Written by GT Staff  on February 01, 2008

Special: There's no immunity here.

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Shigeru Miyamoto
Miyamoto is the elder statesman of game developers. From the early days of the coin-op craze to the creation of the NES to the glory days of the SNES to the rollercoaster ride that was the N64 to the confusing days of the GameCube all the way up to Nintendo's rebirth with the Wii, Miyamoto has seen it all. With a resume longer than Yao Ming's arm, he has created more classic games than anyone ever. Donkey Kong, Super Mario. Bros., The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, F-Zero, A Link to the Past, Mario 64, Ocarina of Time, Pikmin, Nintendogs, Twilight Princess, Wii Sports and that's just the tip of the iceberg.

But he did more than just create games. He had a hand in developing the Nintendo 64 controller (the greatest controller ever) and his "It should be fun for everyone" philosophy directly led to the creation of Super Mario Kart, Super Smash Bros. and the Wii. He is also responsible for the video game adage. "A delayed game is eventually good, a bad game is bad forever."

The jury says...
"Without Shigeru Miyamoto video games would be very different and I'm not sure I'd want to play them."

"He was essential for just about anything interesting Nintendo ever did. Plus he's cool."

Gabe Newell
In the 1990s, first person shooters were pretty basic Ц just run around and kill everything in sight. Gabe Newell's Half-Life changed all that by incorporating a real movie-quality story and creating a truly immersive environment with seamless level loading times and engaging in-game scripted sequences (as opposed to CG-rendered cutscenes). Half-Life was a landmark title, revolutionizing the FPS genre and influencing games like Halo and Call of Duty. Half-Life 2 improved on everything and introduced realistic physics-based puzzles along with amazing AI and big advances in graphics and sound. Newell's support for the modding community was responsible for the innovative Team Fortress Classic (which introduced the class-based character system) and the massively popular Counter-Strike. His continued support for modders and innovative ideas like the wildly addictive Portal ensures his influence on the gaming industry will resonate for years to come.

The jury says...
"The first Half-life took that id raw material and made it into a classic."

Jade Raymond
Jade Raymond is the new kid on the block when it comes to all-star developers and if her first major game, Assassin's Creed, is any indication, she'll be around for a long time. But before producing the initial adventure of Altair (it's Ubisoft, you know a sequel is coming), Ms. Raymond worked on The Sims Online and Jeopardy for Sony's web-based Station service.

The jury says...
"Jade Raymond isn't ready to be listed among these names yet."



Goichi Suda (Suda 51)
The current king of weird of the game developer fraternity is no doubt Goichi Suda. The man with the unique art style had long been a favorite among Japanese gamers for his work on the Fire Pro Wrestling games and several adventure titles for the PSone and PS2. He burst on to the English-language scene with the horror title Michigan (which was released only in Europe and took place in Chicago, Michigan) in 2004. Suda's main claim to fame is the strange (and polarizing) PS2 and GameCube game Killer 7. He found more universal acceptance the next year with Contact, an RPG on the DS. While many of these games may be unknown to most American gamers, that may change with the recently released No More Heroes on the Wii.

The jury says...
"From gravedigger to game designer... need I say more?"

Fumito Ueda
With only two games to his credit and none of the "rock star developer" cache that many others in this contest crave, Fumito Ueda is truly in a class by himself. As a director, he has helmed the cinematic, and very beautiful, Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, both for the PlayStation 2. In fact, Shadow of the Colossus was considered so beautiful and profound that it was used in the Adam Sandler/Don Cheadle movie Reign Over Me and the collapsing Colossi as a paralell for 9/11 and the World Trade Center.

The jury says...
"Fumito Ueda may not be a household name to gamers, but the titles he helped create are some of the highest rated and most beloved games of recent years."

"The only developer with the seal of approval from Adam Sandler."

Will Wright
If there's such a thing as royalty among US game developers, Will Wright certainly ranks among its nobility. I was recently in the offices of a prominent development house, and the most prominent art on the wall was a framed copy of Newsweek with a Sims 2 coverstory and signed by Wright. Sure, the Sims franchise is the best-selling PC game of all time. Sure it draws a non-gamer audience, including folks who don't want to admit to owning a computer game. But he got his start as a get-your-hands-dirty coder/designer with the classic Raid on Bungeling Bay in 1984. Then came the groundbreaking SimCity. It was a tough sell at first, since it didn't fit the existing mold of shoot-'em-up games available at the time. It seems a no-brainer at this point, since the game went on to win a stack of awards and inspire multiple sequels and spinoffs including SimAnt, SimCopter, and SimEarth, not to mention that little Sims thing. If the franchise has a legacy outside of its own kissing cousins, perhaps it lies in management and god games like Civilization, Caesar, and Black & White, all of which work with the SimCity formula in some fashion. Wright is currently at work on the next big thing: a game called Spore that intends to put the design reigns in the players' hands.

The jury says...
"I know The Sims sells a lot of copies, but does it count as a game? I thought those things were 'software toys'."

The Tribe has spoken...
While the debate was heated, three names failed to garner much support. Cliff Bleszinski was fragged, Tomonobu Itagaki is dead rather than alive and Jade Raymond was taken out by a stealthy assassin. They all played a hard game, but in the end, the jury has spoken and they have been eliminated.

Next time on Game Developer Survivor...
The developers compare average review scores from Game Rankings and three more go home.