Top 10 Iconic Videogame Creators

#10: Sid Meier

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Sid Meier’s made a name for himself by creating some of the most addictive and rewarding strategy games of all time – and, you know, by stamping his name on every one of them. Sid Meier’s Pirates, Sid Meier’s Civilization, Sid Meier’s Railroads – if you’re a fan of the strategy genre, you almost certainly know his name. His games combine simulation and strategy in a way that gives the player ultimate power – and who doesn’t occasionally want a taste of that?

You’ve seen this man’s game everywhere, whether you knew he made it or not: it’s on your phone, it’s on your browser, it’s on your consoles; The Russian designer has earned his spot on this list with one of the most iconic puzzle games of all time: Tetris, a game he didn’t earn royalties for until 12 years after the game’s release. More recently, this Russian game designer’s worked on Hexic and Hexic 2, which many X-Box players should be familiar with.

Producing both table-top and video games, Spector’s done plenty to earn his fame in the gaming community. Deus Ex, Ultima, System Shock, and Thief, are all under his belt, and are considered gems from the 90s PC gaming scene. Lately, he’s dabbled with Disney to produce the Epic Mickey series. But Spector goes beyond producing– he’s an academic, a critic, and is trying to change the way people talk about games, for the better.

We’re always advised to stay in school, and that seems like a pretty solid plan – unless you’re Gabe Newell, who dropped out of Harvard and went on to become a millionaire thanks to his work at Microsoft and ID software, before founding the Valve Corporation. That’s a perfectly fine alternative, too. While he’s more Producer than Developer, his involvement with a little series called Half-Life is notable enough, even if you choose to ignore the fact that the Steam network has changed the PC gaming landscape altogether, and is poised to take the living-room next.

#6: Will Wright

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Whether it’s lording over your own carefully crafted city or micromanaging a suburban household, we have Will Wright to thank for letting our inner control freak run free. The most successful – and addictive – PC simulation games on the market are born from Wright’s genius. Nowadays, you can’t even hear the word ‘simulation’ without thinking of his iconic games like SimCity, SimFarm, and of course, The Sims.

Hideo Kojima always had a vision – he dabbled in writing, illustrating, film-making, and designing. One fateful day, he brought all those skills to Konami and helped create the series that revolutionized the stealth genre: Metal Gear. He’s made the adventure games Snatcher and Policenauts, but the Metal Gear series really blew up with the release of Metal Gear Solid for the PS1, and Kojima’s been a household name ever since – or at least, in any household that had a Playstation.

Every genre has that one mastermind who perfects the genre, or at least comes pretty close. Shinji Mikami is that mastermind for survival horror games, with his phenomenal Resident Evil series. The franchise essentially founded the genre, and is still cited today as an influence for game designers trying their hand at horror. He’s also largely responsible for classics like the hack and slash gem Devil May Cry series, the Zelda inspired artistic adventure Okami, as well his latest survival horror tale The Evil Within.

When most people hear the term “JRPG”, they think of spiky hair, big swords, adorable mascots, and strategic gameplay – and a lot of this is thanks to Sakaguchi and his brainchild the Final Fantasy series. But his work doesn’t end there, as he resume also covers Chrono Trigger, Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey and The Last Story. He may no longer be with Square-Enix but he continues charming audiences with nostalgic, heartfelt, JRPG goodness.

#2: John Carmack

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A large part of 90s PC gaming is characterized by John Carmack’s exciting and innovative games – to name a few: Commander Keen, Wolfenstein, Doom, and Quake. If you weren’t playing at least one of these on your old Windows 95 OS, you were doing something wrong. John Romero may take the limelight on occasions, but Carmack’s Assembly programming skills to make 3D engine’s ahead of their time makes him a pioneer of 3D gaming. He’s now attempting to push games into yet another dimension by working on the Oculus Rift Virtual Reality project. Before we reveal our top pick, here are some honorable mentions: Yu Suzuki Peter Monlyneux Gunpei Yokoi Kenji Inafune Tim Schafer

If there’s one name that gamers will know around the world, it’s the name of this man. Shigeru Miyamoto defines ‘iconic’, as nearly everything he’s done has become an icon of the video game industry. Donkey Kong, Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Star Fox, and pretty much Nintendo as a whole – we don’t even need to list all his accomplishments, because he is THE icon of Video Games. Without him, the videogame landscape probably wouldn’t be what it is today, as his contributions helped revived the Video Game industry in the mid 80’s. Do you agree with our list? Which Video game creator do you look up to? For more inspiring Top 10s published daily, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com.