Gamers and journalists have spent hours and hours of their lives arguing over who the best developers are. Who do the developers actually think is the best, though? The Develop Conference commissioned a survey of 9,000 developers from around the world and here are their top ten favorite designers.
1.Shigeru Miyamoto - often referred to as ‘the father of modern video games’ for his role in creating legendary games franchises Mario, Donkey Kong, The Legend of Zelda, Star Fox, Pikmin and F-Zero and titles such as Nintendogs and Wii Music
2. John Carmack – cofounder of id Software and lead programmer on Doom and Quake
3. Will Wright - co-founder of Maxis and brains behind SimCity and The Sims franchise and, more recently, Spore. He now runs entertainment think tank Stupid Fun Club
4. Dave Jones - founder of Realtime Worlds (Crackdown, All Points Bulletin) and co-founder of Rockstar North (formerly DMA Design), Jones created major game series Lemmings and Grand Theft Auto
5. Sid Meier – founder of MicroProse and developer of Civilization. Second person to be inducted in the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences' Hall of Fame behind Shigeru Miyamoto
6. Peter Molyneux, OBE - creator of God games Dungeon Keeper, Populous and Black & White, as well as Theme Park, Fable and Fable 2
7. David Braben - Brit programmer and founder of Frontier, Braben is best known for co-writing the hugely popular Elite. The studio’s work on The Outsider promises to deliver yet another ground-breaking title and a number of gameplay firsts
8. Masaya Matsuura – famed for pushing the frontiers of computer music, Masaya took the games industry by storm with the release of PaRappa The Rapper, winning notable awards and changing the landscape of gaming forever
9. Michael Morhaime – president and co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment, the legendary creator of Warcraft, StarCraft, Diablo series and the world’s biggest MMORPG World of Warcraft
10. Jonathan Blow – developer of award-winning title Braid
Miyamoto netted about 30% of the vote - sounds about right, doesn't it? Coincidentally, Jones, Braben, and Matsuura are all slated to speak at this year's Develop Conference. The conference will take place in Brighton, UK from July 14th to 16th.
