Who is the best game director?

Yoshi-P.

Absolute top of the list of people I most dread to eventually learn are actually Terrible.

Does Sid Meier count? If so, then I'd vote him. The Civilization series has been going strong for a whopping 30 years now, without a real dip in quality or scope throughout its run.

[...] the director isn't what makes a game good usually, it's the workers. Sadly couldn't include them.

Also Sid Meier because of this. He seems to be a pleasure to work with, by all accounts. Apparently still gets down into the coding work himself, no self-centered antics... Sounds like he's still a cool, upstanding dude after all these years.

It kinda boils down to my favourite games i guess or how they come across in interviews, since i wasn't in their offices at the time :P.

Lorne Lanning - Seems like a great guy, fun, honest, believes in what he's doing.

Louis Castle - A great interview, really intelligent, seemed like a real pillar at Westwood.

Rand Miller - Almost seems like a nice guy to a fault :P, i know he did it all with his brother but i'm more familiar with Rand, i don't know how Cyan is still around but they're still just doing their thing.

Gabe Newell - Director? I don't know, Valve game development is mysterious but his presence makes people smile, he's not afraid to be the butt of the joke sometimes. The scale of Valve's involvement in the industry naturally brings some negativity, but where a Tim Sweeney does all he can to piss me off, Newell feels like a force for good.

Josh Sawyer is one of the few people I typically enjoy on Twitter, and I have played and love almost his entire catalog, even the broken shit (sometimes especially the broken shit). He also is really open about his design process, and in a way that I find both easy to understand/digest and entertaining.

...God... none of these divas?

If I had to pick from anyone in the industry, I guess I'd say Toby Fox or Yoko Taro.

Probably someone no one pays attention to from Taito or something.

Out of those, definitely Miyamoto.

Out of those options, Miyamoto is the most consistently great... Although secretive Nintendo makes it hard to know how much involvement he actually has on those titles.

Where's Hidetaka Miyazaki?

Rand Miller.

Miyamoto hasn't directed a game in like 20 years. Eiji Aonuma took over the Zelda series starting with Majora's Mask in 2000, and Miyamoto hasn't directed a Mario game since Mario 64. The stories of Miyamoto the producer in recent years have painted him as a meddler, his involvement in the ruining of the Paper Mario series being a big one.

Kensuke Tanabe: Since Paper Mario: Sticker Star, it’s no longer possible to modify Mario characters or to create original characters that touch on the Mario universe. That means that if we aren’t using Mario characters for bosses, we need to create original characters with designs that don’t involve the Mario universe at all, like we’ve done with Olly and the stationery bosses.

Tanabe previously touched on these guidelines in an Iwata Asks interview about Paper Mario: Sticker Star - highlighting how Shigeru Miyamoto told him to complete this particular entry with Super Mario World characters, and noting how "strict" the rules were in regards to new characters

Iwata: Miyamoto-san really persevered with Paper Mario this time. Exactly what was he particular about?

Tanabe: Aside from wanting us to change the atmosphere a lot, there were two main things that Miyamoto-san said from the start of the project-"It's fine without a story, so do we really need one?" and "As much as possible, complete it with only characters from the Super Mario world.

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Miyamoto may have been a great director in the '80s and '90s, but not only does he not direct games anymore, his track record as a producer in the years since is not great. It really feels like the industry has passed him by in a lot of ways.

Hironobu Sakaguchi. I have at least enjoyed, if not loved, every game of theirs I ever played. I even liked Lost Odyssey.

I like Kojima a lot, even though he is starting to get overrated slightly. But I'm going with Shigeru Miyamoto, because Super Mario Bros. saved the video game industry and put home console gaming on the map. This website, among many others, not to mention hundreds of thousands of great games, as well as legacy consoles wouldn't exist if Miyamoto didn't create a video game based on a dream he had one night.

Love or hate him, Kojima goes into every project he does with a clear vision of what he wants it to be, and its rarely something i where i think he is thinking about what is going to make the most money. To me, thats what makes a true artist and director, even if he likes scantily clad women a bit to much.

I won't say that Kojima is the best game director out there, but like @cornfed40 said, he has a very distinct vision which is always visible in his projects. I might say the same thing about Keita Takahasi and Tetsuya Mizuguchi.

I wouldn't know, I haven't worked for any one of them.

@tp0p: forgot

@dooz: best answer award goes to...but yeah i included that idea. It's not just them like people make it seem, though that's all people have to work off of. But i'd say the team when i discuss games not just OH director is so good. Where was he when little annie was working 8-11 to finish the detail on a rock he decided wasnt worth the processing power and scrapped just before her son's birthday. XD.

@isomeri: To be fair, as I have seen. Many hate his work due to, basically, underlining places he is inspired by. Anime. Lol.

Most of the stuff he does is in anime, from the 90s which is great and fun. A certain anime official on this site was turned into one in a single podcast and noticed how much he likes anime, cause turns out he likes the things they go for.

I assume his culture influences this, but I can't take away that it's also him and his team putting in the hours and loving the themes they put out. I voted for him in the poll. Still love his games, and even MGSV on his weakest is pretty past a normal person's best work. The jump from average to amazing is crazy. Don't forgive the over the top, sniffing farts takes because i get it...it's fair...but again, dude has something to say, has a platform, and says it without being as bad as someone else who got the same stuff to say and messes up. I dont think many games are like death stranding even if people think it's bad...story line included...