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[brian0057]

Companies in general:

• Looking Glass Studios.
• Nintendo.
• Ubisoft pre-2010.
• IO Interactive.
• VALVe.

Individuals in particular:

• Warren Spector.
• Clint Hocking.
• Eiji Aonuma.
• Shinji Mikami pre-RE4.

 

[Ian Henry]

A lot of good picks up in here

 

[Hulk_Smash]

Nice contrast to the other thread, OP. I always like a sprinkling of positivity in my day. I don't really have an order here, but just a few that I like:

- The Gooch - one of the fathers of (old) Final Fantasy. Pretty much what got me into gaming in a big way.
- Gabe - built Steam, hired a bunch of talented people to make a bunch of great games, contributed a ton of different things from chat/vr/amazing sales to the PC gaming world.
- George Kamitani - the Vanillaware guy. His games are always a visual spectacle and I appreciate the hand drawn stuff so much in this generation of CGI and faux 2D art. Most of them are exactly my style to play, as well. Love Odin Sphere and Muramasa particularly.
- Iwata - (RIP) - He seemed to really want to try new things in an industry that's become so risk averse. He seemed to care about his employees and his shareholders, was well liked by everyone. Not everything he green-lit was a hit, but I appreciate so much that he got so many different new ideas out the door.
- Nobuo Uematsu - His soundtracks are still the most memorable to me out of all of gaming. Such a huge variety of high quality tunes that fit nearly every mood and help convey emotion in scenes with 16 bit 2D pixel art that we can't get with AAA 4K games currently.

There are probably more, but that's my shortlist.

What other thread?

 

[Pejo]

What other thread?

Who is on your personal Mt. Sh*tmore of the games industry?

4. Zoe Quinn. Has made nothing of worth, yet still stains the news cycle in 2019. Will cry "rape" on anyone within a 3 mile radius. Standard gamer grrl dev piercings, hair, attitude, lack of any discernible talent apart from ability to hook up with young games journalists. Syphoner of cash from...

www.neogaf.com

 

[synchronicity]

Miyazaki
Ueda
Miyamoto
Mikami

 

[kunonabi]

Yu Suzuki
Satoru Iwata
Hideki Kamiya
Noritaka Funamizu
Shigeru Miyamoto

Special mention: Yoshio Sakamoto, Suda 51

 

[Al Abaster]

I don't pay any attention at all to industry personalities. I don't know their names, I don't know who they are or where they come from, I don't care. I don't know who designed my Mercury Grand Marquis either. But I know good games … and cars … from bad ones.

 

[PuppetMaster]

Chris Sawyer
Sid Meyer
Fumito Ueda
Shigeru Miyamoto

 

[StormCell]

Companies in general:

• Looking Glass Studios.
• Nintendo.
• Ubisoft pre-2010.
• IO Interactive.
• VALVe.

Individuals in particular:

• Warren Spector.
• Clint Hocking.
• Eiji Aonuma.
• Shinji Mikami pre-RE4.

I completely overlooked Eiji Aonuma. I let Miyamoto overshadow him, but his work with the Zelda series "post-Miggy" really deserves a tremendous amount of praise. While I wouldn't say that Miyamoto couldn't have made BotW, I believe Anouma really did a lot of pushing back on the old conventions to, ironically, produce something that is very close to the original but on this huge grand scale.

I don't know who I'd bump from my four for Rushmore, but Eiji Anouma is definitely going up there. Maybe left half of face is Miyamoto and right half is Anouma!

 

[Neff]

Shigeru Miyamoto
Takashi Tezuka
Shinji Mikami
Yu Suzuki

 

[The Scrivener]

No room for Brianna Wu?

Who Wu?

 

[SpiceRacz]

Yu Suzuki

MY MAN

 

[GamesAreFun]

Satoru Iwata for revitalising Nintendo, and his gentle brilliance
Shigeru Miyamoto for Pikmin, Zelda and Mario
Warren Spector for Epic Mickey, an underrated gem

 

[Psykodad]

1- Fumito Ueda
2- Shuhei Yoshida
3- Nobuo Uematsu
4- Hideo Kojima
5- Hermen Hulst

 

[Nvzman]

Shigeru Miyamoto
John Carmack
Gabe Newell
Hideo Kojima

Besides Kojima I have no idea how the other 3 couldn't be on there, they all had a gigantic impact on the gaming industry

 

[Deleted member 471617]

Same as the other topic for me - none. lol.

I don't have a single favorite person as I know it's just one person that's developing the games I like/love or dislike/hate. If I had to choose one person though, it would be Ashraf Ismail from Ubisoft. He was behind my favorite AC game that got me into the series - Black Flag and when I thought I was done with AC, he brought me back with Origins. Can't wait to see what he and his massive team at Ubisoft do with AC 2020 on next gen hardware.

 

[sublimit]

1)Fumito Ueda
2)Hidetaka Miyazaki
3)Gavin Rummery
4)Hideaki Itsuno
5)Toshihiro Nagoshi

 

[deriks]

Yep he opened the podcast by saying Carmack was the Mt Rushmore of game developers or something.

"If there's a Mt Rushmore of videogames, you're George Washington"

Satoru Iwata
Shigeru Miyamoto
Nolan Bushnell
John Carmack

No particular order. Those are the founding fathers of gaming.

 

[petran79]

1.Mike and Simon Woodroffe (add also Jeff and Tricia)
Horrorsoft games + Simon the Sorcerer, Feeble Files, Call of Cthulhuark Corners of the Earth

2.Frederik Reynald
Alone in the Dark, Little Big Adventure, Toy Commander, Time Commando

3.Tomohiro Nishikado
Space Invaders +70s arcade games earlier

4.Brian Morierty
Trinity, Wishbringer, Beyond Zork, Loom, The Dig (early project that was cancelled but some ideas made it to the final game)

 

[Grand Theft Scratchy]

Shuntaro Tanaka (Skies of Arcadia)
Rieko Kodama (Skies of Arcadia)
Warren Spector (Deus Ex)
Hiroyuki Ito (Final Fantasy IX)
Yuji Horii (Dragon Quest series)

 

[Terrible_Majesty]

Miyamoto.
Gunpei Yokoi. (D Pad, Gameboy, mentor to Miyamoto)
Fumito Ueda.
Hideo Kojima.
Shinji Mikami.
Shigesato itoi. (Earthbound)
Hidetaka Miyazaki. (Dark Souls)
Yoshio Sakamoto. (Super Metroid)

 

[Guardian's Light]

Basically, the idea is "Who is your PERSONAL top 4-5 gaming developers? I'm not talking about companies. Repeat, I am not talking about companies. I'm talking about individuals who either programmed, produced, designed, engineered, or otherwise made video game software or hardware at some level. And I emphasized "personal" because this is about which developer legend has effected your life as a gamer the most- a list that is most likely never going to change in your lifetime.

*For non-Americans, Mt. Rushmore is a massive carving cut out of the side of a mountain of what is suppose to be four of our greatest presidents.

Here is my Mt. Rushmore of gaming devs:
5. Gabe Newell (half life, portal, left 4 dead, as well as Steam)
4. Hironobu Sakaguchi (Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, The Last Story)
3. Koji Kondo (composer for multiple Nintendo franchises)
2. John Carmack (Wolfenstein, Doom, Quake, Commander Keen lol, Occulus Rift)
1. Shigeru Miyamoto (If you don't know who this is, why are you here?)

* I have a ton of honorable mentions, but will wait to share those after others have shared. And yes, I know Mt. Rushmore only has four presidents. Originally, a 5th was planned, but either way, I want a top 5 dang it!

Kojima
Miyamoto
Masuda
Mikami
Someone from Bungie because of Destiny, the only name I can remember is Luke Smith

They basically are responsible for all my favorite games ever

Runner ups: someone who created Doom I-II ( Carmack?) and someone responsible for Duke Nukem and 3d realms / Apogee old games like Blake Stone Aliens of Gold, and the Wolfenstein 3D key developer

 

[MightySquirrel]

Thumbs up for Sid Meier. 1987 Pirates game was so good.

 

[Rya.Reisender]

Akitoshi Kawazu

He is my hero, role model and inspiration and the only person I'd really wish I could talk with about game design.

I don't know actual names of other developers, just company names.

Honorable mention: The guy who did the dungeon design in Phantasy Star II, he must be a genius. Too bad his name is not known.

 

[Rya.Reisender]

Oh I guess I know Toby Fox (Undertale, Delta) and Zun (Touhou series) by name too. Those are great too.

Generally to give you an idea. The developer companies I'm actively liking and following are tri-Ace, tri-Crescendo and Camelot Software Planning. But it's hard for me to tell who in those companies had the most influence on the things I like in the games.

 

[appaws]

Nobody saying Iga...

Anyway, Miyamoto, Sakaguchi, Horii, and Iga.

Such a huge percentage of my life taken up by the creations of those 4 guys.

 

[Stimpak]

1. Jack Wall
2. Hidetaka Miyazaki
3. Tim Cain
4. Shinji Mikami

This would be a mt Rushmore made specifically for me.

 

[dorkimoe]

Dylan Jobe

GIVE US WARHAWK REMASTER

 

[recklesscognition]

I couldn't tell you a single developer's name outside of Kojima.

 

[MisterBrimstone]

1. Shigeru Miyamoto (Mario) The influencer of influencers.
2. Hidetaka Miyazaki (Dark Souls) The first one to git gud.
3. John Carmack (Doom) He who let it rip.
4. Martin Hollis (Goldeneye) For England, Martin? No, for me

 

[channie]

Eric Chahi
Lee Perry - unsung Gears of War/Fortnite game mechanics/prototyper extraordinaire
Jordan Thomas - unsung Thief 3/Bioshock 2 design mastermind
Tetsuya Mizuguchi
Raphael Colantonio

 

[Hinedorf]

This is a bitter pill for me because some of my favorites have also become some of my most hated

1. Hironobu Sakaguchi - I have known and respected this man since Jr High and I'm 37 now. You can talk about famous developers and then you get to this guy who has imprinted his stories into the fabric of my young adult life.

2. Peter Molyneux - I'll stop the list here. I loved and now hate this man. Black and White and Black and White 2 are still 2 of my all time favorite games that I wish so much would've been more successful.

And then Godus happened and Peter looked like a real piece of shit and still does.

Miyamoto and Garriot would be on my list by sheer volume and historical respect. I tend to feel there's a lot of newer developers who get a bit more hype than has truly been earned.

Another fantastic list would be Video Game Music composers which there's just no way I could pick 5. All I know is Woody Jackson is somewhere on that list for me

 

[bobone]

Here is my Mt. Rushmore of gaming devs:
5. Gabe Newell (half life, portal, left 4 dead, as well as Steam)
4. Hironobu Sakaguchi (Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, The Last Story)
3. Koji Kondo (composer for multiple Nintendo franchises)
2. John Carmack (Wolfenstein, Doom, Quake, Commander Keen lol, Occulus Rift)
1. Shigeru Miyamoto (If you don't know who this is, why are you here?)

* I have a ton of honorable mentions, but will wait to share those after others have shared. And yes, I know Mt. Rushmore only has four presidents. Originally, a 5th was planned, but either way, I want a top 5 dang it!

I think that list is perfect if you remove Gabe and stick to the 4.
There is no way this list can not contain Miyamoto or Carmack. There would be no industry without Nintendo fixing the videogame crash; and there would be no Nintendo without Miyamoto.
Every game that is an FPS or uses online has to thank Carmack; and that is basically every game that is played today on a daily basis.
Koji Kondo will be on playlists for decades.
Sakaguchi is a personal favorite for me, not exactly influential like the first 2, but his games are some of my personal favorite of all time.



Gabe did alot of damage to PC gaming by making videogames cheap and disposable on steam, so he is in no way on my list.

 

[Krappadizzle]

Thought it'd be fun to resurrect this thread to see people's updated opinions.

1. Miyamoto
2. John Carmack
3. Gabe Newell
4. Tim Schaefer

and Hideo Kojima poking his eyeball out of a cardboard box hole right next to them.

To be honest, kind of hard to narrow it down to 4 people for a Videogame Rushmore. Shinji Mikami should be mentioned as well as Hidetaka Miyazaki, Peter Molyneux, Satoru Iwata, Ken Levine. It's really tough to narrow it down to just 4 or for me even to look at my choices and feel 100% sure on them other than Miyamoto and John Carmack.

 

[MvCSpiderman]

1. Shigeru Miyamoto (If you don't know who this is, why are you here?)

Because you had a SMS, a 7800, an ST, an C64, or an Amiga. All of which had actual games with evolution in game design instead of side scroller left right.

 

[Vestal]

Richard Garriott: Ultima need I say more.
Sakaguchi: Father of JRPGs
Carmack: Coding genius.

Edit: on my phone so hard to check but I am surprised I am the first to mention Garriott.

 

[Krappadizzle]

Richard Garriott: Ultima need I say more.
Sakaguchi: Father of JRPGs
Carmack: Coding genius.

Edit: on my phone so hard to check but I am surprised I am the first to mention Garriott.

Completely escaped my mind. There's so many incredible and influential developers that it's really hard to narrow it down to just 4.

 

[MvCSpiderman]

Also we already have this thread why bump a two year one. I thought it was at least different.

 

[Corgi1985]

Nobody from gamefreak

 

[CitizenZ]

I guess a few come to mind:

T. Iwantani- basically created my interest and everyone's in this hobby
Tim Cain, Chris Avellone, Fergues Urqohart, Josh Sawyer, Brian Fargo
Richard Garriot and Micheal Cranford
Sergiy Grygorovych
Ken Levine and Gabe of course

So many to name but I would say these are mostly the guys that were there at the start of when i started playing or when it was at its peak.

 

[93xfan]

Shigeru Miyamoto
Hideo Kojima
Marty O’Donnell
M. Sakurai

Alternate: Todd Howard

 

[TexMex]

A lot of the same people that are mentioned in every post here already (with good reason) but haven't seen David Crane (Pitfall, A Boy and His Blob) yet, and he's a personal favorite.

 

[Dynasty8]

Miyazaki x 4

 

[Danjin44]

Already listed mine in this thread.

Who are your favourite game directors?

Mine: George Kamitani Yoko Taro Shu Takumi Fumito Ueda Keiichiro Toyama Katsura Hashino Hidetaka Miyazaki

www.neogaf.com

 

[TLZ]

Because you had a SMS, a 7800, an ST, an C64, or an Amiga. All of which had actual games with evolution in game design instead of side scroller left right.

You're very wrong on this one. Not one of what you mentioned has influenced the gaming industry like Mario did. So much so even non gamers know who he is.

 

[Hulk_Smash]

Because you had a SMS, a 7800, an ST, an C64, or an Amiga. All of which had actual games with evolution in game design instead of side scroller left right.

I guess having those consoles meant there was no way you would know who he was 30 years later on a gaming forum discussing the greatest game developers of all time.

Yeah, that makes sense.

 

[MvCSpiderman]

You're very wrong on this one. Not one of what you mentioned has influenced the gaming industry like Mario did.

The vast majority of game design came off those computers along with the Apple Ii.

Mario didn't have much influence in game design, it's a side scroller like any other, just it was on a console were 90% of the games were also side scrollers, so being babies first console, you are attached to the game and the myth surrounding it and the NESS making you refuse to notice most of the gaming industries influence came from computers.

Also if you preferred the 7800 or SMS its likely due to games the NES had no counter too, so you still wouldn't give a crap about miyamoto if you preferred either of those two.

But dismissing the computers just shows you know nothing about gaming. Zero.

I guess having those consoles meant there was no way you would know who he was 30 years later on a gaming forum discussing the greatest game developers of all time.

Yeah, that makes sense.

This is about putting him on a list, nice try though.

 

[InfiniteCombo]

1. Shinji Mikami (RE1, RE4, P.N.03, Dino Crisis, God Hand, Vanquish, The Evil Within... and that's just as director. He's been involved as advisor/producer/other roles in a number of Capcom franchises). Given his heavy involvement in Capcom's history, for me he's the "Abraham Lincoln" of the video game Mount Rushmore.
2. Yu Suzuki. When I think "SEGA," I think this guy. Responsible for a mind-numbing amount of contributions, both in video game software and even video game hardware!? (From what I understand, he was directly involved in the development of some of SEGA's arcade boards). The "Thomas Jefferson" of the video game Mount Rushmore.
3. Shigeru Miyamoto -- I mean, in some way all of us in this hobby are indebted to this man. Definitely the "George Washington" of the video game Mount Rushmore.
4. This could be anybody, but I'm gonna pick Masahiro Sakurai -- The dude has a will and determination made of pure iron, sometimes even to his own detriment. But it shows. I'm not even that big of Smash fan, but in its current form (Smash Ultimate), it's the ultimate love letter to video games. The amount of detail for every character is insane. The "Teddy Roosevelt" of the video game Mount Rushmore.

I went with the strict definition of "developer," as someone who is directly involved in some aspect of video game design, direction, etc. As such, I didn't vote for Gabe Newell, but he's undoubtedly one of the most important figures in all of video game history.

 

[Krappadizzle]

Also if you preferred the 7800 or SMS its likely due to games the NES had no counter too, so you still wouldn't give a crap about miyamoto if you preferred either of those two.

What games did the NES not have counters to?

 

[SafeOrAlone]

Three Kojimas and that indy guy who used to always blow a fuse, from like a decade ago.