

Kazuyuki Hoshino's work primarily centers around Sonic Team, and the Sonic franchise in particular. Serving as art director for nearly ever Sonic game since Sonic CD. Under his art direction some of the most loved and most hated Sonic characters in the franchise has been created. Characters like, Chaos, E-102 Gamma, Big the Cat, Mighty the Armadillo, and the redesign of Dr. Ivo Robotnik. Hoshino has been art director for games produced both the height of the Sonic franchise's sucess as well as its recent fall from grace. His style in some game can be considered to be reminiscent of pop art especially the art direction in Sonic CD. Most of his art centers around anthrophomorphic characters that,have very saturated color shemes. Color schemes for environment and characters vary depending on which era of the Sonic franchise the game was produced in. Most of the character designs share similar features such as pointy ears, thin arms and legs, and a large head. Many of the character designs also have very large eyes.

Project

Sonic CD (1993)

Character Designer, Special Stage Designer, Visual Design

Worked as a Characters designer and during working on the game helped create both Amy Rose, and Metal Sonic. These characters became regulars in the franchise and appear as minor characters. With the Exception of Sonic Heroes, in which Amy had her own "team" and Metal Sonic Was the Villian. Also Worked as the designer for the special stage, and was on the Visual Design team.