Favorite Gaming Personnel
Here is a list of all my favorite gaming gurus, from top to bottom:
Last update: December 14th, 2018
List items
-
The Godfather of Video Games. The Don Corleone of digital entertainment. The Master of Innovation. Shigeru Miyamoto is synonymous in the gaming world, a legendary game designer who inspired everybody and anybody- from gamers to game creators alike. Without him, video games wouldn't exist as we know it.
-
What the world would be like without Ralph Baer, the man who introduced us the very first home game console ever created: the Magnavox Oddysey. He may not know it but what he built was something that changed human culture forever. From the simplicity of the Pong game, it created a chain reaction and made the video game industry an onslaught of business, entertainment and social networking.
Ralph Baer, we salute you!
-
What would the world be like if Atari wasn't around? There'd be no video game arcades and the use of game cartridges would be just a theory and not executed. Thankfully, Nolan Bushnell did just that. He founded Atari, made arcade machines popular and revolutionized the gaming community with the Atari 2600.
Even though he is no longer in Atari (He was forced out of Atari after being there for only seven years), but we will always remember him as one of the founding fathers of video games.
-
The creator of the First-Person Shooter genre, John Carmack is a true genius. He may be a high school dropout and was sent to a juvenile home for stealing an Apple II but he has a tremendous programming skills that cannot be matched. He developed many innovative game engines which other companies still use to this day. Without John Carmack there'd be no Half-Life, Counter-Strike, System Shock, Call of Duty, BioShock, etc. He should be in everybody's favorite list.
Outside of the gaming world he is a rocketry enthusiast, founder and lead engineer of Armadillo Aerospace. Carmack is passionate with his work and can talk for hours upon hours about game technology and rocket ships. He is as geeky and nerdy as you can possibly imagine and we love him for that.
-
The George A. Romero of video games, Shinji Mikami is the creator of the Resident Evil series and also co-created Devil May Cry, Dino Crisis, P.N. 03, Viewtiful Joe, Killer7 and the cult classic God Hand. He is also one of games' most mysterious figures as he rarely does interviews or makes an appearance in gaming conventions. He revolutionized modern gaming with the Survival Horror genre and the over-the-shoulder perspective.
Shinji Mikami may be remembered as the man who brought Survival Horror to the map, but I will always remember him as the game designer of two Super NES classics- Aladdin and Goof Troop. I love those two games XD.
-
Gregory A. Kasavin is well known as the editor at GameSpot.com. He reviewed countless video games since 1996 and was very good with what he did. I'm a huge fan of Greg and I love watching all his video reviews. I even have some of his video reviews in my iPod Classic (Nerd alert!). He's the only GameSpot editor who would dressed up as a ninja, a soldier, Godzilla, a secret agent, a samurai and more. He left GameSpot in 2007 to pursue other interests in the video game world. He is now the Creative Director of his own company, Supergiant Games.
GameSpot has never been the same without him.
-
An ambitious filmmaker destined to be a game designer, Hideo Kojima created the infamous Metal Gear franchise and its famous for having memorable characters, convoluted but well-written storylines, extremely long cutscenes, fictional political issues and terrific soundtrack and voice acting.
There was a rumor of a Metal Gear movie that will be directed by Uwe Boll. Kojima responded to the rumor saying it's untrue. He said, "Absolutely not! I don't know why Uwe Boll is even talking about this kind of thing. We've never talked to him. It's impossible that we'd ever do a movie with him." You tell him, Kojima-san.
-
The man with flawless creativity and vision, Tim Schafer designed most of my favourite video games of all time. He began his career in LucasFilm Games (Now known as LucasArts) and specialized on adventure games. He developed Secret of Monkey Island, Le Chuck's Revenge, Day of The Tentacle, Full Throttle and Grim Fandango. He left LucasArts in 1998 and formed his own company Double Fine two years later.
-
Spector's unique vision of blending stealth, action and RPG elements are really outstanding and many developers have copied his style for many many years. As violent as most of his games are, Spector has a soft spot when it comes to Walt Disney cartoons. It's no surprise how his Junction Point company is now part of the Walt Disney family and Disney Epic Mickey is the result of that.
-
The biological father of Samus Arun, Gunpei Yokoi shocked the world with his invention of the Game and Watch handheld and of course, the Game Boy. He will always remain in our hearts as the innovator of handheld games. Rest in peace Yokoi-san.
-
Roberta Williams is the creator of the King's Quest series and has an excellent talent in storytelling. It was Roberta and her husband Ken Williams who founded Sierra On-Line way back in 1979 and they both worked closely on King's Quest. She was the designer and Ken was the programmer. My favourite game of hers would be King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow.
When she and her husband retired from Seirra in 1998, so did the franchise. As of now, Roberta is no longer involved in the gaming industry. Sniff!
-
Ken Levine has worked on the Thief series, System Shock 2 and BioShock. Normally I would say a lot of things about my favorite gaming personnel but I can't think of anything to say about Levine because this dude is quite a mystery.
-
Also known as Suda-51, he is the president of Grasshopper Manufacture that made Killer7 and No More Heroes. He is known for utilizing cel-shaded graphics, having characters with personality disorders and confusing storyline. His games may be hard to recommend to everyone but they made a huge impression on me. I am perhaps one of the few players who appreciate his style and are begging for more.
-
An elusive but innovative man, Brett W. Sperry is a game designer who first coined the term real-time strategy with the release of Dune II. He co-founded the legendary Westwood Studios and co-created Command & Conquer, the ultimate PC game that put RTS to the map.
After being the Designer and Executive Producer at Westwood for nearly a decade, he left the game industry in 2002 to pursue professional art and photography full-time. Though he's gone now, he will always be in the hearts of all RTS enthusiasts, forever and ever.
-
The biological father of Kasumi and Ayane, Itagaki is a cocky and ambitious game designer who created the Dead or Alive series and helped revive the Ninja Gaiden series. He is known for despising the Tekken series so much due to personal conflicts with the developers.
Sadly, he left Tecmo and Team Ninja in 2008 after 16 years of service and sued the president of the company for unpaid bonus pay. He then formed Valhalla Game Studios along with former employees of Team Ninja. I wish him all the best with his new company and hope they can deliver class A games. I also truly admire Itagaki's passion and determination for perfection.
-
The Father of PlayStation, Ken Kutaragi is the mastermind behind Sony's work of art (Aside from the Walkman). After his CD add-on idea for the Super NES was rejected by Nintendo, he proved to the world that 3D/ CD-based gaming is the future by visualizing and engineering the PlayStation from scratch and it revolutionized the gaming world forever.
-
Quite possibly the next John Carmack, Tim Sweeney is the co-founder of Epic Games and since 1991, he has built a reputation for being one of the most important figures in the game industry. With the creation of the Unreal Engine in which he designed it himself, it's hard to imagine what games would be like today if it weren't for Sweeney's passion to push the limits of computer graphics and licensing the game engine to other developers.
He may be a nerd who speaks in a very shy, unconfident tone but with such fabulous titles under his belt like Gears of War, BioShock, Batman: Arkham Asylum - all utilizing the Unreal Engine, it is without a doubt that Tim Sweeney will help shape the entertainment industry into something that is beyond our wildest imagination.
-
-
American James McGee (Yep, that's his name) started his career in id Software as a level designer for Doom and Doom II. But McGee is most famous for designing American McGee's Alice, a twisted version of an Alice in Wonderland sequel.
-
Lord British needs no introduction. Whether you know him as the creator of the Ultima series or a brilliant astronaut, Richard Garriott is one unique game designer who revolutionized the RPG genre with its mass universe, unique gameplay and creative storyline, and lives in an awesome castle filled with traps and toys. All hail the good lord.
-
-
The co-creator of the Mortal Kombat franchise, Ed Boon changed the world and pop culture with his games that feature blood, violence and gore. In fact, it was the first Mortal Kombat game that created the rating system that we all know and love (or hate). Good job, man.
I would love to see him make games other than fighting games.
-
-
Not exactly a game designer but Akira Yamaoka is a tremendous musician. He has worked on every Silent Hill games in existence as the Producer, Composer and Sound Director. He provided all the sound effects for the games as well as the soundtracks, and his collaboration with Mary Elizabeth McGlynn and Joe Romersa is priceless and destined to be. They really make a great team and I love all of his Silent Hill soundtracks.
Sadly, Yamaoka left Konami and the Silent Hill franchise in December of 2009 and found a new home at Grasshopper Manufacture. With the last co-creator from Team Silent leaving, the Silent Hill franchise is doomed and it will never be the same without the original members.
-
-
The main composer of Grasshopper Manufacture, Masafumi Takada is a superb and talented musician. His ability to play wide range of music is truly outstanding and breathtaking. My favourite Takada's soundtracks are Killer7 and God Hand.
-
Frank Klepacki is an awesome music composer in the game industry. He is well known for his work in the Command & Conquer series.
-
A very influential game designer from his work in Dementium and Moon. Watsham is probably one of the most out-spoken game designers out there who regularly updates his work in his YouTube account. He's very passionate of his work and enjoys sharing his personal thoughts about video games to the community.
-
-
-
Although he admits he didn't create Mega Man from scratch, we can't deny the genius of Keiji Inafune. Brilliant leadership and charismatic, he led Capcom to become one of the biggest game companies of all time, with majority of Capcom titles having his name in the credits.
Inafune may have left Capcom but his legacy and brilliance will never be forgotten. You rock, father of Mega Man.
-
The creator of Pac-Man.
-
-
Bernie Stolar had worked for Atari, Sony and Sega respectively and contributed a lot of input to the companies. He helped launch the Sony PlayStation and Sega Dreamcast in the United States and both launches received positive responses. Without Stolar, the Dreamcast and online gameplay wouldn't exist. Stolar has a great business and marketing sense in the gaming world and I respect him for that.
-
The creator of the Suffering games. Rouse also wrote a comprehensive game book called "Game Design: Theory and Practice." Do consider checking it out. I'm still waiting for a Suffering sequel.
-
-
An amazing artist who created the infamous Pyramid Head. I like him because of his tremendous artwork and visual style.
Load Comments