What influential game developer do you admire most?

[gbpxl]

There are dozens of people in the industry who are basically household names at this point; Shigeru Miyamoto, Hideo Kojima, Yu Suzuki, Ralph Baer, Bill Gates, Trip Hawkins, Ed Boon, etc. All of them have brought something unique to the world of gaming but is there any single developer you have the most admiration and/or respect for?

I have to go with Eugene Jarvis. Robotron and Crusin are two of my favorite games. The kind of games he has been involved in are the type of games I like. short, quick, easy to play. I didnt realize it but he actually owns Raw Thrills which is one of the few companies that is still putting out arcade games like Jurassic Park, Nerf Arcade, and H2Overdrive. He never sold out and started designing mobile games as a lot of developers end up doing.

Secondly I have to go with Yu Suzuki. He really dominated the Japanese arcade scene in the 80s. and kept the memories alive through 80s simulators Shenmue 1 and 2.

Of course Miyamoto is basically the reason video games became so widespread in the 80s. and for home consoles yes he was the king at the time. Im just not familiar with much of his work with arcade or pinball games and that is what interests me the most

what are your favorite game developers or designers?

[Aussie2B]

As far as designers/directors/producers/programmers/etc. go, that's an easy choice for me: Gunpei Yokoi. He was effectively Miyamoto's mentor, invented the Game & Watch, D-pad, Game Boy, Virtual Boy, WonderSwan, and produced classic franchises like Metroid, Kid Icarus, Fire Emblem, Dr. Mario, Wario Land, etc. And his reward for all his accomplishments was being driven out of Nintendo, blamed for the Virtual Boy's failure, and then he tragically died in a traffic accident only about a year later. He was a creative genius as far as I'm concerned, and I can only imagine what else he could've created had he not be robbed from this world in only his mid 50s. Whenever I beat a game with his involvement and see his name scroll by in the credits, I always feel a bit melancholy.

Yoshiharu Gotanda is another important figure to me. He's the president and co-founder of tri-Ace, my favorite game development company. He's pretty brilliant in his own right, considering he was programming some great games under Wolf Team as early as his teens.

I respect Hiroshi Matsuyama, the president and founder of CyberConnect2, for not only being behind many excellent games but for also seemingly being such a personable, upbeat guy who loves what he works on and loves the fans. I mean, you can't even Google Image search him without half the photos being of him cosplaying as Naruto, haha. I smile pretty much every time I see him.

Lastly, I have a lot of admiration and respect for Dona Bailey, who not only co-created my favorite pre-crash game (Centipede) but had the courage to push herself into an industry that was not remotely welcoming to women. I can only imagine how much bullcrap she must've faced and how it must've felt as the sole woman in Atari's coin-op division. But I'm thankful she did it because she helped open the door for many others and having a woman's perspective resulted in a game that appealed to a broader audience than the average game at the time.

[Gameguy]

If we're talking about individual developers then I'll have to mention Ron Gilbert for pretty obvious reasons. Listening to him talk about the design processes he used when creating his various games like Maniac Mansion is pretty interesting, there's various videos on youtube if anyone want to look for them.

[kupomogli]

The problem with many Japanese developers in the past is that a lot of companies did not want people to steal their employees, so a lot of names were fake and there was usually no branding between most games. So it seemed the only ones with any noticeable exposure are the ones that had big careers within the company they worked for, whether that was contractual or what not, that prevented these developers from leaving. But if you were to play Castlevania or Mega Man X for instance, there's no telling who actually developed the games, but the group of less than 20 are all code names.

There are a lot of devs such as Yu Suzuki and Hideo Kojima that spearheaded the development of many games, but they get branded for a lot of work that they actually never contributed to. Zone of Enders 1/2 and Castlevania Lords of Shadows are two instances where Hideo Kojima is commonly and incorrectly credited as creator of those games when he really had no such part. Keiji Inafune is often referred to as the creator of the Mega Man series, while he had nothing to do with the franchise outside of enemy designs up until Mega Man Legends which he consulted in the games development, yet the people behind the series are mostly unknown and have never got recognition for this.

That being said, director's do have more influence over how the game ultimately turns out, so Hideo Kojima does atleast deserve some recognition, but it wasn't only him yet he's the one branded as being responsible. I would also like to point out that as many games that Yu Suzuki has been credited for, there is an absolutely astounding amount of mediocrity, unlike Miyamoto who is credited for an absurd amount of great Nintendo games. So maybe there is some truth behind the credit to these developers afterall? I mean, Final Fantasy has gone to crap lately with Hironobu Sakaguchi no longer at the helm, when is the last time a Final Fantasy titles general consensus was "amazing." So maybe Kojima isn't as overrated as I think.

[Aussie2B]

That's basically how it goes for any work created by a large collective. Pretty much no one memorizes the entire credits to their favorite movie, for example. You may know the director, lead actors, the composer, etc. but there isn't much attention paid to the more minor positions. Of course, everybody deserves credit for their contribution, hence why they're in the credits to begin with, but it makes sense why the individuals who had more impact get more of the acclaim. After all, a director directs everyone else to fulfill their vision. I think game fans could put in a lot more effort learning about the people behind the games they love, considering most still just credit the companies, even though a company may be outsourcing and/or have multiple internal development teams, but I wouldn't fault a fan for only knowing one or two key people.

[TimTendo]

As far as designers/directors/producers/programmers/etc. go, that's an easy choice for me: Gunpei Yokoi. He was effectively Miyamoto's mentor, invented the Game & Watch, D-pad, Game Boy, Virtual Boy, WonderSwan, and produced classic franchises like Metroid, Kid Icarus, Fire Emblem, Dr. Mario, Wario Land, etc. And his reward for all his accomplishments was being driven out of Nintendo, blamed for the Virtual Boy's failure, and then he tragically died in a traffic accident only about a year later. He was a creative genius as far as I'm concerned, and I can only imagine what else he could've created had he not be robbed from this world in only his mid 50s. Whenever I beat a game with his involvement and see his name scroll by in the credits, I always feel a bit melancholy.

Couldn't agree more. Yokoi-san was the unsung hero of Nintendo from the inception of the Game & Watch all the way up to his untimely death. His achievements and creations stretch far beyond merely "innovative" and go straight into "revolutionary". The work of his R&D1 team (game-wise) largely seem to make up the underdogs of the Nintendo canon; titles such as Kid Icarus or Wario Land seldom see an avalanche of entries every decade like other franchises, but maybe that's a good thing.

[Aussie2B]

I getting the feeling that maybe Nintendo hasn't touched many of Yokoi's franchises much out of respect after his death or maybe because there's just nobody at Nintendo with the same level of passion for those IPs as Yokoi had.

[kupomogli]

Anyways, I'll add to the thread. During my rant about it's one person making a name off the back of others, I mentioned Hironobu Sakaguchi. Now, while outside of video games Dungeons and Dragon's is the first RPG and Ultima is the first recognizable series(I don't know if it's the first game though,) it wasn't until Dragon Quest by Yuji Horii that video game RPGs became more enjoyable. Now, Dragon Warrior imo isn't a good game, because the game focused way too much on grinding with literally little to no content in between, but it was more appealing than Ultima which I played much later and just couldn't get into.

However, it was because he was influenced by the Dragon Warrior series that Hironobu Sakaguchi made the Final Fantasy series, using many ideas from other RPGs out there at the time. The larger and customizable character roster and the more streamlined gameplay made Final Fantasy a more enjoyable RPG compared to the very limited Dragon Warrior or the unstructured western titles at the time. Despite a world not nearly as simplistic and obvious on where to go next as Dragon Warrior, it was simple where to go and what to do as long as you paid attention to the towns people you came across. The classes were well designed where you had melee fighters who were constant damage dealers and the charged spells from mages made the characters themselves weaker, but devastating compared to your main fighters when you decided to go all out. The original Final Fantasy despite being the first one in the series is also difficult, but even then one of the most balanced JRPGs requiring very little grinding and almost none at all depending on how well you know the game.

It was games that were developed by Sakaguchi that continued to innovate the JRPG. Despite not liking Final Fantasy 3, the actual Final Fantasy 3, because this game is a ridiculous grind ontop of the requirement of very specific classes for each dungeon. All classes gained a unique aspect to them in how they functioned. Final Fantasy 5 took this further and allowed a lot of cross classing for a very large number of classes. All of the earlier games had a sort of class system as per character based, but it was Final Fantasy 3 and 5 that allowed more experimentation. Who knows who came up with the ATB system on Final Fantasy 4, but the reason why it hasn't been used anywhere else outside of Final Fantasy is because it was copyrighted by Square Enix, and Sakaguchi was director there too. There are versions of the ATB in Grandia and White Knight Chronicles, but there are major differences in how they function.

If not for how good the Final Fantasy games are, and how big of a following the series has gained in both west and east, the RPG genre may not have been as big is it was in the golden era of JRPGs back in SNES and PS1. As Dragon Warrior and other RPGs inspired Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger(which was actually a Squaresoft and Enix co developed title with Yuji Horii and Sakaguchi both part of the games development,) inspired many other RPGs and JRPGs. Breath of Fire 1 and 2 were developed but published by Squaresoft on the SNES, meaning it's quite obvious where they got their inspiration.

That being said, everyone knows Sakaguchi.

So how about Takashi Tokita, I only remember his name as a director on many Squaresoft JRPGs including Chrono Trigger and Parasite Eve because I make a joke about the name and spelling of it all the time(add the last name's letter to the end of the first name. *mind blow.* You can't unsee it.)

[Aussie2B]

There are probably millions of Japanese people who have a "shi" in their name followed by a character that starts with a "t" sound. It's hardly anything unusual. Technically, Takashi Tokita wouldn't even be an example because Japanese people write their names with the surname first, so it'd be Tokita Takashi to them. It'd make more sense to snicker at, say, Yoshitaka Amano's name, which one couldn't even write on GameFAQs back in the day because it was automatically flagged as cursing. But even then, in Japanese, there's no such thing as a "t" that exists by itself. The characters in Amano's given name are Yo-shi-ta-ka. But none of this really matters because making fun of anybody's name is immature to begin with, and making fun of a foreigner's name is ignorant on top of that.

[Tron 2.0]

Id say george kamitani of vanillaware with his company it shows there's a market for 2d still.The other being,tetsuya takahashi of monolith soft.Yeah the xeno series has it's flaws but they got it right with xenoblade chronicles.Also i'm am looking forward towards the remaster as well with xenoblade chronicles the definite edition.

[kupomogli]

But even then, in Japanese, there's no such thing as a "t" that exists by itself. The characters in Amano's given name are Yo-shi-ta-ka. But none of this really matters because making fun of anybody's name is immature to begin with, and making fun of a foreigner's name is ignorant on top of that.

All you need is a silver suit of armor to go with this comment. Who says word play or jokes in general says you're making fun of someone? Sure, I remember the persons name because I think Takashi T is funny. Joking is not the same as actually hating on someone, if it was then Dave Chappelle must be the biggest racist to walk the Earth. If he was, I wouldn't give a crap, he's funny as hell.

I remember the name because it's actually pretty common for guys to talk about taking a sh** jokingly(and not jokingly.) It's probably on the top 10 most common thing guys talk about when they don't have anything to talk about. Taking a sh**. So yeah, I find the name and remember the name because it's amusing.

Pro tip: Try being less uptight. I'm pretty comfortable saying what I'm thinking, I'm not hating on someones name, I'm not a racist. Not everyone is going to conform to this worlds 2020 pussy outlook on life and stop acting like they they want to because making jokes about homosexuality and race is looked on to be horrifying. Did I offend you by saying you're uptight? Good. Because every single time I type something you respond with a comment telling me that I'm not commenting the way that you think I should comment, that my comment is somehow offending or misrepresenting something. Maybe you should worry less about me and worry more about yourself. Back in the day you called me a troll because I "force my opinions" where stating my opinion is obviously forcing my opinion on someone, to the point that I actually made the comment on my signature pointing that everything in my post is opinion. Your comments however have all been specifically directed at how I am commenting on the forum, and that right there is forcing your bullshit ideals on my responses. Do I give a shit if you ban me for this post? Fuck no. Infact maybe that was your intention, but maybe you should try taking a hard look in the mirror before you talk shit to the next person. Fucking hypocrite.

I could edit this all and guarantee that I'm not banned, but seriously, I really don't take shit from anyone, I don't give a fuck who you are. So I get banned, whooopity fucking doo.

[WelcomeToTheNextLevel]

Will Wright, who pioneered the "Sim" game genre, also known as the "Whatever TF you want to do" genre.

[Edmond Dantes]

Honestly, I have a hard time deciding, because any developer I've ever heard of has something I find respectable. Even Shigeru Miyamoto (who I find kind of overrated) has a metric ton of wisdom and genuine smarts--the idea of bricks that only bounce when you hit them but break if your big and how it introduces players to the concept of changing circumstances is probably one of the most genius moments of gaming.

I like Hideo Kojima--going off my recent JRPGs thread, his games in general are some of the few that generally feel like they're made for me (though admittedly, unlike most people I found MGS3 Snake Eater a huge step backwards and Peace Walker was basically unplayable to me and soured me on the MGS series, but I accept this was him trying to bow to market demands. If he had been allowed to make whatever he wanted, we would've hit the singularity by now).

But yeah, how do you pick a favorite among greats?

[Yago]

David Crane / Atari / Activision. He was a designer and programmer responsible for some of my all time favorite classics on the Atari 2600 like Pitfall!, Pitfall 2: Lost Caverns, Laser Blast, Fishing Derby, Freeway, Dragster and so many more. As games got more complicated over the years they require a team of artists to create a finished product. Back then, one person did it all, and that is respectable. To me, Crane was one of the best.

[calthaer]

If I had to pick a favorite, I would pick Warren Spector. Deus Ex, System Shock, and Thief: The Dark Project are among my favorite games / franchises of all time, perfectly combining RPG elements with the first-person genre. His involvement with the Ultima and Wing Commander series was icing on the cake.

On-par with him...I would say...Klaus Teuber. It just said "game designer", without qualifying that it had to be "video / computer game designer", so I know I'm cheating a bit. But this guy transformed the world of board games almost single-handedly by coming out with Settlers of Catan ("Die Siedler von Catan") in the mid-1990s. No longer were boring games like Monopoly or Scrabble the best board games on the block - now you had a game that remained fun throughout its shorter, 1.5 hour duration. It spawned the huge board game revolution of the past 25 years. I'd even give him more credit than Richard Garfield (who invented Magic: The Gathering)...because as big as MTG is, Catan has been played by more people, especially non-gamers.