Below is a list of notable people who work or have worked in the

video game industry The video game industry encompasses the development, marketing, and monetization of video games. The industry encompasses dozens of job disciplines and thousands of jobs worldwide. The video game industry has grown from niches to mainstream. , ...

. The list is divided into different roles, but some people fit into more than one category. For example,

Sid Meier Sidney K. Meier ( ; born February 24, 1954) is a Canadian-American programmer, designer, and producer of several strategy video games and simulation video games, including the ''Civilization'' series. Meier co-founded MicroProse in 1982 with B ...

is both a game designer and

programmer A computer programmer, sometimes referred to as a software developer, a software engineer, a programmer or a coder, is a person who creates computer programs — often for larger computer software. A programmer is someone who writes/creates ...

. In these cases, the people appear in both sections.

Art and animation

Dennis Hwang Hwang Jeong-mok ( ko, 황정목; born 1978), known professionally as Dennis Hwang, is an American-born South Korean graphic artist currently working for Niantic, Inc., Niantic, who was the original designer of some of the Google logo#Google Doodle ...

: graphic designer working for Niantic *

Edmund McMillen Edmund Charles McMillen (born March 2, 1980) is an American video game designer and artist known for his Flash game visual style. His most notable works include 2010's side-scroller '' Super Meat Boy'' and 2011's roguelike game '' The Binding of ...

: artist whose art style is synonymous with Flash games *

Jordan Mechner Jordan Mechner (born June 4, 1964) is an American video game designer, author, screenwriter, and filmmaker. He is best known for designing and programming the Broderbund Apple II games ''Karateka'' and '' Prince of Persia'' in the 1980s, the la ...

: introduced realistic movement to video games with ''

Prince of Persia ''Prince of Persia'' is a video game franchise created by Jordan Mechner. It is built around a series of action-adventure games focused on various incarnations of the eponymous Prince, set in ancient and medieval Persia. The first two games i ...

'' *

Jim Sachs James D. Sachs (born 1949) is a retired United States Air Force veteran, video game artist and game programmer. Sachs was the lead artist on the groundbreaking Amiga computer game ''Defender of the Crown'' from Cinemaware (first published in 198 ...

: created new standard for quality of art with the release of the

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and significantly improved graphi ...

game ''

Defender of the Crown ''Defender of the Crown'' is a strategy computer game designed by Kellyn Beck. It was Cinemaware's first game, and was originally released for the Commodore Amiga in 1986, setting a new standard for graphic quality in home computer games. In ...

'' * Derek Yu: Indie video game artist, designer, and blogger. Known for working on '' Spelunky'', ''

Spelunky 2 ''Spelunky 2'' is a 2020 platform game, platform video game developed by Mossmouth and BlitWorks. It is the sequel to ''Spelunky'' (2008) and was released for PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Windows, Windows in September 2020, for Nintendo Switch in ...

'', '' Aquaria'', ''

Eternal Daughter ''Eternal Daughter'' is a freeware 2D action-adventure game created by indie developers Derek Yu and Jon Perry and released on June 21, 2002, under the Blackeye Software label. Plot The introduction shows the Dungaga, an imperial industrializ ...

'', ''

I'm O.K – A Murder Simulator ''I'm O.K – A Murder Simulator'' is a 2006 freeware video game developed by Derek Yu, Chris Hanson, Philippe Jones, Alec Holowka and Christopher Howard Wolf. It was created as a satirical response to a challenge by anti-video game-violence acti ...

'', and '' DRL''

Company officers

J Allard J Allard (born James Allard, on January 12, 1969 in Glens Falls, New York) is the chief executive officer of Project 529, a company that builds software for cyclists and law enforcement. Prior to starting Project 529, Allard was chief technology ...

Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand created and owned by Microsoft. The brand consists of five video game consoles, as well as applications (games), streaming services, an online service by the name of Xbox network, and the development arm by the na ...

Officer President * David Baszucki: founder and CEO of the Roblox Corporation *

Marc Blank Marc Blank is an American game developer and software engineer. He is best known as part of the team that created one of the first commercially successful text adventure computer games, ''Zork''. Career Blank first encountered Don Woods and Will ...

: co-founder of

Infocom Infocom was an American software company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that produced numerous works of interactive fiction. They also produced a business application, a relational database called ''Cornerstone (software), Cornerstone''. ...

* Cliff Bleszinski: founder of Boss Key Productions *

Doug Bowser Doug Spencer Bowser is an American businessman, currently serving as the president of Nintendo of America. He succeeded Reggie Fils-Aimé as president in 2019, having previously worked for Procter & Gamble and Electronic Arts. Early career B ...

: president of

Nintendo of America is a Japanese multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles. Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produced handmade playing cards. ...

(2019–present) *

Arjan Brussee Arjan Brussee (born 1972) is a Dutch video game programmer and entrepreneur. He was the main coder of the first two ''Jazz Jackrabbit'' games and co-founded Guerrilla Games and Boss Key Productions. He is often credited with being the first succ ...

: co-founder of Guerrilla Games & Boss Key Productions *

Jon Burton Jon Burton is a British video game director, designer, writer, and programmer. He is the founder of development studio Traveller's Tales and its parent company TT Games. Burton founded Traveller's Tales in 1989. He worked as a designer on ''P ...

: founder of

Traveller's Tales Traveller's Tales is a British video game developer and a subsidiary of TT Games. Traveller's Tales was founded in 1989 by Jon Burton and Andy Ingram. Initially a small company focused on its own content, it grew in profile through developing ...

and its parent company TT Games * Nolan Bushnell: founder of

Atari Atari () is a brand name that has been owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by French publisher Atari SA through a subsidiary named Atari Interactive. The original Atari, Inc. (1972–1992), Atari, Inc., ...

David Cage David De Gruttola (born June 9, 1969), known by his pseudonym David Cage, is a French video game designer, writer and musician. He is the founder of the game development studio Quantic Dream. Cage both wrote and directed the video games ''Heavy ...

: founder of Quantic Dream *

Doug Carlston Douglas Gene Carlston (born April 30, 1947 in Boston, Massachusetts) is the founder and current CEO of Tawala Systems based in San Rafael, California. He was previously CEO, chairman, and co-founder of Broderbund Software, a software publishin ...

: co-founder of

Brøderbund Broderbund Software, Inc. (stylized as Brøderbund) was an American maker of video games, educational software, and productivity tools. Broderbund is best known for the 8-bit video game hits ''Choplifter'', ''Lode Runner'', ''Karateka'', and '' ...

Trevor Chan Enlight Software is a Hong Kong developer and publisher of video games. The company was founded by Trevor Chan in 1993, and their first project was the economic strategy game ''Capitalism'', which was published by Interactive Magic in 1995. In 1 ...

: founder and CEO of Enlight Software *

Adrian Chmielarz Adrian Chmielarz (born 1971 in Lubin) is a Polish video game designer, programmer, creative director, producer and writer specializing in adventure games and first-person shooters. Chmielarz has co-founded and led Metropolis Software, People Can ...

: founder of Metropolis Software,

People Can Fly People Can Fly is a Polish video game developer based in Warsaw. The studio was founded in February 2002 by Adrian Chmielarz, previously the co-founder of Metropolis Software, together with acquaintances Michał Kosieradzki and Andrzej Poznań ...

, and The Astronauts *

Raphaël Colantonio Raphaël Colantonio (born 1971) is a French video game designer, and was the founder and for 18 years president of Arkane Studios. He has served as creative director on several of Arkane's titles, including co-creator with Harvey Smith (game design ...

: founder of Arkane Studios * Josef Fares: founder of

Hazelight Studios Hazelight Studios is a video game development company based in Stockholm, Sweden. Founded by director Josef Fares in 2014, the company is best known for developing cooperative multiplayer games ''A Way Out (video game), A Way Out'' and ''It Take ...

* Reggie Fils-Aimé: former president of

(2006–2019) * Greg Fischbach: CEO of Acclaim Entertainment before it bankrupted *

Jack Friedman Jack Friedman (July 9, 1939 – May 3, 2010) was an American entrepreneur, businessman, veteran of the toy and video game industries, and a philanthropist. Regarded as an influential member in the toy and video game industries, Friedman founded ...

: Founder of Jakks Pacific,

LJN LJN Toys Ltd. was an American toy company and video game publisher based in New York City. Founded in 1970 by Jack Friedman, the company was acquired by MCA Inc. in 1985, sold to Acclaim Entertainment in 1990, and dissolved in 1994. The toy d ...

, and

THQ THQ Inc. was an American video game company based in Agoura Hills, California. It was founded in April 1990 by Jack Friedman, originally in Calabasas, and became a public company the following year through a reverse merger takeover. Initial ...

Andy Gavin Andrew Scott Gavin (born June 11, 1970) is an American video game programmer, entrepreneur, and novelist. Gavin co-founded the video game company Naughty Dog with childhood friend Jason Rubin in 1986, which released games including ''Crash Bandico ...

Jason Rubin Jason Rubin (born 1970) is an American video game director, writer, and comic book creator. He is best known for the ''Crash Bandicoot'' and ''Jak and Daxter'' series of games which were produced by Naughty Dog, the game development studio he co- ...

: founders of Naughty Dog * David Gordon: founder of Programma International * Yves Guillemot: co-founder and CEO of

Ubisoft Ubisoft Entertainment SA (; ; formerly Ubi Soft Entertainment SA) is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include '' Assassin's Creed'', ''Far Cry'', '' ...

* Shuntaro Furukawa: President of Nintendo (2018–present) *

Hal Halpin Hal Halpin (born September 1, 1969) is an American computer game executive and entrepreneur, and is the president and founder of the Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA). Background Halpin is perhaps best known as the founder of the US vide ...

: President of ECA *

John Hanke John Hanke (born 1967) is an American technology executive. Hanke led Google's Geo product division, which includes Google Earth, Google Maps, StreetView, SketchUp, and Panoramio. He is founder and CEO of Niantic, Inc., a software company spu ...

: founder and CEO of Niantic *

Cai Haoyu Cai Haoyu (; born 1987) is a Chinese entrepreneur and game producer. He is the co-founder, chairman and president of the Chinese game company miHoYo. The Chinese magazine '' New Fortune'' ranked Cai in 73rd place on the "2022 ''New Fortune'' 500 ...

: founder and chairman of miHoYo *

Trip Hawkins William Murray "Trip" Hawkins III (born December 28, 1953) is an American entrepreneur and founder of Electronic Arts, The 3DO Company, and Digital Chocolate. Career A fan of the Strat-O-Matic Football pen and paper games, Hawkins started his f ...

: founder of

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the d ...

Akihiro Hino (born July 20, 1968) is a Japanese video game designer and businessman. Starting his career as a programmer in the 1990s, he later took on roles in writing, design, directing and producing. He founded Level-5 (company), Level-5 in 1998, where he ...

: founder and CEO of Level-5 * Sam Houser: co-founder and President of Rockstar Games * Tsunekazu Ishihara: CEO of

The Pokémon Company The Pokémon Company (株式会社ポケモン, ''Kabushiki gaisha Pokemon'') is a Japanese company responsible for brand management, production, publishing, marketing, and licensing of the ''Pokémon'' franchise, which consists of video game s ...

Tomonobu Itagaki (born April 1, 1967) is a Japanese video game designer best known for creating the '' Dead or Alive'' series and also reviving the ''Ninja Gaiden'' franchise in 2004. Joining Tecmo in 1992, Itagaki produced two video game franchises that were com ...

: Founder of

Team Ninja is a Japanese video game developer, and a division of Koei Tecmo, founded in 1995 as a part of Tecmo. It is founded and formerly led by Tomonobu Itagaki, later by Yosuke Hayashi, and is best known for the ''Ninja Gaiden'' action-adventure game ...

Valhalla Game Studios was a video game development, entertainment and holding company. It was founded in 2008 as in Tokyo, Japan. An international division was later founded in British Columbia, Canada, which acquired all intellectual property and shares of the or ...

Satoru Iwata was a Japanese businessman, video game programmer, video game designer, and producer. He was the fourth President (corporate title), president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Nintendo from 2002 until his death in 2015. He was a major contr ...

: Former President of Nintendo (2002–2015) * Jennell Jaquays: started the game design unit at

Coleco Coleco Industries, Inc. was an American company founded in 1932 by Maurice Greenberg as The Connecticut Leather Company. It was a successful toy company in the 1980s, mass-producing versions of Cabbage Patch Kids dolls and its video game console ...

Sampo Karjalainen Sampo Karjalainen (born May 2, 1977) is one of the original founders of Sulake and Habbo Hotel, an online social networking video game aimed at teenagers. Sampo has also been in other projects, including ''Bobba Bar'' for iPhone. Karjalainen ...

: Founder of

Sulake Sulake Oy () is a Finnish video game company primary known for the creation and development of ''Habbo'' and ''Hotel Hideaway'' games. History In its early days, Sulake developed and experimented with an open source Java based GNU called ...

* Tatsumi Kimishima: Former President of Nintendo (2015–2018) * Michael Kogan: founder of

Taito is a Japanese company that specializes in video games, toys, arcade cabinets and game centers, based in Shinjuku, Tokyo. The company was founded by Michael Kogan in 1953 as the importing vodka, vending machines and jukeboxes into Japan. It b ...

* Bobby Kotick: CEO of Activision Blizzard *

Kagemasa Kōzuki is a Japanese industrialist who is the founder and chairman of Konami , is a Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Chūō, Tokyo, it also produces and distributes trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, ...

: founder of

Konami , is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company, video game and entertainment company headquartered in Chūō, Tokyo, Chūō, Tokyo, it also produces and distributes trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, pachinko machin ...

Ken Kutaragi is a Japanese engineering technologist and businessman. He is the former chairman and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), the video game division of Sony Corporation, and current president and CEO of Cyber AI Entertainment. He is known ...

: Former President of Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. (1997 - 2007) * Doug Lowenstein: founder and former President of the Entertainment Software Association *

Hiroshi Matsuyama , born in 1970 in Fukuoka, is a Japanese game designer. He is the CEO of the company CyberConnect2. He developed multiple games including the ''.hack'' franchise as well as adaptations of the anime series including ''Naruto'' and ''Dragon Ball''. ...

: CEO of CyberConnect2 *

Masafumi Miyamoto is a Japanese investor and businessman best known as the founder of the video game developer Square. Miyamoto graduated from Waseda University in 1983, and joined his father's electric power conglomerate, Den-Yu-Sha as a programmer in their soft ...

: founder of Square *

Shigeru Miyamoto is a Japanese video game designer, producer and game director at Nintendo, where he serves as one of its representative directors. Widely regarded as one of the most accomplished and influential designers in the history of video games, he is ...

: Representative Director of

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles. Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produce ...

Hidetaka Miyazaki is a Japanese creative director, designer, scriptwriter, and executive for the video game company FromSoftware. He joined them in 2004 and was a designer for the ''Armored Core'' series before receiving wider recognition for directing the '' Da ...

: President of

FromSoftware FromSoftware, Inc. is a Japanese video game development and publishing company based in Tokyo. Founded by Naotoshi Zin in November 1986, the company developed business software before releasing their first video game, ''King's Field (video game) ...

Peter Moore Peter or Pete Moore may refer to: Politicians *Peter Moore (British politician) (1753–1828), English civil servant of the East India Company and politician *Peter Moore (Queensland politician) (born 1938), member of the Queensland Legislative As ...

COO COO or coo may refer to: Business * Certificate of origin, used in international trade * Chief operating officer or chief operations officer, high-ranking corporate official * Concept of operations, used in Systems Engineering Management Process ...

* Peter Molyneux: founder of Lionhead Studios, co-founder of Bullfrog Productions * Michael Morhaime: co-founder and former president of Blizzard Entertainment * Masaya Nakamura: founder of

Namco was a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company, headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo. It held several international branches, including Namco America in Santa Clara, California, Namco Europe in London, Na ...

Jay Obernolte Jay Phillip Obernolte ( ; born August 18, 1970) is an American politician, businessman, and video game developer serving as the U.S. representative for since 2021. A Republican, he was previously a member of the California State Assembly represe ...

: founder of FarSight Studios * Philip & Andrew Oliver: co-founders of

Blitz Games Blitz Games Studios Limited was a British video game developer based in Leamington Spa. Founded in 1990 by the Oliver Twins, who ran the company until its closure in 2013, it is best known for producing games such as ''The Fairly OddParents'', ...

; twins *

Scott Orr Scott Orr is an American video game designer best known as the lead designer on the first video game console versions of '' Madden NFL Football''. In 2001 ''Wired'' magazine named Orr on its list of "gamemaking gods." Orr‘s career in sports g ...

: founder of GameStar, Glu Mobile *

Mark Pincus Mark Jonathan Pincus (born February 13, 1966) is an American Internet entrepreneur known as the founder of Zynga, a mobile social gaming company. Pincus also founded the startups Freeloader, Inc., Tribe Networks, and Support.com. Pincus served as ...

Justin Waldron Justin Waldron (June 18, 1988) is an American internet entrepreneur known as the co-founder of Zynga, a mobile social gaming company, and Zynga.org, a non-profit organization to promote and facilitate the use of social games for philanthropic in ...

: founders of Zynga *

Randy Pitchford Randy Pitchford is an American businessman. He co-founded the video game development studio Gearbox Software in 1999 and was president and CEO for the company until 2021, upon which he became CEO and president of Gearbox's parent company, The G ...

: CEO of Gearbox Software *

Ted Price Insomniac Games, Inc. is an American video game developer based in Burbank, California and a studio of PlayStation Studios. It was founded in 1994 by Ted Price as Xtreme Software, and was renamed Insomniac Games a year later. The company is ...

: President of Insomniac Games *

Paul Reiche III Paul Reiche III ( ) is an American game designer, particularly known for his work on video games. Reiche is best known for being the co-creator, together with Fred Ford, of the '' Star Control'' universe. Career Pen and paper RPGs Reiche was ...

& Fred Ford: founders of Toys for Bob *

John Riccitiello John Riccitiello () is an American business executive who is chief executive officer (CEO) of Unity Technologies. Previously, he served as CEO, chief operating officer and president of Electronic Arts, and co-founded private equity firm Elevat ...

: CEO of Unity Technologies *

Warren Robinett Joseph Warren Robinett Jr. (born December 25, 1951) In the A. Miller interview, Robinett says he was 26 in November 1977. is a designer of interactive computer graphics software, notable as the developer of the Atari 2600's ''Adventure'' — ...

: Founder of The Learning Company * John Romero: co-founded at least seven game companies: Capitol Ideas Software, Inside Out Software, Ideas from the Deep, id Software, Ion Storm, Monkeystone Games, and

Gazillion Entertainment ''Marvel Heroes'', also known as ''Marvel Heroes 2015'', ''Marvel Heroes 2016'' and ''Marvel Heroes Omega'', was a free-to-play massively multiplayer online action role-playing video game developed by Gazillion Entertainment and Secret Identity ...

* Bonnie Ross: Founder and former vice-president of

343 Industries 343 Industries is an American video game developer located in Redmond, Washington, part of Xbox Game Studios. Headed by Pierre Hintze, the studio is responsible for the ''Halo'' series of military science fiction games, originally created and ...

Yoot Saito is a Japanese video game designer. In 1996, he founded the video game development company Vivarium Inc., Vivarium. His latest game is Guild01#Aero Porter, Aero Porter, which is part of a collection of games called Guild01 for the Nintendo 3DS. I ...

: founder and CEO of

Vivarium Inc. Vivarium Inc. is a Japanese video game developer founded in 1996 by company president Yoot Saito. It is famous for designing innovative video games which use voice recognition technology. ''Seaman'' for the Dreamcast is their most famous game to d ...

Alex Seropian Alexander Seropian (born 1969) is an American video game developer, one of the initial founders and later president of Bungie, the developer of the ''Marathon'', ''Myth'', and ''Halo'' video game series. Seropian became interested in computer pro ...

& Jason Jones: Founders of Bungie *

Jeremiah Slaczka Jeremiah Slaczka, also known by his nickname Miah, is a video game designer/creative director and co-founder of 5TH Cell, a video game developer in Bellevue, Washington. He is best known for being the concept creator and Director of ''Scribblenaut ...

: co-founder of

5th Cell 5th Cell is an independently owned video game developer founded in 2003 as 5th Cell Media, LLC. led by Jeremiah Slaczka and Marius Falhbusch. The company is most well known for creating the '' Drawn to Life'' and ''Scribblenauts'' series. Overvie ...

Jeff Spangenberg Jeffery Spangenberg is a retired video game producer and entrepreneur who founded video game developers Punk Development, Iguana Entertainment, Retro Studios, and Topheavy Studios. Biography Spangenberg skipped college to learn computer program ...

: founder of

Retro Studios Retro Studios, Inc. is an American video game developer and subsidiary of Nintendo based in Austin, Texas. The studio is best known for its work on the ''Metroid Prime'' and ''Donkey Kong Country'' series, and has contributed to several other N ...

* Phil Spencer: head of the

brand * Tim & Chris Stamper: founders of

Ultimate Play the Game Ashby Computers and Graphics Limited, trading as Ultimate Play the Game, was a British video game developer and publisher, founded in 1982, by ex-arcade game developers Tim and Chris Stamper. Ultimate released a series of successful games for t ...

& Rare *

Hirokazu Tanaka , also known as Chip Tanaka, is a Japanese musician, composer, sound designer, and executive who pioneered chiptune music. He is best known as one of Nintendo's in-house composers during the 8- and 16-bit era of video games. Tanaka also had a role ...

: President of

Creatures Creature often refers to: * An animal, monster, or Extraterrestrial life, alien Creature or creatures may also refer to: Film and television * Creature (1985 film), ''Creature'' (1985 film), a 1985 science fiction film by William Malone * Creat ...

Kenzo Tsujimoto (born December 15, 1940) is a Japanese businessman who founded the video game companies Irem and Capcom. He has also served as president of Computer Software Copyright Association (ACCS) since 1997, and was president of Computer Entertainment S ...

: founder of

Capcom is a Japanese video game developer and video game publisher, publisher. It has created a number of List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises, with its most commercially successful being ''Resident Evil' ...

and

Irem is a Japanese video game console developer and publisher, and formerly a developer and manufacturer of arcade games as well. The company has its headquarters in Chiyoda, Tokyo. The full name of the company that uses the brand is Irem Softwar ...

* Feargus Urquhart: CEO of Obsidian Entertainment *

Christopher Weaver Christopher S. Weaver is an American entrepreneur, software developer, scientist, author, and educator. He is known for founding Bethesda Softworks, where he was one of the creators of ''The Elder Scrolls'' role-playing series. Weaver and Bet ...

: founder of

Bethesda Softworks Bethesda Softworks LLC is an American video game publisher based in Rockville, Maryland. The company was founded by Christopher Weaver in 1986 as a division of Media Technology Limited, and in 1999 became a subsidiary of ZeniMax Media. In its ...

and co-founder of

ZeniMax Media ZeniMax Media Inc. is an American video game holding company based in Rockville, Maryland, and founded in 1999. The company owns publisher Bethesda Softworks with its development unit Bethesda Game Studios (developer of ''The Elder Scrolls,'' ...

* Paul Wedgwood: founder and former CEO of Splash Damage *

Jordan Weisman Jordan Weisman is an American game designer, author, and serial entrepreneur who has founded five game design companies, each in a different game genre and segment of the industry. Biography Weisman graduated from Francis W. Parker High School, ...

: founder of FASA *

David Whatley David Whatley (born 1966) is the president and CEO of Simutronics Corporation, a multiplayer game company in St. Charles, Missouri. He was the co-founder of the company in 1987, and has been a key developer on all of the company's products, inclu ...

: founder of Simutronics * Andrew Wilson: CEO of

(2013–Present) & director of

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 seri ...

(2017–Present) * Hiroshi Yamauchi: former president of

(1949–2002) *

Riccardo Zacconi Riccardo Zacconi is an Italian businessman, management consultant, and video game developer. He is best known as CEO of King (company), King, a video game development company he founded in 2003. King is the developer of the popular mobile game app ...

: founder of

King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

Strauss Zelnick Harry Strauss Zelnick (born June 26, 1957) is an American businessman. Born in Boston and raised in South Orange, New Jersey, he attended Columbia High School, Wesleyan University, Harvard Business School, and Harvard Law School. He is the f ...

: CEO of Take-Two Interactive

Design

Hardware

Ralph Baer Ralph Henry Baer (born Rudolf Heinrich Baer; March 8, 1922 – December 6, 2014) was a German-American inventor, game developer, and engineer. Baer's family fled Germany just before World War II and Baer served the American war effort, gain ...

: inventor of the Magnavox Odyssey, the first

video game console A video game console is an electronic device that Input/output, outputs a video signal or image to display a video game that can be played with a game controller. These may be home video game console, home consoles, which are generally placed i ...

* Seamus Blackley: main designer and developer of the

original Xbox The Xbox is a home video game console and the first installment in the Xbox series of video game consoles manufactured by Microsoft. It was released as Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console market on November 15, 2001, in North Amer ...

William Higinbotham William Alfred Higinbotham (October 22, 1910 – November 10, 1994) was an American physicist. A member of the team that developed the first nuclear bomb, he later became a leader in the nonproliferation movement. He also has a place in the his ...

: main developer of ''

Tennis for Two ''Tennis for Two'' (also known as ''Computer Tennis'') is a sports video game that simulates a game of tennis, and was one of the first games developed in the early history of video games. American physicist William Higinbotham designed the gam ...

.'' One of the first video games developed in the early history of video games. * Josef Kates: engineer who developed the first digital game-playing machine *

: creator of the

PlayStation is a video gaming brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two handhelds, a media center, and a smartphone, as well as an online service and multiple magazines. The brand is produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, a divisi ...

brand * Jerry Lawson: pioneered the

video game cartridge A ROM cartridge, usually referred to in context simply as a cartridge, cart, or card, is a replaceable part designed to be connected to a consumer electronics device such as a home computer, video game console or, to a lesser extent, electro ...

by designing the Fairchild Channel F console *

Palmer Luckey Palmer Freeman Luckey (born September 19, 1992) is an American entrepreneur best known as the founder of Oculus VR and designer of the Oculus Rift, a virtual reality head-mounted display that is widely credited with reviving the virtual reality ...

: founder of Oculus VR (now Reality Labs) and the designer of the Oculus Rift *

Ivan Sutherland Ivan Edward Sutherland (born May 16, 1938) is an American computer scientist and Internet pioneer, widely regarded as a pioneer of computer graphics. His early work in computer graphics as well as his teaching with David C. Evans in that subje ...

Internet pioneer Instead of having a single "inventor", the Internet was developed by many people over many years. The following are some Internet pioneers who contributed to its early and ongoing development. These include early theoretical foundations, specifyi ...

who is regarded as the "father of computer graphics." Also invented the first virtual reality headset with the help of his students *

Xiaoyuan Tu Xiaoyuan Tu (born 1967) is a Chinese researcher and computer scientist specializing in machine learning, behavior modeling, physics modeling, biomechanical modeling, motion control interfaces, and intelligent virtual characters. She holds a Ph.D ...

Wei Yen Wei Yen () is a Taiwanese-American technologist and serial entrepreneur. He has been involved with several companies, including most recently as Chairman and Founder of AiLive. Yen received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering in Operating System ...

: founders of AiLive, who helped create the

motion sensing Motion detection is the process of detecting a change in the position of an object relative to its surroundings or a change in the surroundings relative to an object. It can be achieved by either mechanical or electronic methods. When it is done by ...

hardware for the

Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America and in December 2006 for most other Regional lockout, regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major ho ...

* Gunpei Yokoi: inventor of the Game & Watch,

Game Boy The is an 8-bit fourth generation handheld game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on April 21, 1989, in North America later the same year, and in Europe in late 1990. It was designed by the same ...

and WonderSwan

Music and sound

Online gaming

* Richard Bartle: wrote the first

MUD A MUD (; originally multi-user dungeon, with later variants multi-user dimension and multi-user domain) is a Multiplayer video game, multiplayer Time-keeping systems in games#Real-time, real-time virtual world, usually Text-based game, text-bas ...

along with Roy Trubshaw * David Baszucki: creator of '' Roblox'' *

John D. Carmack John D. Carmack II (born August 20, 1970) is an American computer programmer and video game developer. He co-founded the video game company id Software and was the lead programmer of its 1990s games ''Commander Keen'', ''Wolfenstein 3D'', ''Doo ...

: developed an early online version of ''

Doom Doom is another name for damnation. Doom may also refer to: People * Doom (professional wrestling), the tag team of Ron Simmons and Butch Reed * Daniel Doom (born 1934), Belgian cyclist * Debbie Doom (born 1963), American softball pitcher * L ...

'' which supported up to four players; later '' Quake'' supported 16 players which helped popularize online gaming *

Jess Cliffe Jess A. Cliffe (born June 27, 1981) is a video game designer who co-created the ''Half-Life'' mod ''Counter-Strike'' with Minh Le and started the ''Counter-Strike'' series. He is also the "voice of ''Counter-Strike''" via the radio commands, th ...

Minh Le Minh Le (Vietnamese: Lê Minh), also known by his online nickname Gooseman, is a Vietnamese Canadian video game programmer who co-created the ''Half-Life'' mod ''Counter-Strike'' with Jess Cliffe in 1999 and started the ''Counter-Strike'' seri ...

: developed the first '' Counter-Strike'' game and thus started the franchise. *

J. Todd Coleman Jeffrey Todd Coleman is an American computer game designer and businessman. He is known for ''Shadowbane,'' released in 2003, and ''Wizard101,'' released in 2008. He was a founder at Wolfpack Studios, which was purchased by Ubisoft. He also work ...

: Lead creative director of '' Shadowbane'', ''

Wizard101 ''Wizard101'' is a 2008 massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed and published by KingsIsle Entertainment. Players take on the role of student wizards who must save the Spiral, the fictional universe in which the game is ...

'', ''

Pirate101 ''Pirate101'' is a 2012 massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed and published by KingsIsle Entertainment. It is a sister game to ''Wizard101,'' set in the same fictional universe of the “Spiral”. The player assumes ...

'', ''

Crowfall ''Crowfall'' is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game-real-time strategy game developed by ArtCraft, described as a "Throne War Simulator". It released on July 6, 2021. Its Kickstarter campaign ended March 26, 2015 with a total fundin ...

'', and many other

MMORPG A massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) is a video game that combines aspects of a role-playing video game and a massively multiplayer online game. As in role-playing games (RPGs), the player assumes the role of a Player charac ...

titles. * Don Daglow: designed first

with graphics, ''

Neverwinter Nights ''Neverwinter Nights'' is a series of video games developed by BioWare and Obsidian Entertainment, based on the ''Forgotten Realms'' campaign setting of the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' role-playing game. Aside from also being set in the Dungeons & Dra ...

'' for

AOL AOL (stylized as Aol., formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City. It is a brand marketed by the current incarnation of Yahoo (2017� ...

* Alex Evans: created the

game engine A game engine is a software framework primarily designed for the development of video games and generally includes relevant libraries and support programs. The "engine" terminology is similar to the term "software engine" used in the software i ...

for the ''

LittleBigPlanet ''LittleBigPlanet'' (stylized as ''LittleBIGPlanet''; abbreviated ''LBP'') is a puzzle platform video game series created and produced by British developer Media Molecule and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Most games in the series ...

'' games & '' Dreams'' * Jeff Kaplan: lead designer of ''

Overwatch ''Overwatch'' is a multimedia franchise centered on a series of online multiplayer first-person shooter (FPS) video games developed by Blizzard Entertainment: ''Overwatch'' released in 2016, and ''Overwatch 2'' released in 2022. Both games fea ...

'' *

& Aapo Kyrölä: creators of ''

Habbo Hotel ''Habbo'' (formerly ''Habbo Hotel'') is an online community aimed at teens and young adults. It is owned and operated by Sulake, a Finnish company. Founded in 2000, Habbo has expanded to nine online communities (or "hotels"), with users from ...

'' * John De Margheriti: CEO of BigWorld Pty Ltd, makers of Massively Multiplayer Online Game Middleware (MMOG) technology *

Elonka Dunin Elonka Dunin (; born December 29, 1958) is an American video game developer and cryptologist. Dunin worked at Simutronics Corp. in St. Louis, Missouri from 1990–2014, and in 2015 was Senior Producer at Black Gate Games in Nashville, Tennes ...

: General Manager at Simutronics, senior editor of IGDA Online Games White Papers *

Kelton Flinn Kelton Flinn is an American computer game designer who is a major pioneer in online games. He is a co-founder (with his University of Virginia classmate John Taylor) of the seminal online game company Kesmai, which they began in 1982. His be ...

: designer of ''

Air Warrior ''Air Warrior'' was a multiplayer online combat flight simulation game launched by Kesmai in 1988. It was hosted on GEnie and used that service as a server for client software running on a variety of personal computers. It underwent continual imp ...

'' and many other pioneering online games, co-founder of

Kesmai Kesmai was a pioneering video game developer, game developer and online Video game publisher, game publisher, founded in 1981 by Kelton Flinn and John R. Taylor III, John Taylor. The company was best known for the combat flight sim ''Air Warrior'' ...

* Richard Garriott (a.k.a. Lord British): Creator of '' Ultima Online'', Work on ''

Lineage Lineage may refer to: Science * Lineage (anthropology), a group that can demonstrate its common descent from an apical ancestor or a direct line of descent from an ancestor * Lineage (evolution), a temporal sequence of individuals, populati ...

'', '' Lineage II'' (

, NCsoft) * Dean Hall: Creator of '' DayZ'' *

IceFrog ''Dota'' is a series of strategy video games by Valve. The series began in 2003 with the release of ''Defense of the Ancients'' (''DotA''), a fan-developed multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) mod for the video game '' Warcraft III: Reign of ...

: lead designer of '' Defense of the Ancients'' and ''

Dota 2 ''Dota 2'' is a 2013 multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) video game by Valve. The game is a sequel to ''Defense of the Ancients'' (''DotA''), a community-created mod for Blizzard Entertainment's '' Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos.'' ''Dota 2' ...

'' *

Raph Koster Raphael "Raph" Koster (born September 7, 1971) is an American entrepreneur, game designer, and author of '' A Theory of Fun for Game Design''. Koster is widely recognized for his work as the lead designer of ''Ultima Online'' and the creative di ...

: ''

LegendMUD ''LegendMUD'' is a text-only MUD game founded by a group of friends including virtual world designer Raph Koster. It features historically significant story elements and award-winning gameplay. It opened publicly on February 14, 1994. It has r ...

'', '' Ultima Online'', ''

Star Wars Galaxies ''Star Wars Galaxies'' was a ''Star Wars'' themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) for Microsoft Windows, developed by Sony Online Entertainment and published by LucasArts. Released on June 26, 2003, to much critical acc ...

''. (

, Sony Online Entertainment) * Brad McQuaid: co-creator of '' EverQuest'' (

Verant Interactive Daybreak Game Company LLC is an American video game developer based in San Diego. The company was founded in December 1997 as Sony Online Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Computer Entertainment, but was spun off to an independent investor in ...

, Sony Online Entertainment,

Sigil Games Sigil Games Online, Inc. was a computer game developer based in Carlsbad, California founded in January 2002 by Brad McQuaid and Jeff Butler, key development team members who created EverQuest, the most popular massively multiplayer online role-p ...

) *

Rob Pardo Rob Pardo (born June 9, 1970) is an American video game designer. He is the former Chief Creative Officer at Blizzard Entertainment, resigning on July 3, 2014. Previously he was the Executive Vice President of game design at Blizzard Entertainment ...

: lead designer and producer of ''

World of Warcraft ''World of Warcraft'' (''WoW'') is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) released in 2004 by Blizzard Entertainment. Set in the ''Warcraft'' fantasy universe, ''World of Warcraft'' takes place within the world of Azeroth ...

'' *

Philip Rosedale Philip Rosedale (born September 29, 1968) is an American entrepreneur who founded Linden Lab, which develops and hosts the virtual world ''Second Life''. Biography Early life Rosedale was born in San Diego, California, in 1968. He took an inter ...

: founded the

virtual world A virtual world (also called a virtual space) is a computer-simulated environment which may be populated by many users who can create a personal avatar, and simultaneously and independently explore the virtual world, participate in its activities ...

Second Life ''Second Life'' is an online multimedia platform that allows people to create an avatar for themselves and then interact with other users and user created content within a multi player online virtual world. Developed and owned by the San Fra ...

'' * John Smedley: co-creator of '' EverQuest'' (

, Sony Online Entertainment) and president of Sony Online Entertainment *

Gordon Walton (Conrad) Gordon Walton, Jr. (born 1956) is an American video game developer and executive producer who has worked with many North American online game companies, from Maxis to Electronic Arts to Sony Online to BioWare. Since 1977 he has personally ...

: executive producer *

: founder of

42 Entertainment 42 Entertainment is an American company based in Burbank which specializes in creating and producing alternate reality games (ARGs). The company was founded in 2003 as an independently owned, creative content and interactive agency under the nam ...

, co-creator of '' I Love Bees'' and '' The Beast'' * Will Wright: c of ''

The Sims Online ''The Sims Online'', also known as ''EA-Land'', was a massively multiplayer online variation on Maxis' computer game ''The Sims''. It was published by Electronic Arts and released in December 2002 for Microsoft Windows. The game was sold in retail ...

'' (

) *

Naoki Yoshida , also known by the nickname Yoshi-P'','' is a Japanese video game producer, director and designer working for Square Enix. He is best known for his work on massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), mainly as director and produc ...

: producer of FINAL FANTASY XIV Online: A Realm Reborn and its following expansions.

Producing

* Eiji Aonuma, ''

The Legend of Zelda ''The Legend of Zelda'' is an action-adventure game franchise created by the Japanese game designers Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka. It is primarily developed and published by Nintendo, although some portable installments and re-rele ...

'' series *

Mark Cerny Mark Evan Cerny (born August 24, 1964) is an American video game designer, programmer, producer and media proprietor. Raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Cerny attended UC Berkeley before dropping out to pursue a career in video games. In hi ...

, ''

Jak and Daxter ''Jak and Daxter'' is an Action-adventure game, action-adventure video game franchise created by Andy Gavin and Jason Rubin and owned by Sony Interactive Entertainment. The series was originally developed by Naughty Dog with a number of install ...

'' series, ''Spyro the Dragon'' series and '' Ratchet & Clank'' *

Katsuya Eguchi is a Japanese game designer, director and producer, most known for being a creator of the ''Animal Crossing'' series. He was born in 1965 in Tokyo, Japan and grew up in Chiba Prefecture. He began work at Nintendo in 1986 and spent some time do ...

, '' Animal Crossing'' series, '' Star Fox'' series and ''

'' series * Guillaume de Fondaumiere, '' Fahrenheit (or Indigo Prophecy)'', '' Heavy Rain'', '' Beyond: Two Souls'', and '' Detroit: Become Human'' *

Yuji Horii (also written as Yuuji Horii; born January 6, 1954) is a Japanese video game designer and scenario writer best known as the creator of the ''Dragon Quest'' series of role-playing games, supervising and writing the scenario for ''Chrono Trigger' ...

, ''

Dragon Quest previously published as ''Dragon Warrior'' in North America until 2005, is a franchise of Japanese role-playing video games created by Armor Project (Yuji Horii), Bird Studio (Akira Toriyama) and Sugiyama Kobo (Koichi Sugiyama) to its publi ...

'' series * Sam Houser, '' Grand Theft Auto'' series, ''

Bully Bullying is the use of force, coercion, hurtful teasing or threat, to abuse, aggressively wikt:domination, dominate or intimidate. The behavior is often repeated and habitual. One essential prerequisite is the perception (by the bully or by ot ...

'', '' The Warriors'', '' Max Payne 3'' *

Todd Howard Todd Andrew Howard (born 1970) is an American video game designer, director, and producer. He serves as director and executive producer at Bethesda Game Studios, where he has led the development of the ''Fallout'' and ''The Elder Scrolls'' s ...

, '' The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind'', ''

Oblivion Oblivion may refer to: Film * ''Oblivion'' (1994 film), an American space Western * ''Oblivion'' (2013 film), an American post-apocalyptic science fiction film Literature * ''Oblivion'' (''Power of Five''), a 2012 novel by Anthony Horowitz * ...

'', ''

Skyrim ''The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim'' is an action role-playing video game developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. It is the fifth main installment in ''The Elder Scrolls'' series, following 2006's '' The Elder Scrol ...

'', '' Fallout 3'' and '' Fallout 4'' * Keiji Inafune, ''

Megaman ''Mega Man'', known as in Japan, is a Japanese science fiction video game franchise created by Capcom, starring a series of robot characters each known by the moniker "Mega Man". The original game was released for the Nintendo Entertainment S ...

'' character designer, producer of '' Dead Rising'' and ''

Onimusha is a series of video games developed and published by Capcom. It makes use of the historic figures that shaped Japan's history, retelling their stories with supernatural elements. Most of the games are of the action-adventure genre, a combinatio ...

'' *

Hideo Kojima is a Japanese video game designer, director, producer and writer. He is regarded as an auteur of video games. He developed a strong passion for action/adventure cinema and literature during his childhood and adolescence. In 1986, he was hired ...

, ''

Metal Gear is a series of techno-thriller stealth games created by Hideo Kojima. Developed and published by Konami, the first game, ''Metal Gear'', was released in 1987 for MSX home computers. The player often takes control of a special forces operativ ...

'', ''

Zone of the Enders is a video game franchise created by Hideo Kojima and Konami that focused around combat in space with mecha called Orbital Frames. The original ''Zone of the Enders'' was released for the PlayStation 2 in March 2001. A sequel, '' Zone of the E ...

'', and '' Death Stranding'' * Ken Levine, '' BioShock'', ''

System Shock 2 ''System Shock 2'' is a 1999 action role-playing survival horror video game designed by Ken Levine and co-developed by Irrational Games and Looking Glass Studios. Originally intended to be a standalone title, its story was changed during product ...

'' * Hisashi Nogami, '' Animal Crossing'' series and '' Splatoon'' series *

Jade Raymond Jade Raymond (born 28 August 1975) is a Canadian video game creator, best known for helping create the ''Assassin's Creed'' and ''Watch Dogs'' franchises, and for building the Ubisoft Toronto and EA Motive Studios. On 16 March 2021, Raymond an ...

, ''

Assassin's Creed ''Assassin's Creed'' is an open-world, action-adventure, and stealth game franchise published by Ubisoft and developed mainly by its studio Ubisoft Montreal using the game engine Anvil and its more advanced derivatives. Created by Patrice D ...

'' * John Romero, executive producer and designer of ''

Heretic Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, in particular the accepted beliefs of a church or religious organization. The term is usually used in reference to violations of important religi ...

, Hexen: Beyond Heretic'' * Hironobu Sakaguchi, ''

Final Fantasy is a Japanese video game, Japanese science fantasy anthology media franchise created by Hironobu Sakaguchi and developed and owned by Square Enix (formerly Square (video game company), Square). The franchise centers on a series of fantasy and ...

'' series *

Bruce Shelley Bruce Campbell Shelley is a board and video game designer. He is primarily associated as the co-designer of the video games ''Railroad Tycoon'' and ''Civilization'' with Sid Meier, and later the '' Age of Empires'' series. Shelley had worked with ...

, ''

Age of Empires ''Age of Empires'' is a series of historical real-time strategy video games, originally developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Xbox Game Studios. The first game was ''Age of Empires'', released in 1997. Nine total games within the ser ...

'' *

Rod Fergusson Rod Fergusson is a Canadian video game producer, best known for overseeing the development of the ''Gears of War'' franchise, originally at Epic Games and then as head of The Coalition. More recently, Fergusson moved over to Blizzard Entertainm ...

, ''

Gears of War ''Gears of War'' is a media franchise centered on a series of video games created by Epic Games, developed and managed by The Coalition, and owned and published by Xbox Game Studios. The franchise is best known for its third-person shooter vide ...

'' series *

Warren Spector Warren Evan Spector (born October 2, 1955) is an American role-playing and video game designer, director, writer, producer and production designer. He is known for creating immersive sim games, which give players a wide variety of choices in how ...

, '' Thief'', '' Deus Ex'' * Daniel Stahl, ''

Star Trek Online ''Star Trek Online'' is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by Cryptic Studios based on the ''Star Trek'' franchise. The game is set in the 25th century, 30 years after the events of '' Star Trek: Nemesis''. ''Sta ...

'', ''

Champions Online ''Champions Online'' is a free-to-play superhero-themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game ( MMORPG) developed by Cryptic Studios. The game is based on the ''Champions'' license and its rules and setting are loosely based on the HERO ...

'' *

Yu Suzuki is a Japanese game designer, producer, programmer, and engineer, who headed Sega's AM2 team for 18 years. Considered one of the first auteurs of video games, he has been responsible for a number of Sega's arcade hits, including three-dimensional ...

, '' Virtua Fighter'' series, ''

Shenmue is an action-adventure game series created, produced and directed by Yu Suzuki. '' Shenmue'' (1999) and ''Shenmue II'' (2001) were developed by Sega AM2 and published by Sega for Dreamcast. '' Shenmue III,'' developed by Suzuki's company Y ...

'' *

Satoshi Tajiri is a Japanese video game designer and director best known for being the creator of the ''Pokémon'' franchise and one of the founders, and president of video game developer Game Freak. A fan of arcade games, Tajiri wrote for and edited his own v ...

, ''

Pokémon (an abbreviation for in Japan) is a Japanese media franchise managed by The Pokémon Company, founded by Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures (company), Creatures, the owners of the trademark and copyright of the franchise. In terms of ...

'' franchise *

Dave D. Taylor Dave D. Taylor is an American game programmer, best known as a former id Software employee and noted for his work promoting Linux gaming. Early life He graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Science degree in electri ...

, ''

Abuse Abuse is the improper usage or treatment of a thing, often to unfairly or improperly gain benefit. Abuse can come in many forms, such as: physical or verbal maltreatment, injury, assault, violation, rape, unjust practices, crimes, or other t ...

Programming

* Michael Abrash: pioneer of fast PC graphics; author of graphics programming texts *

Dave Akers Dave Akers is a video game programmer and designer who worked on the M Network ports of ''BurgerTime'', ''Bump 'n' Jump'', and ''Star Strike'' for the Atari 2600. He co-designed the 1989 arcade game '' Klax'' with Mark Stephen Pierce and worked ...

: programmer of the arcade games '' Klax'' and '' Escape from the Planet of the Robot Monsters'' * Ed Boon: programmer and creator of the ''

Mortal Kombat ''Mortal Kombat'' is an American media franchise centered on a series of video games originally developed by Midway Games in 1992. The development of the first game was originally based on an idea that Ed Boon and John Tobias had of making a v ...

'' series *

Jens Bergensten Jens Peder Bergensten (born 18 May 1979), also known as Jeb or Jeb_, is a Swedish video game programmer and designer. He is best known as the lead designer of ''Minecraft''. In 2013, he, along with ''Minecraft'' creator Markus Persson, was name ...

: lead developer of ''

Minecraft ''Minecraft'' is a sandbox game developed by Mojang Studios. The game was created by Markus "Notch" Persson in the Java programming language. Following several early private testing versions, it was first made public in May 2009 before being ...

'' since 2011 * Danielle Bunten Berry: ''

M.U.L.E. ''M.U.L.E.'' is a 1983 multiplayer video game written for the Atari 8-bit family of home computers by Ozark Softscape. Designer Danielle Bunten Berry (credited as Dan Bunten) took advantage of the four joystick ports of the Atari 400 and 800 to ...

'', '' Seven Cities of Gold'' *

Jonathan Blow Jonathan Blow (born 1971) is an American video game designer and programmer. He is best known for his work on the independent video games ''Braid'' (2008) and '' The Witness'' (2016). Born in California, Blow developed a passion for game progra ...

: creator of ''

Braid A braid (also referred to as a plait) is a complex structure or pattern formed by interlacing two or more strands of flexible material such as textile yarns, wire, or hair. The simplest and most common version is a flat, solid, three-strande ...

'' and '' The Witness'' * David Braben: co-creator of ''

Elite In political and sociological theory, the elite (french: élite, from la, eligere, to select or to sort out) are a small group of powerful people who hold a disproportionate amount of wealth, privilege, political power, or skill in a group. D ...

'' *

Bill Budge Bill Budge (born August 11, 1954) is a retired American video game programmer and designer. He is best known for the Apple II games '' Raster Blaster'' (1981) and ''Pinball Construction Set'' (1983). Early games Budge says he became interested ...

: ''

Raster Blaster ''Bill Budge's Raster Blaster'' (or ''Rasterblaster'' on the disk label) is a pioneering home computer pinball simulation written by Bill Budge for the Apple II and published in 1981 by Budge's company, BudgeCo. It was ported to the Atari 8-bit f ...

'' and ''

Pinball Construction Set ''Pinball Construction Set'' is a video game by Bill Budge written for the Apple II series, Apple II. It was originally published in 1982 through Budge's own company, BudgeCo, then was released by Electronic Arts in 1983 along with ports to the At ...

'' *

: '' Wolfenstein 3D'', ''

'', '' Quake'', co-founded id Software * Don Daglow: 1970s mainframe games ''

Baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

'', '' Dungeon''; also did

Intellivision The Intellivision is a home video game console released by Mattel, Mattel Electronics in 1979. The name is a portmanteau of "intelligent television". Development began in 1977, the same year as the launch of its main competitor, the Atari 2600. I ...

Utopia A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia (book), Utopia'', describing a fictional ...

'', first sim game * Fred Ford: lead programmer of '' The Horde'', '' Pandemonium!'', the '' Star Control'' series, and the '' Skylanders'' series * Richard Garriott (a.k.a. Lord British): creator of the '' Ultima Online'' series, ''

Tabula Rasa ''Tabula rasa'' (; "blank slate") is the theory that individuals are born without built-in mental content, and therefore all knowledge comes from experience or perception. Epistemological proponents of ''tabula rasa'' disagree with the doctri ...

'' and founder of Origin Systems * Nasir Gebelli: famous for programming Square Co.'s (Now

Square Enix is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational holding company, production enterprise and entertainment conglomerate, best known for its ''Final Fantasy'', ''Dragon Quest'', ''Star Ocean'' and ''Kingdom Hearts'' role-playing video game ...

) ''

'' for the Famicom (NES) and a few other Square titles; a programming legend on the

Apple II The Apple II (stylized as ) is an 8-bit home computer and one of the world's first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products. It was designed primarily by Steve Wozniak; Jerry Manock developed the design of Apple II's foam-m ...

Mark Healey Mark Healey is a British video game developer from Ipswich, Suffolk. Healey started his career making games for the Commodore 64 home computer – his first published game was ''KGB Super Spy'' for Codemasters, which led to developing the educati ...

: known for working on ''

Theme Park An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, as well as other events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central ...

'', '' Magic Carpet'', '' Dungeon Keeper'', the ''

Fun School Fun School is a series of educational packages developed and published in the United Kingdom by Europress Software, initially as ''Database Educational Software''. The original Fun School titles were sold mostly by mail order via off-the-page adver ...

'' games, the ''

'' games, and '' Dreams'' *

Rebecca Heineman Rebecca Ann Heineman is an American video game designer and programmer. Heineman was a founding member of video game companies Interplay Productions, Logicware, Contraband Entertainment, and Olde Sküül. She has been chief executive officer ...

: '' Out of this world'' and '' The Bard's Tale'' *

: designer and programmer of ''

,'' one of the first video games developed during the early history of video games *

Alec Holowka Alec Holowka (30 October 1983 – 31 August 2019) was a Canadian indie game developer and co-founder of independent game companies Infinite Ammo, Infinite Fall, and Bit Blot. He was mainly known for the award-winning titles ''Night in the Wood ...

: Indie video game programmer and designer. Known for working on '' Aquaria'', ''

'', and ''

Night in the Woods ''Night in the Woods'' is a 2017 single-player adventure video game. It was developed by Infinite Fall, a studio founded by game designer Alec Holowka and animator/artist Scott Benson, and Secret Lab, an Australian studio, and published by Fin ...

'' *

Wesley Huntress Wesley T. Huntress, Jr. is an American space scientist. An astrochemist and space scientist, Huntress worked for about twenty years at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. During the 1980s, he was also a video game designer, producing games for Appl ...

: '' Rendezvous: A Space Shuttle Simulator'' and '' Wilderness: A Survival Adventure'' * André LaMothe: author of several game programming texts *

Maddy Thorson Madeline Stephanie Thorson (born 18 March 1988; formerly known as Matt Thorson) is a Canadian video game developer, known as one of the lead creators for the video games ''TowerFall'' and '' Celeste'', developed under the studio Matt Makes Ga ...

: founder of Extremely OK Games (previously Matt Makes Games) and lead developer of ''

TowerFall ''TowerFall'' is an action indie video game created by Maddy Thorson through her company Matt Makes Games. In the game, players control up to four archers in a multiplayer platform fighter. It was released on the Ouya microconsole in June 201 ...

'' and ''

Celeste Celeste may refer to: Geography * Mount Celeste, unofficial name of a mountain on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada * Celeste, Texas, a rural city in North Texas ** Celeste High School, public high school located in the city of Celeste, ...

'' *

Al Lowe Albert William Lowe (born July 24, 1946) is an American video game designer, programmer, and musician who developed several adventure games, mostly for Sierra On-Line. He is best known for creating the ''Leisure Suit Larry'' series. He has also ...

: ''

Leisure Suit Larry ''Leisure Suit Larry'' is an adult-themed sexual video game series created by Al Lowe. It was published by Sierra from 1987 to 2009, then by Codemasters starting in 2009. The first six ''Leisure Suit Larry'' titles, along with ''Magna Cum Lau ...

'' series *

Seumas McNally Seumas McNally (pronounced Shem-Ess) (February 10, 1979 – March 21, 2000) was a Canadian video game programmer and designer. He is best known for indie games, notably ''DX-Ball'' and '' Tread Marks'', which won the Grand Prize at the Independe ...

: founder of Longbow Digital Arts and lead programmer of ''

DX-Ball Seumas McNally (pronounced Shem-Ess) (February 10, 1979 – March 21, 2000) was a Canadian Video game programmer, video game programmer and video game designer, designer. He is best known for indie games, notably ''DX-Ball'' and ''Tread Marks'', ...

'', ''

DX-Ball 2 ''DX-Ball 2'' is a 1998 brick buster game for Microsoft Windows, developed and published by Longbow Games. As a follow-up to the 1996 cult-classic ''DX-Ball'' by Michael P. Welch, the sequel introduced a number of improvements to the origina ...

'', and ''

Tread Marks ''Tread Marks'' is a 3D computer graphics, 3D, third-person perspective, Multiplayer video game, multiplayer-focused tank combat and Racing video game, racing computer game developed by Independent video game developer Longbow Digital Arts. The ga ...

''. The Seumas McNally Grand Prize is named after him. *

: ''

Karate (; ; Okinawan language, Okinawan pronunciation: ) is a martial arts, martial art developed in the Ryukyu Kingdom. It developed from the Okinawan martial arts, indigenous Ryukyuan martial arts (called , "hand"; ''tii'' in Okinawan) under the ...

ka'' and ''

'' series *

: ''

Civilization A civilization (or civilisation) is any complex society characterized by the development of a state, social stratification, urbanization, and symbolic systems of communication beyond natural spoken language (namely, a writing system). Ci ...

'' series, ''

Railroad Tycoon ''Railroad Tycoon'' is a business simulation game series. There are five games in the series; the original ''Railroad Tycoon'' (1990), ''Railroad Tycoon Deluxe'' (1993), ''Railroad Tycoon II'' (1998), ''Railroad Tycoon 3'' (2003), and ''Sid Mei ...

'', co-founder of Firaxis Games * Alan Miller: original programmer for Atari 2600, co-founded

publishers Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

Activision and

Accolade The accolade (also known as dubbing or adoubement) ( la, benedictio militis) was the central act in the rite of passage ceremonies conferring knighthood in the Middle Ages. From about 1852, the term ''accolade'' was used much more generally to ...

* Jeff Minter: founder of Llamasoft and programmer of most of their games *

David Mullich David Mullich () is an American game producer and designer best known for creating the cult classic 1980 adventure game ''The Prisoner'', producing the 1995 adaptation '' I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream'', and developing many games in the ''H ...

: '' The Prisoner'' and other

Edu-Ware Edu-Ware Services, Inc. was an educational and entertainment software publisher established in 1979 bSherwin Steffinand Steven Pederson. It was known for its adventure games, role-playing video games, and flight simulators for the Apple II famil ...

games *

Yuji Naka , credited in some games as YU2, is a Japanese video game programmer, video game designer, designer and video game producer, producer. He is the former head of the Sega studio Sonic Team, where he was the lead programmer of the original ''Sonic t ...

: ''

Sonic the Hedgehog is a Japanese video game series and media franchise created by Sega. The franchise follows Sonic, an anthropomorphic blue hedgehog who battles the evil Doctor Eggman, a mad scientist. The main ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' games are platformers mo ...

'' and other

Sega is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its international branches, Sega of America and Sega Europe, are headquartered in Irvine, California and London, r ...

games * Gabe Newell: ''

Half-Life Half-life (symbol ) is the time required for a quantity (of substance) to reduce to half of its initial value. The term is commonly used in nuclear physics to describe how quickly unstable atoms undergo radioactive decay or how long stable ato ...

''; co-founder of

Valve A valve is a device or natural object that regulates, directs or controls the flow of a fluid (gases, liquids, fluidized solids, or slurries) by opening, closing, or partially obstructing various passageways. Valves are technically fittings ...

* Markus Persson (a.k.a. Notch): created ''

''; founder of

Mojang Mojang Studios is a Swedish video game developer based in Stockholm. The studio is best known for developing the sandbox and survival game ''Minecraft'', the best-selling video game of all time. Mojang Studios was founded by the independent ...

* Steve Polge: ''

Unreal Unreal may refer to: Books and TV * ''Unreal'' (short story collection), a 1985 book of short stories by Paul Jennings * ''Unreal'' (TV series), a 2015 television drama series on Lifetime Computing and games * ''Unreal'' (video game series), ...

'' series and other

Epic Games Epic Games, Inc. is an American video game and software developer and publisher based in Cary, North Carolina. The company was founded by Tim Sweeney as Potomac Computer Systems in 1991, originally located in his parents' house in Potomac, M ...

games *

Zoë Quinn Zoë Tiberius Quinn (born 1987) is an American video game developer, programmer, and writer. Quinn developed the interactive fiction game '' Depression Quest'', which was released in 2013. In 2014, a defamatory blog post by their ex-boyfrien ...

: programmer and video game blogger. Known for developing ''

Depression Quest ''Depression Quest'' is a 2013 interactive fiction video game, game dealing with the subject of clinical depression, depression. It was developed by Zoë Quinn using the Twine (software), Twine engine, with writing by Quinn and Patrick Lindsey, ...

'' and for her role in the Gamergate controversy *

Frédérick Raynal Frédérick Raynal (born 1966) is a French video game designer and programmer, notable for his game developments in Infogrames, Adeline Software International and No Cliché. He is married to Yaël Barroz, a fellow game designer, with whom he has ...

: best known for '' Alone in the Dark'' and the ''

Little Big Adventure ''Little Big Adventure'' is a 1994 action-adventure game developed by Adeline Software International. It was published in Europe by Electronic Arts, and by Activision in North America, Asia and Oceania under the name ''Relentless: Twinsen's Adven ...

'' series * Chris Roberts: programmer and designer of ''

Freelancer ''Freelance'' (sometimes spelled ''free-lance'' or ''free lance''), ''freelancer'', or ''freelance worker'', are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance w ...

'', '' Star Citizen'', and the '' Wing Commander'' games. *

: '' Adventure'', ''

Rocky's Boots ''Rocky's Boots'' is an educational logic puzzle game by Warren Robinett and Leslie Grimm, published by The Learning Company in 1982. It was released for the Apple II, CoCo, Commodore 64, IBM PC and the IBM PCjr. It was followed by a more dif ...

'', & ''

Robot Odyssey ''Robot Odyssey'' is a puzzle video game developed by Mike Wallace, Dr. Leslie Grimm and published by The Learning Company in December 1984. It was released for the Apple II, TRS-80 Color Computer, and DOS. Most players have found it incredibly ...

'' * John Romero: game programmer since 1979; known for '' Commander Keen'', ''

'', '' Quake'' *

: programmer of ''

Saucer Attack ''Saucer Attack!'' is a shoot 'em up written by James D. Sachs for the Commodore 64 and published by Sachs Enterprises in 1984. The goal is to protect Washington, D.C. from invading flying saucers. Gameplay The game presents a backdrop of Wash ...

'' and other home computer era games *

Chris Sawyer Christopher Sawyer is a Scottish video game designer and programmer. He is best known for creating ''Transport Tycoon'', which has been considered "one of the most important simulation games ever made", and the bestseller '' RollerCoaster Tyc ...

: programmer and designer ''

RollerCoaster Tycoon ''RollerCoaster Tycoon'' is a series of simulation video games about building and managing an amusement park. Each game in the series challenges players with open-ended amusement park management and development, and allowing players to construc ...

'' series and other games *

Cher Scarlett Cher Scarlett (born ) is an American software engineer and writer. She is a workers' rights activist and has organized staff at Apple, Activision Blizzard, and Starbucks. Scarlett, who has bipolar disorder, experienced struggles in her early l ...

: programmer who worked at Blizzard Entertainment and known for her role in

California Department of Fair Employment and Housing v. Activision Blizzard ''California Department of Fair Employment and Housing v. Activision Blizzard'' is a current lawsuit filed by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH), now the Civil Rights Department (CRD) against video game developer A ...

* Tim Schafer: programmer and designer of '' Full Throttle'', ''

Grim Fandango ''Grim Fandango'' is a 1998 adventure game directed by Tim Schafer and developed and published by LucasArts for Microsoft Windows. It is the first adventure game by LucasArts to use 3D computer graphics overlaid on pre-rendered static background ...

'', ''

Psychonauts ''Psychonauts'' is a 2005 platform video game developed by Double Fine Productions. The game was initially published by Majesco Entertainment and THQ for Microsoft Windows, Xbox and PlayStation 2. In 2011, Double Fine acquired the rights for t ...

'', '' Brütal Legend'', and '' Broken Age''. Also worked on the '' Monkey Island games.'' * Ken Silverman: author of the

Build engine Build Engine is a first-person shooter engine created by Ken Silverman, author of ''Ken's Labyrinth'', for 3D Realms. Like the Doom engine, ''Doom'' engine, the Build Engine represents its world on a 2D computer graphics, two-dimensional grid usin ...

* Tim Sweeney: founded

, '' Unreal series'' and the

Unreal Engine Unreal Engine (UE) is a 3D computer graphics game engine developed by Epic Games, first showcased in the 1998 first-person shooter game ''Unreal''. Initially developed for PC first-person shooters, it has since been used in a variety of genres ...

* Anne Westfall: programmer of the ''

Archon ''Archon'' ( gr, ἄρχων, árchōn, plural: ἄρχοντες, ''árchontes'') is a Greek word that means "ruler", frequently used as the title of a specific public office. It is the masculine present participle of the verb stem αρχ-, mean ...

'' series of games * Will Wright: programmer of first games in '' SimCity'' series and co-founder of Maxis *

Brianna Wu Brianna Wu (born July 6, 1977) is an American video game developer and computer programmer. She co-founded Giant Spacekat, an independent video game development studio, with Amanda Warner in Boston, Massachusetts. She is also a blogger and pod ...

: programmer known for working on ''

Revolution 60 ''Revolution 60'' is an adventure video game developed and published by Giant Spacekat for iOS platforms. The story is centered on a team of four women working in an anime-themed special forces unit, attempting to liberate a space station. Giant ...

'' and for her role in the Gamergate controversy *

Corrinne Yu Corrinne Yu is an American game programmer. She worked on games including King's Quest, Quake 2, and Halo 4. Her engine work included Unreal Engine 3, Microsoft's Direct 3D Advisory Board, and CUDA and GPU simulation at NVidia. She has also desig ...

: '' Halo'' lead and principal engine architect (Microsoft Halo team), Gearbox Software (studio wide) Director of Platform Technology, Ion Storm (studio wide) Director of Technology, ''

Prey Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill the ...

'' engine lead programmer at

3D Realms 3D Realms Entertainment ApS is a video game publisher based in Aalborg, Denmark. Scott Miller (entrepreneur), Scott Miller founded the company in his parents' home in Garland, Texas, in 1987 as Apogee Software Productions to release his game ' ...

References

{{Reflist Video game development

Video game industry The video game industry encompasses the development, marketing, and monetization of video games. The industry encompasses dozens of job disciplines and thousands of jobs worldwide. The video game industry has grown from niches to mainstream. , ...

+People