Michael Abrash was one of the programmers of Quake, he is an expert in Artificial Intelligence. He has been one of the people who has dedicated more time in teach the tricks of programming, with his books, "The Zen Of Assembly", "Graphics Programming Black Book". He is currently employed at Microsoft.
Not to be confused with the creator of the comic strip Dilbert, Scott Adams was one of the pioneers of the text adventure genre. The first text adventure he wrote was titled "Adventureland." He still is a creator of text adventures to this day.
The mastermind behind the Unreal Games. Started the company Epic Megagames. Created the Jazz Jackrabit series before starting on Unreal. Shortly after, he created Unreal Tournament, which revolved around the concept of multiplayer.
John Carmack is lead programmer and co-owner of id software. He's known to be one of the top game programmers in the world. He develops core technologies for all id titles such as Wolfenstein 3d, Doom, Quake etc.
Creator of the legendary games F-1 World Grand Prix, Grand Prix 2, and soon to be released, Grand Prix 3. He was the first person to realistically simulate tracks, AI, and the feel of a race car on the PC.
Northampton, Massachusetts based Independent Game Developer founded by Raymond Jacobs and well known to GameDev.net; over the course of three years they designed, produced and sold the Indie game Morning's Wrath.
Richard "Lord British" Garriot is best know as the creator of the Ultima series of RPGs.
The Ultima series began with Akalabeth (Ultima 0), which was released in 1979. Many sequels followed: Ultima I - IX, and Ultima Online.
One of Richard Garriot's wonderful contributions to game design was introduced in Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar (released in 1985). The game kept track of the character's choices and actions. The player's goal was to live a life of virtue. Good actions, such as charity and sacrifice, were rewarded. But evil actions, such as lying or stealing were also taken into account. The player could not complete the game unless he were sufficiently virtuous. While this may sound a bit odd, it was a wonderful innovaiton. It is a rare game which can so successfully boost a player's self-esteem!
The Ultima series has had a profound impact on subsequent games, influencing games such as: Fallout I & II, Baldur's Gate I & II, Icewind Dale, the Final Fantasy series, Neverwinter Nights, Arcanum, Pools of Radiance, and Dark Sun.
Richard Garriot's games usually take advantage of the best available technology.
Richard Garriot has recently left OSI, and has founded a new company called Destination Games. This company has formed a partnership with NCSoft, an Asian company.
He is currently working on a translation of NCSoft's Lineage: The Bloodpledge for the U.S. market, a new MMPORPG code-named Tabula Rasa, and the mysterious "Project X".
Short for The Gang Of Four, who consist of:
¤ Erich Gamma
¤ Richard Helm
¤ Ralph Johnson
¤ John Vlissides
They are the authors of the criticly acclaimed book
Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software
(ISBN: 0-201-63361-2 Addison-Wesley)
When using the term "GOF" one usually means that book.
With this book they imprinted the phrase "design pattern" on every programmers mind. It even has its own category here on Game Dictionary, "Design Patterns".
The writer and designer behind a number of bestselling computer games including "Betrayal at Krondor", "Return to Krondor", "Planet's Edge" and "Might & Magic III: Isles of Terra". Further information about him is available through his website at Neal.Hallford.com.
The first game developer to combine artsy cinematic storytelling with intense first-person action. Credited with the invention of the "interactive movie."
Creator of the higly acclaimed Metal Gear series, which include such titles as:
Metal Gear, Metal Gear: Snake's Revengene, Metal Gear Solid, Metal Gear Solid VR Missions, Metal Gear Solid Integral [Japan], Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance, and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater.
KCEJ - Computer Entertainment Japan
Well-known author of a number of successful game programming books, including Tricks of the Windows Game Programming Gurus and The Black Art of 3D Game Programming. Also the founder of Xtreme Games.
Lorne Lanning is one of the creators of the PlayStation's "Abe's Oddysse" [sic] and "Abe's Exoddus." He is one of the loudest detractors of the PlayStation2, and is the creator of "Munch's Oddysee."
Sid Meier, one of the most creative, influential, and successful game designers of all time, is most well known for his classic strategy games, Civilization and Railroad Tycoon. Meier has designed over a dozen games, including the award-winning Colonization, Pirates, Gettysburg and Alpha Centauri and founded two companies: Microrprose and Firaxis.
Specializing in game industry careers, Marc Mencher has helped thousands of job seekers. He is author of the book, Get in the Game; Careers in the Game Industry. He worked for several game companies such as Spectrum Holobyte, Microprose and The 3DO Company, before joining GameRecruiter.com. Marc served as President of the International Game Developers Network. He has spoken and held roundtables at several Game Developers Conferences and The Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). In addition to representing the game industry’s hottest talent, Marc also volunteers his time as a career coach for graduates from Full Sail Real World Education, helping them land their first game industry jobs. His articles have been featured in GIGnews.com, Gamasutra, and GameWEEK. He works with the IGDA on chapter development and Games-Florida, a non-profit organization formed with the intent of nurturing and expanding the interactive multi-media industry in the state of Florida. He is also Technical Advisor and Executive Producer for the recently released PC Adventure Game, Watchmaker. Currently, Marc is working on the release of the PC Adventure Game Tony Tough and The Night of the Roasted Moths (PC) and a Action Shooter, Tsunami 2265 (PC & PS2), published by Got Game Entertainment.
The inventor of the real-time strategy genre with his games Powermonger and Populous, Peter Molyneux is a legend in game design. Founder of Bullfrog he also designed Syndicate, Magic Carpet, and Theme Park. He quit Bullfrog near the release of Dungeon Keeper and co-founded Lionhead Studios where he went on to design Black & White.
Chris Roberts is best known as the creator of the Wing Commander series. He is one of gaming's most ambitious and influential designers. In 1996, he left Origin to found Digital Anvil.
One of the designers of the original Quake and Doom games, is now mostly known for the critical fiasco of Daikatana. His early work, especially the Chulthu-style Quake levels, is still widely regarded as one of the best works of the period.
The creator of the Final Fantasy games, Hironobu Sakaguchi is often thought of as the father of console role playing games. And with his induction into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Science's Hall of Fame, Hironobu Sakaguchi is now recognized along with Sid Meier and Shigeru Miyamoto
One of the premier producers/designers in the game industry. After a start in board games and traditional role-playing games at Steve Jackson Games and TSR, Inc., he joined Origin Systems, where he was involved with Ultima VI and VII: Serpent Isle, Ultima Underworld 1 & 2, System Shock, Wing Commander, and others. From there, he moved on to Looking Class Studios, where he was the producer of Thief: The Dark Project, and then he founded ION Storm Austin, where he created the Deus-Ex line of games and continued the Thief legacy.
Known primarily for his models and animations for Quake2 and QuakeIII:Arena while at id Software, Paul Steed has been in the game development industry since the end of 1991. He has written 13 articles for Game Developer magazine. He is author of the book Modeling a Character
in Max and is currently wrapping up his second book entitled Animating Real-Time Game Characters. He has been a regular speaker at the Game Developer Conference since 1997.
Creator of many of the most successful SEGA games, such as the "Sonic the Hedgehog" series, the Virtua Fighter series and the most expensive video game ever made: "Shenmue"
Tim Sweeney is one of the founders of Epic Megagames, now merely Epic Games. His early work included the masterpiece - and still well-played - game creation kit ZZT, and Jill of the Jungle. Newer work includes Unreal and Unreal Tournament.
Brad Wardell is the founder of Stardock Systems, and the designer of Galactic Civilizations and one of the only video games ever released for the ill-fated OS/2. In addition to his experience in games Brad makes skinning software for Windows. He is a champion for gameplay over graphics and has founded the Drengin Network a game ASP (Application Service Provider) to help make this vision a reality.
Roberta Williams is a game writer and developer for Sierra. She is known for adventure style games. Some of her works include Phantasmagoria and King's Quest.
Will Wright is a co-founder of Maxis and is the creator of Sim City. Sim City was a revolutionary game that helped change peoples perceptions about what a game is. Will is also the creator of the wildly popular game The Sims. Will continues to “think outside the box” and is currently working on The Sims Online.
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