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9 of Spades: Clint
Hocking, Ubisoft Montreal
One of the best [possibly apocryphal] industry stories of recent years surrounds FarCry 2, when it was discovered that
this perpetual living world, led in its construction by creative director Clint
Hocking, could burn to the ground. The story goes that a tester set a fire in
the game's forest, and then went for lunch.
When he came back, he learned that
the fire had spread through the whole world, killing the final "boss"
in under two hours. Though the game has since been tweaked, that's what a
living world is all about -- and Hocking, previously instrumental to the Splinter Cell series, is leading that
particular charge.
8 of Spades: Mark
Jacobs, Mythic Entertainment
Jacobs has presided over an already-impressive 750,000
subscriber haul for his studio's newest MMO title, Warhammer Online, not distracted by the Dark Age of Camelot creators' acquisition by Electronic Arts. Not
only that, he's opinionated and passionate in public -- unusual for an
executive in today's PR-removed market.
Following the removal of 400 people
farming for gold on Warhammer's
servers, he posted on his blog: "I hate goldfarmers with every fiber of my
being." Whether right or wrong (and probably right), this kind of public
passion is often lacking in today's game biz.
7 of Spades: Dylan
Cuthbert, Q Games
Relatively obscure in the West until the launch of the PixelJunk games on the PS3's PlayStation
Network, Cuthbert's Kyoto-based studio has close relationships with both Sony
and Nintendo, working on elements of the PS3 operating system and on StarFox DS.
But by spearheading his
Japanese studio to work on a largely Western medium (downloadable console
games) and make it work, most recently with the transcendent PixelJunk Eden, Cuthbert deserves a place
on this list.
6 of Spades: Ken
Levine, 2K Boston
After BioShock
debuted in late 2007, the reverberations of its unconventional original IP
success impacted the industry more than you might guess. The game has one of
the more sophisticated narrative structures of any released so far, in its
integration of visual, oral, and textual storytelling into the actual gameplay.
With 2K Marin working on the sequel, and the movie version fast-tracked, plus
creator Levine now working on a mysterious new project, his influence has not
diminished.
5 of Spades: Mark
Beaumont, Capcom
Of all the Japanese-headquartered publishers operating in
the West, Capcom perhaps has the most invigorating autonomy from its bosses
back East. Beaumont is taking great
advantage of this, thanks to a major digital download initiative spawning
titles like Age of Booty, and is
funding Western-developed titles such as Bionic
Commando and Dark Void.
Most
impressively, a robust blog, community, and fanbase are letting Capcom's
classic Japanese franchises breathe and flourish, even as the West grows
stronger.
4 of Spades: Alex
Ward, Criterion Games
Burnout Paradise
is blazing new trails for an extended life of downloadable content, thanks to
the "Year of Burnout"
promotion. Sure, there's been plenty of DLC before, but so comprehensive,
well-planned, and advertised in advance?
Not so much, and thanks to Ward and
his team, many players have been convinced to buy and hold onto his title,
awaiting the extra vehicles, motorbike additions, new levels, modes, and more.
Its status as one of the first formerly full-price titles to blaze into
extended sales on PlayStation Network further cements Burnout Paradise's -- and Ward's -- status as a trailblazer.
 3 of Spades: Jonathan
Blow, Number-None
Jon Blow, the creator of breakthrough XBLA title Braid, is a wonderfully unvarnished game
creator -- one who is willing to voice his opinion, no matter what the reaction
may be. But it turns out he's got the chops to back it up.
His latest title, Braid, tackles emotions and
relationships in a very circuitous but interesting way -- appropriate for a
rather complicated fellow like Blow. The lesson here? When you are beholden to
no one, and make your games yourself, you can speak your mind without
repercussions, and truly advance them as entertainment.
2 of Spades: Sarah
Chudley, Bizarre Creations
Not only one of the UK's
top developers, Bizarre Creations' acquisition by Activision has cemented its
place as an important game creator at multiple levels, headed by Chudley and
colleagues.
From the landmark downloadable Geometry
Wars series, through the Project
Gotham Racing franchise and whatever new racing titles the company may
develop under Activision's wing, even partial miss-steps such as The Club haven't dampened the cutting
edge at Bizarre Creations. Long may it continue.
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but that's year away! but one day!
@Tom: You just said it though, "no third party has understood Nintendo's [...] target demographic". Nintendo's target demographic is casual gamers, not core gamers.
Ubisoft makes ridiculously good games for the Wii, but nothing can please everyone (and in this case, a fairly large chunk of the "core" Nintendo gamer).
Shigeru Miyamoto - Please, he is the lead designer on Nintendo. If it wasn't for him we wouldn't have so fun memories running trough world splattering turtles and looking for princesess on wrong castles!!!!
Hironobu Sakagushi - He is the sole savior of SquareEnix. He is the creator of Final Fantasy. Most recent Las Oddysey
Jhon Romero - Ever heard of Doom. He is the mind behind the game. Shame that he only shinned once, but still, shinned pretty hard!!!!
I *did* find it a little surprising that the Trailblazers portion of the deck didn't include Cryptic Studios in some fashion-- when you look back over the last year(plus a little) for them, it's been a fascinating jump into new ground. Announcing Marvel, then selling their single(and very successful) title, then losing Marvel, announcing Champions, attempting to self-publish, announcing STO... it's a lot of unknown to forge that most companies would avoid. The largest impact to be had has, I think, gotten the least notice in the general shuffle, though it's what makes me most surprised to not see them-- the engine and development tools pipeline and their goal to bring the development time on a AAA MMO down from the notorious and costly timeframe we've come to expect down to a mere 1.5-2 years. I realize the jury's still out on whether it's something they'll be able to do, since the upcoming titles are just that-- upcoming, but even the *suggestion* that an MMO could be built on that kind of timeframe is a lot of food for thought.
@Carlos:
True, but I would argue that all of those people lacked anything really worthy of the list in 2008-- most of what you're citing is based on past conquest more than what they've spent their time doing in the last year. As I understand it, this list is intended to be a snapshot of the last year's events.
One omission that's perhaps understandable this year, but which I expect will be rectified in a year or two (assuming this list becomes an annual feature as I hope it will), is that of David Whatley at Simutronics for the HeroEngine. With licensees from BioWare to Bethesda sister-company Zenimax Online, and all of them saying very positive things about it, the HeroEngine could potentially do for MMORPGs what the Unreal Engine did for shooters. Once games start shipping, I won't be surprised to see Whatley's name somewhere on a future edition of this list.
On a mostly (though not entirely) unrelated note, I'm still waiting for someone to submit to Gamasutra a feature article -- or better yet, an entire book -- on the astonishing story of Looking Glass and what its "graduates," from Warren Spector and Harvey Smith (Deus Ex) to Ken Levine (BioShock) to Greg LoPiccolo, Dan Schmidt and Eric Brosius (Guitar Hero) to Emil Pagliarulo (Fallout 3), have accomplished and continue to achieve in the computer game industry. (And that doesn't even include folks like Allen Varney, Marc LeBlanc and others whose impact on game design is still strong.)
I'm obviously a bit of a fan where the Looking Glass style of game is concerned. But I think there's an objectively interesting industry story deserving to be told here, and Gamasutra would be a great place to start doing so.
but hopefully these key people don't become superstars......the game industry doesn't need to become a "Hollywood"
Every single person on this list has achieved great work and are all skilled at what they do. Passing this knowledge or skills through the industry is what now needs to be looked at.
Agreed....thanks