List of video game designers
Appearance
This is a list of notable video game designers, past and present, in alphabetical order. The people in this list already have Wikipedia entries, and as such did significant design for notable computer computer games, console games, or arcade games. It does not include people in managerial roles (which often includes titles like "Producer" or "Development Director") or people who developed a concept without doing actual design work on the game itself (sometimes applicable to "co-creator" or "creator" roles).
A
- Allen Adham, Lead Designer of World of Warcraft.
- Michel Ancel, creator of Rayman and Beyond Good & Evil.
B
- Ralph Baer, "Father of Video Games", created Chase (1967), the first game played in a television set.
- Clive Barker, creator of Undying and Jericho.
- Doug Barnett, designer/writer/artist Lords of the Rising Sun, Star Rank Boxing, Ghostbusters II and Return to Zork.
- Richard Bartle, co-author of MUD, the first multi-user dungeon.
- Chris Beatrice: Caesar and Lords of the Realm.
- Marc Blank: co-designer of Zork
- Cliff Bleszinski: lead designer of Gears of War and Gears of War 2 and level designer of Unreal series.
- Ed Boon: co-creator of the Mortal Kombat fighting game series.
- Brenda Brathwaite: lead designer, Wizardry 8
- Bill Budge: Raster Blaster and Pinball Construction Set
- Danielle Bunten: M.U.L.E., The Seven Cities of Gold
C
- Tim Cain, main designer of Fallout and Arcanum
- Rich Carlson, co-designer of Strange Adventures in Infinite Space and Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space
- Mark Cerny, designer of Marble Madness, Knack
- Eric Chahi, developer and designer of Another World, and Heart of Darkness.
- Doug Church: Ultima Underworld, Ultima Underworld 2 and System Shock
- Lori and Corey Cole: Quest for Glory series, Mixed-Up Fairy Tales, Castle of Dr. Brain and Shannara
- Chris Crawford: Eastern Front (1941), Balance of Power
D
- Don Daglow: designer of Dungeon, Intellivision Utopia, Earl Weaver Baseball, Neverwinter Nights
- Patrice Désilets, creator of Assassin's Creed.
- Dino Dini: designer of Kick Off, Kick Off 2, Player Manager, GOAL!, Dino Dini's Soccer
- Jakub Dvorsky: designer of Samorost and Machinarium.
F
- Brian Fargo: developer of Bard's Tale and Wasteland
- Steve Fawkner: designer of the Warlords (game series) and the Puzzle Quest series
- Steve Feak: developer of DotA Allstars and lead designer of League of Legends
- Kelton Flinn: designer of Air Warrior and many other pioneering online games
- David Fox: designer of Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders
- František Fuka: developed games for Sinclair ZX Spectrum such as Tetris 2
- Tokuro Fujiwara: Ghosts 'n Goblins
- Rob Fulop: Demon Attack, Cosmic Ark
G
- Toby Gard: Tomb Raider
- Richard Garriott (a.k.a. Lord British): creator of the Ultima series and founder of Origin Systems
- Andy Gavin: Crash Bandicoot
- Ron Gilbert: designer of Maniac Mansion and the first two Monkey Island games
- Julian Gollop, designer of Chaos, Laser Squad and X-COM: UFO Defense.
- Andrew Gower, designer of RuneScape
- Brian 'Psychochild' Green, designer of Meridian 59
- Stefano Gualeni: creator and designer of the Tony Tough series, writer and designer for Dangerous Heaven
H
- Dean 'Rocket' Hall, creator of DayZ
- Jon Hare: designer/director of Sensible Soccer series, Cannon Fodder series and Wizball series
- Stieg Hedlund: Diablo, Diablo II, StarCraft)
- Yuji Horii: Square Enix – Dragon Quest series, Chrono Trigger
- Todd Howard: Elder Scrolls series, Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas
- Casey Hudson: Bioware – Mass Effect series, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
I
- IceFrog: developer of Defense of the Ancients and lead designer of Dota 2
- Tomonobu Itagaki: Tecmo Team Ninja – former designer of the Dead or Alive (DOA) games and Ninja Gaiden
- Shigesato Itoi: creator of the EarthBound/Mother series
- Tōru Iwatani: designer of Pac-Man and Pole Position
J
- David Jaffe: creator of God of War and designer on the Twisted Metal series
- Jennell Jaquays: leader of game design for Coleco in the 1980s, designer and level designer for Quake 2, Quake III Arena and Quake III: Team Arena
- Eugene Jarvis, creator of Defender, Robotron: 2084, Target: Terror and The Fast and The Furious
- Jane Jensen, creator of Gabriel Knight series, Gray Matter
- Soren Johnson: co-designer of Civilization III and lead designer for Civilization IV
- David Jones: creator of Lemmings and Grand Theft Auto series
- Jens Bergensten,
K
- Iikka Keränen, co-designer of Strange Adventures in Infinite Space and Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space
- Rieko Kodama: Sega – Phantasy Star series, Skies of Arcadia
- Hideo Kojima: Konami – Metal Gear series, Snatcher and Policenauts
- Jarek Kolář: designer of Vietcong.
L
- Marc Laidlaw: designer/writer at Valve on the Half-Life games
- Ken Levine, creator of BioShock and Thief: The Dark Project Series
- Ken Lobb: creator of GoldenEye 007
- Ed Logg: Asteroids, Centipede and Gauntlet
- Gilman Louie, creator of Falcon (video game series), Super Tetris, Battle Trek, Delta Squadron, and Starship Simulator
- Al Lowe: creator of the Leisure Suit Larry series
M
- Gregg Mayles: designer for the Banjo-Kazooie series and Viva Piñata
- American McGee: American McGee's Alice, Doom, Quake, American McGee's Grimm
- Edmund McMillen: independent game artist and designer for Gish, Aether
- Stephen Marley: designer/writer of Martian Gothic: Unification
- Colin McComb: designer for Planescape: Torment
- Brad McQuaid: EverQuest
- Jordan Mechner: Karateka and Prince of Persia series
- Sid Meier: Civilization series, Railroad Tycoon
- Steve Meretzky: Planetfall, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, A Mind Forever Voyaging, and Leather Goddesses of Phobos
- Shinji Mikami: of Capcom – the Resident Evil series
- Robyn and Rand Miller: Myst
- Jeff Minter: Tempest 2000, Gridrunner
- Shigeru Miyamoto: Nintendo EAD – Donkey Kong, Mario, Legend of Zelda
- Tetsuya Mizuguchi: Lumines, Rez, Space Channel 5
- Peter Molyneux: Populous, Syndicate and Black and White, Fable
- Brian Moriarty: Trinity and Loom
- David Mullich: The Prisoner, I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream
N
- Yuji Naka: (Sega Sonic Team) – Sonic the Hedgehog, Phantasy Star Online, Nights into Dreams...
- Doug Neubauer: Star Raiders, Solaris
- Garry Newman: Garry's Mod
- Toshihiro Nishikado: Space Invaders
- Tetsuya Nomura: Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts
O
- Yoshiki Okamoto: Game Republic, Capcom, Konami – Street Fighter (series)
- Henrique Olifiers: designer of media convergence games such as My Big Brother, Herois e vampiros and Conquista de Titã.
- Scott Orr: designer of original version of Madden NFL
P
- Tommy Palm: Candy Crush Saga
- Alexey Pajitnov: Tetris
- Rob Pardo: Lead Designer on World of Warcraft, Warcraft III
- David Perry: MDK, Earthworm Jim
- Markus Persson: Minecraft
- Sandy Petersen: Lightspeed, Doom, Rise of Rome and more
- Simon Phipps: Rick Dangerous, ShadowMan, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
R
- Rick Raymer: Clue, Scooby Doo: Mystery of the Fun Park Phantom
- Frédérick Raynal, creator of Alone in the Dark, Little Big Adventure and Toy Commander
- Tommy Refenes: Super Meat Boy
- Brian Reynolds: Civilization II, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, Rise of Nations and FrontierVille
- Scott Rogers: Maximo: Ghosts to Glory, Maximo vs. Army of Zin, God of War
- Ken Rolston: The Elder Scrolls (Morrowind and Oblivion)
- John Romero: Doom and Quake lead designer and level designer, Daikatana
- Jason Rubin: Crash Bandicoot
S
- Hironobu Sakaguchi: Mistwalker, Final Fantasy series, Chrono Trigger
- Masahiro Sakurai: creator of Kirby, designer of the Super Smash Bros. series
- Kevin Saunders, lead designer of Torment: Tides of Numenera and Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer
- Chris Sawyer, Transport Tycoon, Rollercoaster Tycoon series.
- Josh Sawyer: Neverwinter Nights 2, Icewind Dale series, Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance series
- Tim Schafer: Grim Fandango, Psychonauts
- Jesse Schell: Toontown Online, Pixie Hollow (video game)
- Glen Schofield: creator of Dead Space
- Jeremiah Slaczka: Scribblenauts, Drawn to Life
- Doug Smith: Lode Runner
- Warren Spector: System Shock, Thief, Deus Ex
- Goichi Suda: Killer7
- Yu Suzuki: Afterburner, Hang-On, Virtua Racing, Virtua Fighter series, Ferrari F355 Challenge, Shenmue
- Kim Swift: Portal
- David Sirlin: Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix
T
- Satoshi Tajiri: creator of Pokémon games
- Toshiro Tsuchida: Front Mission series
- John Tobias: co-creator of the Mortal Kombat series.
- Chris Taylor, Total Annihilation.
- Andy Tudor: Need for Speed "SHIFT" franchise
U
V
- Jon Van Caneghem: Might and Magic and Heroes of Might and Magic series
- Daniel Vávra: Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven.
W
- Robin Walker: Team Fortress
- Christopher Weaver: co-designer of Gridiron!
- Jordan Weisman: co-creator of BattleTech and MechWarrior
- Richard Vander Wende: co-designer/director of Riven
- Bill Williams: Necromancer, Alley Cat, Mind Walker
- Roberta Williams: designer of King's Quest
- Tim Willits: designer on Quake, Quake II, Quake III Arena, Quake III: Team Arena, Doom 3
- Gary Winnick: designer of Maniac Mansion and Thimbleweed Park
- Will Wright: SimCity, The Sims, and Spore
Y
See also
External links
- The Giant List of Classic Game Programmers which concentrates on 8-bit era game programmers who were usually also the game's designer