The best game designers are classified as such because of their contributions to the video game industry, with titles that were the first of their kind and set the standards for future devs and designers. Renowned designers are capable of ensuring a long shelf-life for their games as well, whether that means consistently churning out new sequels or updates. Games need to evolve with both technology and industry trends, which is why franchises like The Legend of Zelda and Dragon Quest are still popular.
Shigeru Miyamoto’s Legend of Zelda set standards for RPGs due to its open-world exploration mechanics and puzzle-driven progression system. Zelda showcases how devs need to use mechanics to tell the stories of their worlds, and that player agency contributes to long-term play. Dragon Quest by Yuji Horii is another example, since it set standards specifically for Japanese RPGs with iconic enemy and character designs, as well as turn-based battle systems.
Looking into the 61 best game designers gives an idea of how to create games that stand out, while maintaining a lengthy shelf life. Different genres and national industries come with different expectations for success (and keep in mind that best is subjective), which is why I cover a range of designers from multiple backgrounds in no specific hierarchical order. Keep reading for information on notable game designers, including their studio experience, background, best-known games and other contributions.
1. Shigeru Miyamoto
Shigeru Miyamoto has been dubbed the father of modern video games and is the creator of the Mario, Donkey Kong and The Legend of Zelda franchises. Miyamoto wasn’t a programmer by profession but he directed the creative teams at Nintendo’s Analysis and Development division where he implemented new mechanics. These mechanics included side-scrolling, open world exploration and 3D platforming.
Donkey Kong (1981) was where Mario first appeared, and side-scrolling platformers were introduced later via Super Mario Bros. (1985). The Legend of Zelda (1986) brought in open world exploration and combined it with combat, with multiple sequels. Miyamoto was behind Pikmin (2001) and Nintendogs (2005) too, which helped expand Nintendo’s genres and audiences via new concepts and mechanics.
2. Hironobu Sakaguchi
Hironobu Sakaguchi helped shape the RPG genre with the Final Fantasy series during his time at Square. Sakaguchi grew up in Ibaraki, Japan and was born on November 25, 1962 so he’s currently 62 years old. He started off as a part-time programmer at Square and designed early titles like The Death Trap before the original Final Fantasy in 1987. He continued looking over the next Final Fantasy titles and produced other Square projects after he was made president of Square LA. This was Square’s golden age, also dubbed the Sakaguchi era from 1987 to 2003, after which he left Square. Sakaguchi then founded Mistwalker Studios in 2006 where he still provides his services while staying in Japan.
Sakaguchi brought in cinematic storytelling and turn-based combat with Final Fantasy (1987) and then Final Fantasy VII (1997) paved the way for 3D storytelling with its emotional depth. Final Fantasy IX (2000) is Sakaguchi’s favorite since it went back to a fantasy setting. The FF series shows off Sakaguchi’s way of exploring themes of loss, identity and hope which is classified as the Hironobu Sakaguchi spirit. The same is seen in his later projects, such as The Lost Odyssey (2007). Sakaguchi was inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Science Hall of Fame to honor his achievements in video game development.
3. Satoshi Tajiri
Satoshi Tajiri is the creator of Pokémon and the founder of Game Freak, where he is the CEO currently. Tajiri grew up in Machida, a suburb in Tokyo that was surrounded by nature at the time. He enjoyed collecting insects, earning the name Dr. Bug, and drew out maps and game ideas with a special interest in figuring out arcade games. This led to him coming up with a fanzine called Game Freak, that became a game development company in 1989.
Pokémon showcases Tajiri’s role as a strategist and a visionary, seen in its continued popularity across generations. Tajiri realized the potential of Game Boy’s Link cable for kids to trade Pokémon like how he traded insects growing up. Pokémon Red and Green were launched in 1996 in Japan where Tajiri acted as director and producer. These brought in mechanics like evolution where the creatures grew stronger with new forms and type advantages, like fire beating grass. Each Pokémon version came with new and different Pokémon which encouraged more trading and social interactions amongst players too.
4. Hidetaka Miyazaki
Hidetaka Miyazaki is the game designer and director behind Dark Souls (2011) and Bloodborne (2015). Miyazaki started off as a planner for Armored Core games after he joined FromSoftware in 2004. He then took over Demon’s Souls (2009) in the middle of its development and turned it into a cult classic while laying out the foundation for the Soulsborne genre. This genre has games that are known for their difficulty and cryptic storytelling, woven with detailed world designs.
Miyazaki became the president of FromSoftware in 2014, and won two Game of the Year awards, one for Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice in 2020 and for Elden Ring in 2023. The Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Award was granted to Miyazaki in 2022 as well. He designed Elden Ring (2021) with George. R. R. Martin, the author of Game of Thrones. Elden Ring has extensive narrative depth and world-design, cementing Miyazaki as a master in implementing immersive game mechanics and boss designs.
5. Richard Garfield
Richard Garfield is the inventor of Magic: The Gathering (1993) which was the first collecting card game (CCG) that blended math, strategy and social interactions. Garfield worked with Maxis, who created SimCity, on The Sims and speaks at Game Design Conventions with blogs on game theory.
Magic: TG was the first game to have booster packs and deck-building, so it set industry standards with early cards being sold in bookstores and hobby shops. Players act as wizards where they use spells, creatures and artifacts to fight each other. A mana system, color identities and tournaments were introduced, inspiring organized play and lore in future card games like Hearthstone and KeyForge.
6. Fumito Ueda
Fumito Ueda is known for creating emotional and minimalist video games like Ico (2001), Shadow of the Colossus (2005) and The Last Guardian (2016). Ueda started off at Sega and became famous at Sony’s Japan studio; he’s currently the founder of genDESIGN which is his independent studio. He grew up in Hyogo that’s known for its natural beauty and was a key inspiration behind the environmental design in his games. Ueda designs games without violence, opting for empathy and connection instead to solve problems and for progression.
7. Masahiro Sakurai
Masahiro Sakurai directed the original Super Smash Bros. and was the original designer behind Kirby’s Dream Land (1992), which he made for Game Boy at 19. Sakurai ran an independent YouTube channel called Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games, and founded Sora Ltd. with continued collaborations with Nintendo. He’s still known as the face of Nintendo, actively promoting new versions for Smash Bros.
The Super Smash Bros. series was first released on Nintendo 64 in 1999, combining platforming and fighting with Nintendo characters like Mario. All the new entries brought in new fighters, stages and mechanics like how Smash 4 for Wii U mixed gameplay with online features and Ultimate for Switch had all the past fighters.
8. Jonathan Blow
Johnathan Blow is an independent game designer and programmer known for creating Braid (2008), The Witness (2016) and the Jai programming language. Blow is the founder of Thekla Inc. and was influenced by Chris Crawford who advocated for games as an expressive media.
Braid and The Witness are both puzzle games, but Braid was self-funded and coded by Blow himself while The Witness involved a small team that worked on it for more than 7 years. Braid helped launch the modern indie game movement, with The Witness known for contributing to non-verbal learning and observation skills. Jai was designed specifically to improve efficiency and clarity for Blow’s own computer programming tasks.
9. Ken Levine
Ken Levine is the dev and designer behind System Shock 2 (1999) and the Bioshock series (2007-2013). Levine wrote screenplays and worked in film before moving into game development, so his games are known for mixing philosophical themes with immersive narratives. He started at Looking Glass Studios before co-founding Irrational Games in 1997, which has since changed to Ghost Story Games. Irrational Games is known for its narrative tour de force reputation where each game has a thematic journey as seen in the BioShock Series.
Levine was the Creative Director for both titles in BioShock which is the successor to System Shock and explores the concept of objectivism. Objectivism is the idea that reality exists outside of individual beliefs and worldviews so people gain knowledge via thought and logic instead of emotions. Ghost Story Games was formed after BioShock Infinite, the latest title in the BioShock series, and hasn’t released any games as of 2025.
10. Sid Meier
Sid Meier is the designer behind the Civilization series (1991 onwards) and has been creating genre-defining strategy and simulation games since the early 1980s. Meier co-founded MicroProse in 1982, where classics like Sid Meier’s Pirates! and Railroad Tycoon were developed. He co-founded Firaxis Games later in 1996 to mentor future designers, and is also the person behind the quote about games being a series of ‘interesting decisions.’ Meier emphasizes player agency in his games, encouraging mods as a result.
The Civilization series involves players building empires from The Stone Age to the Space Age, with Meier leading the design for its multiple sequels and spin-offs like Civilization VI. Meier’s name is tacked onto most of his games as well, highlighting his place in the industry as seen in Sid Meier’s Colonization (1994). Colonization is a spin-off of Civilization that focused on the European colonization of America. Meier was inducted into the AIAS Hall of Fame in 1999 for lifetime achievement and authored Sid Meier’s Memoir: A Life in Computer Games.
11. David Jones
David Jones helped shape early sandbox and puzzle games and founded multiple studios during his time in the industry. Jones’s studios include DMA Design (1987), Realtime Worlds (2002) and Cloudgine (2012) despite him starting out as a sole dev. Jones is the creator of Lemmings (1991) and the original Grand Theft Auto (GTA, 1997), both of which were created at DMA Design. Lemmings became globally acclaimed while GTA is known as one of the most successful sandbox franchises.
12. Sandy Petersen
Sandy Petersen, also known as Carl Sanford Joslyn Petersen, created Call of Cthulhu (1981) and contributed to Doom (1993-1994), Quake (1996) and Age of Empires. Petersen brought in Lovecraftian horror, centring games around cosmic dread and madness. He’s the founder of Petersen Games currently, with focus on horror-themed board games like Cthulhu Wars. His overall career spans tabletop RPGs, first-person shooters and strategy games.
Petersen’s Call of Cthulhu is a tabletop RPG based on H. P. Lovecraft’s myths and revolutionized RPGs via its focus on story rather than combat. Petersen joined id Software prior Doom’s release and contributed to 19 levels and 17 for Doom II so he’s the most prolific level designer for both games. He also worked at Ensemble Studios and contributed to Age of Empires’s strategy systems, plus the design elements for Orcs Must Die!
13. Gabe Newell
Gabe Newell is the co-founder and president of Valve Corporation, which helped develop Source and Source 2 engines to power its games. Newell attended Harvard before dropping out to join Microsoft where he worked as a dev and programmer on the early versions of Microsoft Windows before founding Valve in 1996. He helped create Half-Life (1998), providing funding and aiding in development, which in turn turned Valve into a major studio, and launched Steam in 2003.
Valve is known for operating like a guild, composed of teams without hierarchy and investing in tech like the Steam Deck and Valve Index, which is a VR headset, plus physics engines. Half Life 2 (2004) introduced the Source engine and came with advanced physics-based gameplay showcasing Valve’s emphasis on innovation. Newell also supports modding and user-generated content, as seen via Counter-Strike and Team Fortress 2, which were popular mods before becoming full Steam titles.
14. Eiji Aonuma
Eiji Aonuma is a veteran dev at Nintendo, with over 35 years experience, and is Senior Officer at Nintendo Entertainment Planning and Development. Aonuma worked under Miyamoto for Oscarina of Time (1998) initially as a dungeon designer and brought in the pole concept, introducing rotating mechanical puzzles. He directed and produced The Legend of Zelda titles (starting with Majora’s Mask in 2000), and reinterprets the relationship between the central characters, Link and the princess, in each of the Zelda titles alongside new mechanics.
Majora’s Mask brought in a darker, time-loop based sequel that was known for its emotional depth and side-quest structure and the next installment, The Wind Waker (2000) introduced ocean exploration. Aonuma reinvented Breath of the Wild, with focus on physics-based puzzles, and nonlinear exploration that reintroduced Zelda as an adventure RPG instead of a dungeon game. Tears of the Kingdom (2023) continued the open-world gameplay with additional building mechanics.
15. Yuji Naka
Yuji Naka began at Sega in 1983, coding early arcade and console titles, and then made Sega a direct competitor to Nintendo with Sonic the Hedgehog. Naka acted as the producer and manager, overseeing projects across Genesis, Sega Saturn and Dreamcast with a focus on maximizing Sega’s hardware. He worked at Sega until 2006, then founded Prope with a brief stint at Square Enix in 2021.
Naka co-created Sonic the Hedgehog in 1991 with Naoto Ohshima and Hirokazu Yasuhara where they introduced speed-based platforming, loop-de-loops and ring-collecting mechanics. Naka’s later works include Phantasy Star (1987) which is known for combining 3D dungeons with sci-fi fantasy.
16. Hideki Kamiya
Hideki Kamiya directed Resident Evil 2 (1998), introducing dual protagonists, Leon and Claire, and turned Devil May Cry (2001) into its own franchise despite it originally being Resident Evil 4. Kamiya brought in the stylish action genre with Devil May Cry where attacks are littered with combos, speed and cinematic hits. He started at Capcom where he contributed to Resident Evil 2 and then oversaw projects at Clover Studio and Platinum Games (Bayonetta, 2009), acting as both a supervisor and mentor for younger devs.
17. Tim Schafer
Tim Schafer established Double Fine Productions in 2000, after he contributed to The Secret of Monkey Island (1990) at LucasArts. The Secret of Monkey Island was Schafer’s breakout game after it became prominent for having comedic dialogue and puzzle mechanics, becoming a baseline for adventure games. Schafer is known for going rogue with unusual themes, and mechanics and for his online presence since he makes a point to engage with fans.
Grim Fandango (1998) was directed by Schafer, and is a noir-inspired adventure game set in the Land of the Dead, mixing Aztec technology with film noir aesthetics. Schafer showcased an ability for multiple genres with Psychonauts (2005), a platformer about psychic powers and mental worlds that established Double Fine as a studio willing to take risks. Psychonauts 2 (2021) expanded on the themes of empathy and mental health, winning critical acclaim for going deeper into the narrative and for its design.
18. Raph Koster
Raph Koster is a veteran game designer and was the lead designer of Ultima Online (1997), which was the first commercially successful MMORPG, and the creative director for Star Wars Galaxies (2003). Koster is the founder of Metaplace and CEO of Playable Worlds but also guided large-scale MMO teams at Origin Systems and Sony Online Entertainment. He wrote A Theory of Fun for Game Design, going into his design process from a scientific perspective.
Koster’s book integrates theories from cognitive psychology, neuroscience and education to instruct how to create games that are fun despite fun being subjective. Fun involves a series of patterns that are recognizable so players are able to master them, which connects to Csikszentmihalyi’s 1990 paper on games inducing a flow state. A flow state is when players are deeply immersive and enjoy playing because the game balances difficulty with accessibility.
19. Chris Avellone
Chris Avellone is a veteran game designer known for narrative-based RPGs like Planescape: Torment (1999) and Icewind Dale (2000). Avellone wrote up dialogue trees, lore and narrative arcs, directing Planescape with philosophical dialogue, and focused on player choices. He contributed to the narrative and design on Icewind, showcasing how mechanics and narrative are able to work together instead of against each other.
Avellone’s other projects include Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II – The Sith Lords (2004) and Fallout: New Vegas (2010). Avellone was the lead writer and designer for both titles, and introduced a darker, complex take on the Star Wars Knights universe. For Fallout he brought in branching quests and factions, and made sure of replayability by focusing on player agency.
20. Reiner Knizia
Reiner Knizia is a board game designer born in Illertissen, Bavaria, West Germany. Knizia has created more than 600 board and card games known for having mathematical precision and balancing both accessibility and strategic depth. These games include Tigris and Euphrates (1997), Ra (1999) and Lord of the Rings (2000).
Tigris introduced tile-laying mechanics, whereas Ra brought in auction mechanics and Lord of the Rings was the first cooperative board game of its kind. All of these showcase Knizia’s ability to innovate new mechanics for each title so they all have multiple editions and reprints from popularity.
21. John Romero
John Romero is the co-founder of Romero Games in Ireland, having previously co-founded 8 companies including id Software and Ion Storm. Romero is a self-taught coder, building early Apple III games prior to co-founding Id Software in 1991, where he helped make levels for Wolfenstein 3D (1992). He also co-designed Doom (1993), and led design for Quake (1996).
Romero Games is an independent studio that’s developing new FPS and strategy games like Empire of Sin (2020), but Romero already set the baseline for FPS titles with previous projects, like Wolfenstein. Romero created maze-like levels for Wolfenstein that established the FPS genre, combined with modern first-person shooter mechanics. Doom set the stage for multiplayer deathmatch games, and Quake cemented id Software’s dominance in FPS games with its 3D graphics. Romero is recognized as one of the top game designers in the 1990s as a result.
22. Ron Gilbert
Ron Gilbert is an adventure game designer and dev who started off at Lucasfilm Games and co-founded Humongous Entertainment before founding Terrible Toybox. Gilbert co-created the SCUMM engine (Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion) which introduced point and click mechanics that took over text parsers and made adventure games more accessible. He also directed and co-wrote The Secret of Monkey Island (1990) which is known for its dialogue and characters like Guybrush Threepwood.
23. Ben Brode
Ben Brode helped pioneer accessible digital card game design and is the co-founder and chief development officer of Second Dinner. Brode started at Blizzard in 2003 where he worked on Warcraft III maps and World of Warcraft as well as Hearthstone (2014). He left Blizzard in 2018, founding Second Dinner and pushing out titles like Marvel Snap (2022).
Hearthstone is a digital collectible card game set in the Warcraft universe with Brode becoming its public face. Brode is a people person, engaging with fans via videos, forums and discussions so he’s explained his design choices in dev videos. Marvel Snap (2022) was developed at Second Dinner, and co-founded by Brode, is another digital card game featuring Marvel superheroes.
24. Antoine Bauza
Antoine Bauza is the bastion of modern board game design, serving on panels and juries for board game awards and festivals. Bauza is known for being kind and collaborative when working with peers and designs that tie simple rules with strategic depth. His board games are both accessible for beginners and rewarding for experienced players.
Bauza has won 2 Spiel des Jahres (Game of the Year for specifically board and card games) for his games. 7 Wonders (2010) won in 2011, which is a civilization building card game that explores war and conflict. Hanabi (2010) won in 2013, and is a cooperative card game where players hold their cards facing outwards, and comes in pocket editions owing to its popularity.
25. Martin Wallace
Martin Wallace is the founder of Warfrog games, having worked with Treefog Games and collaborated with international publishers previously. Wallace’s games are based on real world history, politics and economics with a focus on managing resources and negotiating conflicts in wars. His designs hinge on time management as a result so players need to think strategically.
Wallace’s Brass: Lancashire (2007) and Brass: Birmingham (2018) are industrial revolution-themed economic games. Birmingham is listed among the top board games of all time on BoardGameGeek since there are networks of industry and trade so players have to balance risk, investment and timing all at once during play.
26. Uwe Rosenberg
Uwe Rosenberg is the founder of Lookout Games, refining worker-placement and polyomino mechanics so he’s dubbed the keeper of mechanics amongst board games. Worker-placement is when players assign their workers/ tokens to limited action spaces and perform game tasks and polyomino mechanics include fitting irregularly shaped tiles onto a grid. His game designs are people-oriented as in they focus on family play, community and shared growth.
Agricola (2007) is one of Rosenberg’s worker-placement farming games where players grow families, crops and livestock. It won the Spiel des Jahres Special Prize and became a modern classic. Caverna: The Cave Farmers (2013) is the spiritual successor to Agricola with dwarves for mining, farming and expanding a cave system. Rosenberg also developed A Feast for Odin (2016), another worker placement game with polyomino tiles that let players explore Viking life.
27. Wolfgang Kramer
Wolfgang Kramer is a German board game designer born in Stuttgart, and is a five time winner of the Spiel des Jahres award. Kramer introduced the Kramer track for scoring in Heimlich & Co. (1986) which has become the standard in multiple modern board games. He started off balancing design work with professional management before becoming a full-time designer and has since created over a 100 published games.
28. Vlaada Chvátil
Vlaada Chvátil is a Czech board game designer with multiple games published on Czech Games Edition, living and working in Brno currently. Chvátil has a reputation for being a spymaster at game design owing to his ability to switch between light party games like Codenames (2015) and heavy strategy games like Through the Ages: A Story of Civilization (2006). Codenames won the Spiel des Jahres in 2016, partially owing to the tension it creates each round.
29. Tom Lehmann
Tom Lehmann worked as a programmer and developer at Maxis, the creator of Sim City, before focusing on tabletop design. Lehmann’s games explore galactic civilizations, and are known for having innovative mechanics and point-based victory systems. Lehmann has an older title called Fast Food Franchise (1992) which is an economic simulation game about competing restaurant chains.
Fast Food Franchise showcased Lehmann’s interest in resource management and market dynamics and was demonstrated again in Lehmann’s later titles like Race for the Galaxy (2007). Race for the Galaxy is his sci-fi card game, where players build up a galactic civilization with a dice-based adaptation called Roll for the Galaxy (2014).
30. Stefan Feld
Stefan Feld is one of the most prolific Eurogame designers, with games that reward players with points from multiple interconnected systems. Feld is dubbed the point-salad designer as a result with his name becoming a brand so his games are referred to as Feld games. Their consequent popularity also means they’re showcased at conventions and released in deluxe packages.
Feld notable games include The Castles of Burgundy (2011), a tile-laying, resource management game and Trajan (2011) which introduced a mancala-style action selection system. Carpe Diem (2018) was developed by him as well, and streamlined the tile laying genre in the European board game industry.
31. Rüdiger Dorn
Rüdiger Dorn won the Spiel des Jahres in 2014 for his game Istanbul, which is a worker-movement and trading game that’s set in a crowded bazaar. Dorn is known for being the master of building scoring systems that reward multiple winning paths, and for catering to a wide audience. Karuba (2016) is a family-friendly tile laying adventure game for example, whereas Las Vegas (2012) is a dice placement game about casinos instead.
32. Michael Kiesling
Michael Kiesling won the Spiel des Jahres four times for board games like Tikal (1999) and Azul (2017). Kiesling co-designed Tikal with Wolfgang Kramer, which is an action-point system exploration game where players explore a jungle, and use their points for moves. Azul is a tile laying abstract game that was inspired by Portuguese azulejos, and was widely acclaimed, coming in deluxe editions.
33. Eric M. Lang
Eric M Lang, referred to as M Lang or Eric M is a board game designer who’s worked with Fantasy Flight Games and CMON Limited (was Director of Game Design) amongst other publishers. Lang creates games that are heavy with conflict and streamlined mechanics, exploring mythologies, and fantasy wars.
M Lang created Chaos in the Old World (2009), a warhammer-themed game where players act as dark gods fighting each other for control, which became a cult classic among fans of asymmetrical design. Lang also created A Game of Thrones: The Card Game (2002), which is a competitive card game that replicated the battles in Westeros. The design highlighted political strategies and conflicts between the multiple factions, showcasing M Lang’s mastery in turning literary worlds into competitive games. This is seen in Cthulhu: Death May Die (2019) as well, since it’s a cooperative game where players face Lovecraftian horrors.
34. Jamey Stegmaier
Jamey Stagmaier co-founded Stonemaier Games, a publisher that’s recognized for premium components and Kickstarter innovations. Stegmaier maintains a popular blog and official site where he gives insights on game design called Stonemaier Games. Vitticulture (2013), a worker-placement game about winemaking, was one of his first major successes.
35. Bruno Cathala
Bruno Cathala is a French board game designer, who won the Spiel des Jahres in 2017 for Kingdomino, a domino style kingdom building game. Cathala’s designs go into social interactions and negotiation tactics, with frequent reissues in deluxe editions and award jury features. Five Tribes (2014) is a puzzle worker movement game set in a mythical Arabian world that showcases his ability to merge tactical puzzles with themed concepts. Cathala advocates for games as a source of joy, sharing his personal insights on his official site and in interviews.
36. Ignacy Trzewiczek
Ignacy Trzewiczek is a Polish board game designer and founder and chief of Portal Games, a publisher that specializes in story-based board games. Trzewiczek is known for adding ton (multiple cards and tokens to manage) and bit (tokens and cards themselves) to his game designs, as seen in Robinson Crusoe: Adventure on the Cursed Island (2012). He writes a blog for Board Games that Tell Stories where he teaches design philosophies to fans, and via Portal Games channels.
37. Corey Konieczka
Corey Konieczka shaped the board game landscape from the 2000s to 2010s with games such as Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game (2008) and Twilight Imperium (3rd Edition, 2005). Konieczka worked at Fantasy Flight Games before co-founding Unexpected Games. He played a central role in Fantasy’s Ameritrash era, churning out board games with heavy narrative designs, on which he wrote rulebooks for learners.
Konieczka developed Battlestar to mirror the paranoia that undercuts the TV series, so it’s acclaimed for creating tension during gameplay. Star Wars: Rebellion (2016) is a two-player strategy game from him that incorporates cinematic storytelling. It’s one of the most celebrated adaptations of the Star Wars universe, using asymmetric mechanics to represent the conflicts and tensions.
38. Christian T. Petersen
Christian. T. Petersen was born in Denmark, but moved to the U.S. and founded Fantasy Flight Games in 1995, building it into one of the largest hobby game publishers before witnessing its integration into Asmodee Group in 2014. Petersen oversaw Fantasy’s early board games titles like Twilight Imperium, a space opera game of politics and war, which had multiple editions from success. His catalog includes games like A Game of Thrones: The Board Game (2003), Arkham Horror (2nd edition, 2005) and Descent: Journeys in the Dark (2005).
39. Virginio Gigli
Virginio Gigli is an Italian board game designer known for his collaborations with Flamini Brasini and Simone Luciani, forming a trio behind titles like Lorenzo il Magnifico (2016) and Grand Austria Hotel (2015). Gigli uses repetitive modular systems during the game design process so that the titles are easier to expand for modular boards and deluxe editions.
Lorenzo is a worker-placement game set during the Renaissance in Italy with a focus on family power and resource management. Gigli combines historical themes with game mechanics as a result, with an emphasis on timing and efficiency. This is seen in Grand Austria Hotel too, a dice-drafting game about running a hotel and serving guests.
40. Alexey Pajitnov
Alexey Pajitnov is a Russian computer programmer, known for creating Tetris (1984) while he worked at Dorodnitsyn Computing Centre of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. Pajitnov wasn’t able to get royalties initially for Tetris because of Soviet ownership laws but he gained rights, as well as recognition in the 1990s. He co-founded The Tetris Company in 1996 to manage future licensing and royalties, but worked at Microsoft from 1996 to 2005 on puzzle games and AI projects.
Tetris was inspired by pentomino puzzles and designed to be playable endlessly, and became globally known after it got licensed by Nintendo for the Game Boy in 1989. It has since become one of the best selling video games of all time. Tetris set the stage for puzzle gaming, with Pajitnov still overseeing the multiple versions and adaptations.
41. Éric Chahi
Éric Chahi created Another World (1991) almost entirely on his own, working on both coding and art and is a central figure in the French video game industry. Another World is a platformer with rotoscoped animation and storytelling, influencing other designers and becoming a cult classic. Chahi designed Heart of Darkness (1998) as well, an adventure game with animated cutscenes and dark fantasy themes. He’s known for exploring different genres, blurring the lines between games, art and interactive cinema in his designs.
42. Kazunori Yamauchi
Kazunori Yamauchi is the CEO of Polyphony Digital, and helped evolve racing games into realistic driving simulators, including both the gaming and automotive industries. Yamauchi is best known for creating Gran Turismo (1997), which has since had multiple editions and sequels. Gran Turismo 3 (2001), for example, was designed to showcase PlayStation 2’s ability to handle heavy graphics, and set the series’s overall success in stone. The latest entry (as of 2025) is Gran Turismo 7, combining realism with accessibility to appeal to players of all skill-levels.
43. Don Daglow
Don Daglow founded Stormfront Studios (1988 to 2008), producing titles like Tony la Russa Baseball and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Daglow co-developed Neverwinter Nights (1991), the first graphical MMORPG, which let players explore Dungeons and Dragons worlds online with support for up to 200 players.
Daglow introduced mechanics for resource management in Utopia (1982), which is known as the first real-time strategy/ simulation game. The development team for Intellivision World Series Baseball (1983) was led by Daglow too, and was one of the first sports games to use multiple camera angles and advanced AI.
44. Josef Fares
Josef Fares is a Swedish-Lebanese filmmaker and video game designer so he uses cinematic techniques for immersion in his games. Fares’s games are known for demanding teamwork and communication between players, like A Way Out (2018), a two player prison escape game. It Takes Two (2021) is another cooperative adventure game that was designed by Fares as well, winning Game of the Year in 2021.
45. Gregg Mayles
Gregg Mayles is the creator of the Banjo Kazooie franchise (1998), blending platforming with comedy and exploration. Mayles is best known for his work at Rare, having worked there for 36 years before he left in October of 2025 on his own. He worked on early Rare titles like Battletoads (1991) and co-designed Donkey Kong (1994) and Donkey Kong Country 2 (1995). Mayles also directed Sea of Thieves (2018), focusing on shared storytelling and player-driven exploration.
46. Warren Spector
Warren Spector’s career spans influential studios like Origin Systems, Looking Glass Studios, Ion Storm and Junction Point Studios. Spector is regarded as an influential person amongst simulation and RPG games, exploring conflict and morality in his games. He designed Ultima Underworld (1992), an early 3D dungeon RPG, as well as System Shock (1994) which combined FPS mechanics with RPG narratives.
47. Danielle Bunten Berry
Danielle Bunten Berry, referred to as Dan Bunten or Dani Bunten, was a pioneering American game designer and programmer. Berry began her career in Little Rock, Arkansas, with early development experience on Apple II, seeing games as a way to connect people. She passed away on July 3rd, 1998 but is remembered for her extensive work on multiplayer games like M. U. L. E (1983).
M. U. L. E is a multiplayer economic simulation game built for Atari 8-bit computers, with Berry pioneering the mechanics for resource management and teamwork. Berry collaborated with teams to create the maps and navigation systems for Seven Cities of Gold (1984), an exploration and colonization game that combined history with open-world mechanics.
48. Takashi Tezuka
Takashi Tezuka joined Nintendo in 1984, helping define their design style so their games were accessible and family friendly with immersive gameplay. Tezuka co-designed Super Mario Bros. (1985) and The Legend of Zelda (1986), overseeing later franchises like Animal Crossing and Pikmin.
Tezuka co-designed Super Mario Bros. with Shigeru Miyamoto, setting the stage for platformers in gaming, and he co-created Zelda, which introduced open-world exploration and adventure mechanics.
49. Emerson Matsuuchi
Emerson Matsuuchi is recognized as one of the best board game designers, integrating player-centric mechanics across genres. Matsuuchi has a reputation for being a leader and approachable due to his collaborations with studios like Plan B Games and Arcane Wonders. Matsuuchi’s games are versatile as they span different genres and concepts, like the Century trilogy (Spice Road is the first instalment), which is a resource trading game, and Specter Ops (2015).
The design for Specter Ops was led by Matsuuchi, and it’s a hidden movement game where players are divided between hunters and spies. Matsuuchi designed it to be replayable despite the tension each time, and has hidden movement mechanics to make sure of fairness across skill levels.
50. Richard Garriott
Richard Gariott, also known as Lord British, is one of the few game devs to have gone to space; following his father, Owen Garriott, a NASA astronaut. Garriott started his career creating the original Ultima games (1981) on the Apple II, and then co-founded Origin Systems in 1983. He continued overseeing the Ultima series at Origin but oversaw titles like the Wing Commander series too. The Ultima Series is dubbed the cornerstone of RPG history, defining the genre with morality systems, world-building and player freedom.
Garriott continued the Ultima series with success, as seen with Ultima Online (1997), which became one of the first successful MMORPGs. Garriott has won multiple industry honor awards including the AIAS Hall of Fame Award (2006), and the Game Developers Choice Lifetime Achievement Awards (2006). He’s been recognized by magazines such as Computer Gaming World and PC Gamer as one of the most influential figures in gaming.
51. Masaya Matsuura
Masaya Matsuura is a Japanese musician and video game designer, who’s considered the father of rhythm games. Matsuura was a member of PSY.S, which released multiple albums from the late 1980s to 1990s that mixed pop and electronic genres and laid the foundation for his video games. He founded NanOn-Sha and created Vib-Ribbon (1999) and PaRappa the Rapper (1996). PaRappa is a PlayStation rhythm game where players rap to the beats and was directed by Matsuura, gaining global recognition despite being a cult phenomenon.
52. Gunpei Yokoi
Gunpei Yokoi is remembered as the king of Nintendo’s hardware era after his passing on October 4th, 1997. Yokoi created hand-held consoles, including LCD hand-helds and toy gun inventions, defining Nintendo’s 1980s to 1990s era. He worked with Miyamoto on Donkey Kong to supervise the hardware and controller design, and engineered the Game Boy in 1989. Yokio designed the cross-shaped D-pad that’s still the standard for gaming hardware.
The Game and Watch was the first hand-held I saw on the bus ride to school. I didn’t have one of my own and I thought it was a little clunky but my brother got the Game and Watch for Megaman 2. The hand-held is a reminder that making things both accessible and affordable increases reach, which is a value Nintendo holds till today.
53. Yu Suzuki
Yu Suzuki joined Sega in 1983 and became the head of AM2, which is Sega’s arcade development division. Suzuki directed projects during Sega’s Saturn era like the Virtua Fighter series (1993 onwards) and produced Fighter Megamix (1996). Virtua Fighter was the first 3D fighting game, introducing realistic martial arts and character models. Suzuki directed and produced Virtua Racing (1992) too, showcasing Sega’s Model 1 arcade board and pushed polygonal graphics into the mainstream arcade genre.
54. Mark Cerny
Mark Cerny is the proprietor of Cerny Games, which is a consultancy that has guided studios like Naughty Dog and Insomniac Games. Cerny started his career at Atari, and programmed Marble Madness at 18, an early arcade hit that showed off his programming skills. He worked at Sega from 1980s to 1990s, contributing to Sonic the Hedgehog 2 amongst other projects and then was a consultant for Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon. Cerny is also the architect for PlayStation 4 (2013) and PlayStation 5 (2020); overall, his contributions led to him becoming a member of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame.
55. David Banner
David Banner is the co-founder and CEO of Wales Interactive, which is a studio that specializes in interactive movies and narrative-driven games. Banner started off as a games artist at Eidos Interactive in 1995 and later moved into design, designing titles like Maid of Sker (2020) and Infinity Runner (2014).
Infinity Runner is a sci-fi action runner set on a spaceship and Maid of Sker is a survival horror set in a haunted Welsh hotel. Banner’s games are known for providing players with cinematic experiences in terms of visual and auditory immersion. These culminated in his recognition as a Member of the Order of the British Empire for his contributions to the UK games industry.
56. Derek Paxton
Derek Paxton is known for his work on strategy games at Stardock Entertainment, becoming a public representative of Stardock’s fantasy titles. Paxton joined Stardock to lead its fantasy strategy division and helped refine the studio’s approach to narrative driven 4x designs as seen in Fallen Enchantress (2012), where he was the lead designer.
Fallen Enchantress is a standalone fantasy 4x strategy game, building on principles from Fall from Heaven, for which Paxton was the lead designer as well. Fall from Heaven is a dark fantasy mod of Civilization IV and introduced new factions, mechanics and lore, becoming a turning point in Paxton’s career.
57. Yuji Horii
Yuji Horii is the creator of the Dragon Quest series and founder of Armor Project (with a lengthy collaboration with Square Enix), having a central role in defining the Japanese RPG genre. Horii’s career started after he won a programming contest and created The Portopia Serial Murder Case (1983). This was an adventure game made for Japanese computers and introduced text-based commands alongside narrative-driven gameplay.
Horii designed Dragon Quest (1986 onwards) and brought in turn-based combat, questlines and accessible storytelling to the JRPG market. Horii integrated elements like slime monsters and Akira Toriyama’s character designs made it stand out; it continues as Square’s flagship RPG series as of 2025.
58. Shigesato Itoi
Shigesato Itoi was one of the first Japanese copywriters to go into video game design and led the creative series for the Mother series (1981 onwards) with Nintendo. Mother is a RPG for Famicom that’s known for combining humor with a suburban setting, which was continued with Mother 2 (1994), commonly known as EarthBound. Itoi’s copywriting era involved him creating Japanese ad campaigns in the 1970s-80s, and he runs an online publication for essays and interviews called Hobo Nikkan Itoi Shinbun (1998 onwards).
59. Lorne Lanning
Lorne Lanning established Oddwork Inhabitants in 1994, and has worked with publishers like GT Interactive with self-published remakes of his games later on. Lanning’s games tackle themes like corporate greed, environmental destruction and exploitation so he’s known for using games for social critique. This is seen in titles like Abe’s Oddysee and Abe’s Exoddus.
Lanning designed Abe’s Oddysee (1997), a puzzle platformer about Abe who’s a worker escaping his company’s exploitation with an expanded sequel for the lore in Abe’s Exoddus (1988). Lanning moved the series into 3D with Munch’s Oddysee (2001) which was launched with Xbox, and he reimagined Abe’s Exodus with Soulstorm (2021).
60. Allen Adham
Allen Adham is the co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment (known as Silicon & Synapse from 1991 to 1994) and is known for shaping the studio’s early identity. Adham helped develop early titles including RM Racing and The Lost Vikings which established Blizzard as both creative and accessible with their game design. Adham left Blizzard in 2004 but continued to provide creative support until his return in 2016.
Adham was the executive producer for Warcraft: Orcs and Humans (1994) which was Blizzard’s first large RTS hit, and for Diablo (1996) that set the stage for the action-RPG genre. Adham returned to Blizzard as the Chief Design Officer and oversaw the systems of Diablo IV (2017 to 2020). He was also the Lead Designer for World of Warcraft (2004), supervising the MMO systems. Adham helped balance accessibility with depth, leading to WOW becoming the most successful MMORPG for its time with continuous expansions and an active community.
61. Yoshio Kiya
Yoshio Kiya is credited with creating Dragon Slayer (1984) which is considered the starting point for action RPGs, establishing design standards (like real-time combat and exploration) for future AAA RPG titles. Kiya started programming on NEC PC-6001, making his debut with Galactic Wars 1 (1982), setting the stage for Japanese PC gaming from the 1980s to 1990s. He’s affiliated with Nihon Falcom as well, since they published Galactic Wars 1.
