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[sado]

It's almost as if I had a person in mind for this thread for years before seeing it.

Paul Reiche III
Fred Ford
...Toys for Bob

Company makes the best game ever (Star Control 2, my opinion) and goes on to produce a bunch of licensed games like Madagascar. Although, there's some hope for them with the success of Skylanders. Wish they would go on to make games similar to SC2, that type of game went up in flames quickly.

 

[VegaNine]

Tezuka was a hands on designer for a long time. From like 83-95. He was then more of a producer, and now he serves as a general producer. He is more of a manager and should be because of his age. If you think he should give that up and direct zeldas again, Tezuka himself admits he was never able to grasp 3D games from a player or designer stand put.

He's modest (and capable). And although I never said I wanted a 3D Zelda, I won't begrudge him for doing what he pleases. Also, he's not that old; only two years Kojima's senior.

And how is Mikami quiet? He released a game in 2010 and is now working on another game with his new company. The short bit of silence is understandable.

I don't mean since Vanquish. I mean one game since 2006—with another in the works (his "final game as a director") for a still-undecided platform in "2013 at the earliest." Building studios or not, that's what I call going quiet, especially given his earlier frequency.

 

[StuBurns]

I don't mean since Vanquish. I mean one game since 2006—with another in the works (his "final game as a director") for a still-undecided platform in "2013 at the earliest." Building studios or not, that's what I call going quiet, especially given his earlier frequency.

I don't think so.

1996 - Resident Evil
1999 - Dino Crisis (three years)
2002 - REmake (three years)
2003 - PN03 (one year)
2005 - RE4 (two years)
2006 - God Hand (one year)
2010 - Vanquish (four years)
201? - Zwei

The God Hand/Vanquish gap was the largest, but only by a year, and there were multiple three year gaps. Also you have to consider game development as a whole has become longer time commitments generally.

 

[JPKellams]

I don't mean since Vanquish. I mean one game since 2006—with another in the works (his "final game as a director") for a still-undecided platform in "2013 at the earliest." Building studios or not, that's what I call going quiet, especially given his earlier frequency.

You do realize how long it takes for a studio to get off the ground? Just to establish a tool-chain, get an engine (in-house or otherwise) up and running, then to start figuring out what you want to do... Time ticks away. Then you need to staff up to create the content for that tool-chain. Then consider that they are working on an original IP...

If any of you are honestly knocking Mikami-san for not having a put out a game in 2 years with all that on his plate, I seriously question whether you have the first understanding of what it takes to make a big console title.

 

[JPKellams]

I don't think so.
2006 - God Hand (one year)
2010 - Vanquish (four years)

Actually, God Hand was something like 17 months. Vanquish was a shade under 2.5 years. PG was focused on the other titles first, while Mikami-san was thinking about what he wanted to do and we assembled the team we needed for Vanquish.

 

[StuBurns]

Actually, God Hand was something like 17 months. Vanquish was a shade under 2.5 years. PG was focused on the other titles first, while Mikami-san was thinking about what he wanted to do and we assembled the team we needed for Vanquish.

I wasn't talking about development time, just the gap between directorial releases.

Do you know if PN03 was really six months of development? I read that, somewhere, it certainly feels rushed.

 

[JPKellams]

I wasn't talking about development time, just the gap between directorial releases.

I know. But talking about the gaps absent of the context in which they occurred is a bit disingenuous, don't you think?

I mean, I didn't have a game credit to my name until I was 25. Does that mean I was quiet? Nope. It means I was born.

EDIT: I wasn't on PN03, but yeah. I think it was actually 9 months including pre-production, but the whole point was to see what you could make with a small team on a compressed schedule.

 

[KageMaru]

Yu Suzuki to Yu Suzuki Mobile.

Came to post this.

The industry just can't sustain the greatness of this man on a higher level. =( Still sad what has happened to him.

 

[StuBurns]

I know. But talking about the gaps absent of the context in which they occurred is a bit disingenuous, don't you think?

I mean, I didn't have a game credit to my name until I was 25. Does that mean I was quiet? Nope. It means I was born.

I don't really agree, if we're only discussing how many games he's fronted in his career, the specifics of their development are less important than the ultimate amount. I don't think it's anything of a slight on him either, it certainly wasn't intended to be.

 

[Boss Doggie]

I don't understand Warren Spector being posted here... unless people hate Mickey for some odd reason. I mean Epic Mickey was average, but not terrible.

 

[VegaNine]

Who's "knocking" Mikami?

Yes, times and studios have changed, as I've noted, but it's no slander to acknowledge that his voice is softer than it used to be.

Also, I haven't said half as much about him as some others in this thread.

 

[EvB]

Came to post this.

The industry just can't sustain the greatness of this man on a higher level. =( Still sad what has happened to him.

What you have to remember is that half the people listed in this thread have their roots on working on games that maybe only had 5 or so people of a team. Being able to of been so in control of every little aspect of a game was probably quite exciting for people like Yu Suzuki.

It's hardly surprising that perhaps he didn't find it quite so satisfying overseeing games with a team of hundreds.

Perhaps he is actually happier making the kind of games he is better at making for a far bigger audience?

 

[Baron_Calamity]

I'm going to make a shallow effort to defend some of the developers listed here.

Everyone now at Zynga: We all know that Zynga is the company that builds mindless social games that copy the products of other. That is their legacy. Keep in mind, most of the great developers that were hired by Zynga were not thinking about making Farmville and copy cat games. All of them were offered to make games they always wanted to make in a better working environment and pay than they were use to. I can't fault anyone for making that choice. Virtually all the games these people are working on haven't been seen yet. I've heard a little about what Zynga East is working on with Soren Johnson and it is nothing like the Ville treadmill games.

Warren Spector: Epic Mickey was creative and featured game play we haven't seen before or used in original ways. Also it did justice to the ip. Probably treated the classic Disney characters better than Disney film or TV has in the past 40+ years. The problem was, it was on the Wii, so no chance the game could live up to the concept art, and the controls sucked. If Epic Mickey 2 improves on those issues, we could have a good game

Will Wright: The game we got wasn't the game Will Wright wanted to make. Will Wright is a stand up guy, and supported the company so we never hear his side of the story. The way I've heard it, Spore was close to finishing with a 2006 release date. EA started focus testing and what they got back scared them. Testers said the game was too ugly, there wasn't enough to do and the game would play itself. EA came in and forced a lot of changes. Will Wright was basically removed from Spore after 2005 and replaced with Chris Hecker. In two years the game was gutted, simplified, and made cute and family friendly.

Now with that out of the way, Designers who have disappointed me.

David Crane: Here is a guy who created 3 game genres during the 70s and 80s, only to end his career developing Night Trap and spent the next 15 years doing nothing except talking crazy.

Lawrence Holland: Developer of some of the best WW2 combat sims and the X-wing series. The past few years he has been making serious games for business and not much else.

 

[Lanark]

I don't understand Warren Spector being posted here... unless people hate Mickey for some odd reason. I mean Epic Mickey was average, but not terrible.

It was average, but for somebody who made the greatest game of all time, average is pretty weep-worthy.

 

[Spirit Icana]

Yasunori Shiono.

This guy used to compose the music for Neverland's games (Lufia/Lufia II/Lufia III etc). I think he used to be part of a band with Motoi Sakuraba and Masaki Uno as well.

WHAT HAPPENED TO THIS GUY!!!

He's disappeared now. I haven't been able to find any information about him. I guess he left Neverland, but is he still making music? Where is he now?

T_T

 

[mr_toa]

The entire of Ensemble...

Ahhh man, I totally forgot they got axed right after Halo Wars released :-(
Sad face

 

[efyu_lemonardo]

I have to disagree about Yuji Naka. Since starting Prope, his games have remained original, charming and fun, and have generally grown in complexity with each consecutive release. The fact that his latest, and arguably most interesting game, according to him, hasn't seen release is solely the fault of the publisher. I still believe we will see it sooner or later and it's not like the guy isn't still working.

Real disappointments for me, that I'm surprised weren't mentioned yet, are:

Factor 5 (Julien Eggbrecht and co.) becoming a social developer - touchfactor...

Blue Moon Software, having never followed up on the amazing Sky Roads and quitting games development all together.

 

[GungHo]

Brian Reynolds:

Where's my Alpha Centauri 2?

 

[Boss Doggie]

It was average, but for somebody who made the greatest game of all time, average is pretty weep-worthy.

Ehh no. Average is... average. Weep when they produce crap, not average.

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

Ehh no. Average is... average. Weep when they produce crap, not average.

I'd argue that the average game these days is pretty crappy. So... weep on.

 

[djtiesto]

The Gooch.

From creating some of the defining moments of the videogame industry (FF4-7, FF9), to releasing a bomba of a movie that nearly sank Squaresoft and forced them to be bought out by Enix, to bouncing back by releasing 2 great exclusive 360 games and a divisive Wii game (haven't played it yet)...

...to making shitty iphone surfing and towerdefense games

 

[GrotesqueBeauty]

The Gunpei Yokoi bit is untrue. It is Gunpei Yokoi who told R&D1 to start writing script heavy games like Miho Nakayama Tokimeki School, and Detective Club. All which were mildly successful in Japan at the time. Not like Yokoi designed games, but he advised his designers what direction to take.

Metroid was struggling as a pure action game, before Sakamoto finished Gumshoe and joined the Metroid team and changed it into a non linear item exploration based game. And Sakamoto's productions include Rhythm Heaven, Kiki Trick, WarioWare and Tomodachi Collection, which are wonderfully delightful games anything but cinematic.

I'm aware of Sakamoto's resume, but that doesn't negate Other M, the design philosophy he laid out when speaking about it in interviews, and the fact that it's one of his most recent games and therefore a very relevant example when we're talking about the overall trajectory of his career vs. games he did years or decades ago. Likewise, the fact that Yokoi pushed certain script heavy games doesn't mean he thought it was appropriate for every type of experience. Detective Club is not Metroid. And you claim that my insinuation is "untrue", but here is a quote regarding the subject from Sakamoto himself:

As creator of the Game Boy and Virtual Boy, Mr Yokoi clearly had very different ways of thinking about game experiences. I think I, in turn, have a different way from him. For Mr Yokoi, I think games were good enough to speak for themselves. They were always good enough on their own, and probably, in his mind, they didn't need the level of story I like to aim for.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/reinventing-metroid-interview

Seems pretty self explanatory.

 

[ThatChairMan]

Patrice Desilets left his role as director of the Assassin's Creed series to head up his own studio at THQ.



Now a word about him or the studio in two years and the way THQ's luck has been going I'm pretty sure he's kicking himself hard right now.

Wow, I can't believe I completely forgot about him. Ever since the news about him joining THQ, I was waiting for news about his next project, but its just been silence.

 

[wastedyears]

Warren Spector

From the highpoint of the amazing System Shock 2 to making Mickey Mouse games for Disney.

 

[Frankenstrat]

Brian Reynolds:

That's painful.

 

[OfWhiteSkinOnRedLeather]

He's credited on Strange Journey.

Strange Journey was three years ago, and he's credited with an early scenario role and series demon designs in SMTIV. It seems like he's either not really working on the series much at all, or he's no longer at Atlus.

Ditto on Cozy Okada and Kazuma Kaneko.

The former turned irrelevant and the latter just disappeared off the face of earth.

Okada pretty much disappeared too. Nothing has been heard of him or Gaia since like 2010. He's to hoping the two of them decide to get back together and make some games. We need something to replace Megami Tensei since the series keeps taking turns for the worse.

 

[Secret Fawful]

"How could Warren Spector go from making Deus Ex to making those kiddie Mickey Mouse games"

Look, Epic Mickey isn't just a Disney coat of paint. It goes BEFORE the Disney brand to celebrate the roots of the very BEGINNINGS OF ANIMATION THAT LED TO MICKEY, by celebrating the works and creations of Ub Iwerks, the man who single-handedly animated Steamboat Willie in a room by himself. That isn't kiddy. That's appealing to people who love the medium and honoring its very beginnings.

Fine: the gameplay isn't perfect, and it can be janky. So what? Not every game is going to be friggin perfect. It doesn't need to be when you understand the level of love and detail that went into the games. Oh no, it didn't look like the steampunk concept art. So what? In terms of what the games do, they're something far better than Ameican McGee meets Mickey ever would have been.

Instead of just blindly hating on it because it's not uber-mature like Deus Ex, maybe you should understand it first. Go read extensively about Ub Iwerks and then talk. Warren Spector isn't just making some game for kids, he's making a game celebrating something he has a lot of personal knowledge about and a love and passion for. There are plenty of games with okay gameplay that are elevated by what they do and what they honor, and this is one of them.

 

[linko9]

Hiroyuki Ito: Top level Final Fantasy systems designer to social/mobile gaming.

In my deluded world of hopes and dreams, he's secretly heading up FF15. Believe.

 

[Nirolak]

Since when?

His credits in the past 4+ years include a block rolling browser game and Guardian Cross.

 

[Vazra]

Atsushi Taniguchi

Lost KingdomsI & II to Tenchu: Dark Secrets

 

[Majima Everywhere System]

Jeff Green *drops mic*

 

[Monocle]

Hideki Kamiya.

Bayonetta 2 (TBA) - supervisor
The Wonderful 101 (2012) - director
Bayonetta (2009) - story, director
Okami (2006) - director
Viewtiful Joe: Double Trouble! (2005) - story
Viewtiful Joe 2 (2004) - story
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trials and Tribulations (2004) - voice actor for Godot, JPN version
Viewtiful Joe (2003) - director
Resident Evil Zero (2002) - original game design
Devil May Cry (2001) - director
Resident Evil 2 (1998) - director
Resident Evil (1996) - system planner
Arthur to Astaroth no Nazo Makaimura (1996) - planner

Grown men have surely wept while contemplating the brilliance of this career.

Spoiler

No sarcasm here. Everything Kamiya has directed is gold.

 

[AntMurda]

I'm aware of Sakamoto's resume, but that doesn't negate Other M, the design philosophy he laid out when speaking about it in interviews, and the fact that it's one of his most recent games and therefore a very relevant example when we're talking about the overall trajectory of his career vs. games he did years or decades ago.

But in the same circa, and post circa, you had Rhythm Heaven Gold, and Tomodachi Collection. One of the reason's Iwata is so fascinated by Sakamoto is because he will go from making Balloon Fight to Detective Club, from Super Metroid to TeleroBoxer, From Card Hero to WarioWare, From Other M to Kiki Trick. The man has never been set to a fixed motif.

Likewise, the fact that Yokoi pushed certain script heavy games doesn't mean he thought it was appropriate for every type of experience. Detective Club is not Metroid. And you claim that my insinuation is "untrue", but here is a quote regarding the subject from Sakamoto himself:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/reinventing-metroid-interview

Seems pretty self explanatory.

Right but Yokoi was always an engineer more than a designer or script writer. Thus his closest involvement to game design has been very simple games like Dr. Mario and Game & Watch: Ball. He would always tell his designers what kinds of games to make, since he himself was never interested in designing levels or telling stories.

 

[Boss Doggie]

Hideki Kamiya.

Bayonetta 2 (TBA) - supervisor
The Wonderful 101 (2012) - director
Bayonetta (2009) - story, director
Okami (2006) - director
Viewtiful Joe: Double Trouble! (2005) - story
Viewtiful Joe 2 (2004) - story
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trials and Tribulations (2004) - voice actor for Godot, JPN version
Viewtiful Joe (2003) - director
Resident Evil Zero (2002) - original game design
Devil May Cry (2001) - director
Resident Evil 2 (1998) - director
Resident Evil (1996) - system planner
Arthur to Astaroth no Nazo Makaimura (1996) - planner

Grown men have surely wept while contemplating the brilliance of this career.

Spoiler

No sarcasm here. Everything Kamiya has directed is gold.

I always weep whenever The Wonderful 101 is never mentioned ;_;

 

[PhantomR]

Yoshio Sakamoto. From Super Metroid to... Other M. Oof. And the worst part is that if you read interviews some part of him still appears cognizant of what makes a good Metroid game, he just seems to be rebelling against Gunpei Yokoi's ghost and indulging in a bizarre cinema fetish where he likes to pretend he's Dario Argento (whose output has also taken a dramatic dive over the years btw). I can't help but think he's going through some sort of midlife creative crisis.

The thing is, Yokoi-San kept his ass firmly in check, which is why Super Metroid was so amazing. Man do I miss him

He would be very proud of the Nintendo DS, though. Very proud.

 

[Sir Ilpalazzo]

The thing is, Yokoi-San kept his ass firmly in check, which is why Super Metroid was so amazing. Man do I miss him

He would be very proud of the Nintendo DS, though. Very proud.

I think it's pretty unfair to just say "well, Other M sucked, Sakamoto must have been a horrible game designer all along".

 

[efyu_lemonardo]

I think it's pretty unfair to just say "well, Other M sucked, Sakamoto must have been a horrible game designer all along".

This.
If this keeps up we'll eventually be seeing a post in this thread along the lines of:
Miyamoto: from Zelda to Wii Music...

Just because a game designer you admire made a few games you hate, doesn't mean they've gone down the drain. Same goes for Spector.

 

[Lady Bird]

His credits in the past 4+ years include a block rolling browser game and Guardian Cross.

I highly doubt one of the top directors of a big company would be perfectly happy working on two small games over the span of 4 years, and possibly be well-paid for that. He's probably the FF15 director.

 

[vareon]

What I'm sad to see is developers that said they "saw an opportunity in social gaming" and outputs the samey social game.

 

[SatelliteOfLove]

I highly doubt one of the top directors of a big company would be perfectly happy working on two small games over the span of 4 years, and possibly be well-paid for that. He's probably the FF15 director.

Thing is, what is going on over there in general nowadays isn't making that especially likely.

What I'm sad to see is developers that said they "saw an opportunity in social gaming" and outputs the samey social game.

Then we have Zynga deflating like the wet fart that it is.

 

[Steaks]

Yu Suzuki is like, the divine god of the arcade. The mobile space is probably the space where he can make the best games since IMO Mobile games are more closely related to arcade style games than anything else.

 

[Lady Bird]

Thing is, what is going on over there in general nowadays isn't making that especially likely.

I think the opposite.

The FF13 team has been having a hard time trying to acchieve FF-worthy critical success and is stuck on ff13 sequels, Nomura's Versus XIII is going nowhere and he has KH3 on the to do next list, and Tabata has shown interests on PSP vita (and it's still probably too early for him to work on a main FF). Almost everyone else went to work on FF14 remake, including Itou's FFXII team, but excluding Itou himself.

He is one of the main FF designers and directors, in an era where everyone else is busy in that company, and has mysteriously only worked for two small games over the span of 4 years. What has he been doing in the meantime? Slacking off, while still getting his payment at the end of the month?

 

[pa22word]

Yo sorry for the late bump, but I figured it was relevant to point out that currently it seems Paul Neurath is out of a job now that Zynga Boston has closed.

Irrational is in Boston, so maybe Neurath could land there?

 

[Rhazer Fusion]

Shinji Mikami. From Platinum Games to Bethesda. Sigh.

WHAT???? Since when? Please say it ain't so.

 

[PastorOfMuppets]

Was already mentioned but Brian Reynolds. That guy literally shaped my childhood and now he's working for Zynga making Facebook games.

I still play Alpha Centauri to this day - it's been installed on every computer I've ever owned since I bought it back in 2001. The original CD has been worn down to the point where I had to retire it.

 

[ScreenSplitter]

David Jaffe
John Carmack
John Romero
Satoru Iwata
Casey Hudson

 

[Ledsen]

WHAT???? Since when? Please say it ain't so.

It ain't so. His new studio since 2010 is owned by Zenimax, who also own Bethesda. He's doing his own thing (a survival horror game), not working on Elder Scrolls 6.