When Sonic Heroes was first unveiled at E3 2003, the game was only 20% completed after spending an entire year in production, and Sega had to finish the game in time for the Holiday 2003 deadline. The game only had two level designers: Eitaro Toyoda and director Takashi Iizuka. According to Iizuka, Toyoda fell ill and chose to stay home from work late into development, forcing Iizuka to relentlessly crunch out the remaining levels of the game. He cited this and mismanagement from Sega higher-ups as the factors that made it the most stressful period of his career; he became insomniac and lost 22 lbs as a direct result.