Top 100 Game Creators – IGN.com

Over the years, we’ve certainly done our fair share of Top 100 Games lists. One thing we haven’t done as grandly, though, is recognize the people who made it possible for us to play all those great games in the first place. But there’s a first time for everything isn’t there?

Yes, dear readers, in an effort to celebrate the genius of the entertainment masterminds of our industry, your pals at IGN.com com have assembled the ultimatelist of creative game wizards. It’s our way of saying “thanks” to the people whose vision and drive have brought us some of the most engrossing, amusing and artistic experiences we’ve ever had with our TVs and monitors

Plus, we love to watch people argue.

“How do you determine who goes on your list,” you ask? It’s simple, really. Here’s how we paired down who could and could not appear on our list of…

The Top 100 Game Creators of All Time

• The list is comprised of individual game developers. In some cases, two creators have been listed together because of how closely the pair worked collectively in their contributions to our industry.
• We define a game creator as anyone who contributes to the creative or technical development process of a game. This can include (but is not limited to) artists, sound engineers, composers, programmers, planners, designers, and producers.
• People who have served primarily as executives are not included, but people who started off in development and eventually became executives can qualify if their pre-executive contributions were important enough to get them on our list. For Sony fans, that means you can’t complain if Kaz Hirai isn’t on the list (spoilers: He isn’t)!
• Only game developers have been listed here. Hardware or peripheral creators were not included. In some cases, if the hardware/software were all-in-one units like Pong or most other early videogame platforms primarily from the 1970s or before, then we count the people who worked on them as “game creators.”

So who made the list and who didn’t? To find out, simply click the numbers of your choice listed above or cheat and glance down at our alphabetical call-outs below. After you’ve had a chance to check out the list, tell us what you think about it on the IGN Boards, and share your own favorite games with everyone. Enjoy!