Next Gen's 100 Hot Developers

[Troy S Goodfellow]

Here. (http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2523&Itemid=2)

The Tetris guy is a dubious inclusion since his career isn't exactly hot, as far as I know. The usual Legend Entries (Carmack, Meier, Garriot, Miyamoto) and anyone tied to a major hit of the last few years. Other qualifications for criteria escape me, but I suppose this is as good a definition of hotness as anything else.

No sign of Derek Smart on the list anywhere.

Troy

[E-phonk]

Well.. Congrats to Sorren for being in there (don't know if other QT3 visitors made it.)

It's a nice general list - some can be debated but it's a good who's who in any case.

Edit: also, I didn't know David Jones (DMA, GTA series) quit rockstar to start a new company that is now making a MMO.

[dogbert]

Edit: also, I didn't know David Jones (DMA, GTA series) quit rockstar to start a new company that is now making a MMO.

They're making a few games - a MMO for Webzen, a futuristic comicy GTA style game for Microsoft. And NextGen got it slightly wrong, he quit DMA back in 1999, not 2002.

[Troy S Goodfellow]

I just noticed that Brian Reynolds is not on the list, despite a fine record of past work including the super-amazing Rise of Nations, and Rise of Legends now on the way.

I say we take off American McGee because he has a stupid name.

Troy

[EFlannum]

I just noticed that Brian Reynolds is not on the list, despite a fine record of past work including the super-amazing Rise of Nations, and Rise of Legends now on the way.

I say we take off American McGee because he has a stupid name.

Troy

Yeah I would have put Brian on there ahead of a lot of the others.

[Gordon Cameron]

Nice to see Paul Reiche III in the mix.

[Tim Partlett]

Yeah, Brian's omission seems a mistake. It was nice to see my boss getting recognised by them, though.

[Lum]

Some of the choices seem... odd. It's as if they went through their PR rolodex.

[Matthew Gallant]

This reminds me of the time the Audio G.A.N.G. had their awards for game music and Katamari Damacy got zero nominations.

[Angrycoder]

I didn't know Hideo Kojima invented the dating simulation genre.

[extarbags]

I didn't know Hideo Kojima invented the dating simulation genre.

Yeah, I was really interested to learn that too. Oddly enough, I have more respect for him now.

Guy that I have possibly less respect for:

http://www.next-gen.biz/images/stories/People/tomonobu-itagaki.jpg

[Shadarr]

I say we take off American McGee because he has a stupid name.
I say we take him off because he's not in the same class as most of the others. I also think being responsible for the Army Men franchise should count against Nick Earl.

[jim crawford]

From the article:

Tetsuya Nomura ... stepped into the character designer's duties in 1997 with Final Fantasy VII, when it was determined by the producers that the style of the series' previous character designer, Yoshitaka Amano, could not be accurately represented in three dimensions. The art Nomura produced on demand was of a crude, experimental, angular style; nearly a decade later, that style has become a standard in videogames.
Uh, do they mean he invented polygon models? Because it seems to me that even Square tossed FF7's crude, experimental, angular art style in the dumpster long ago, and rightfully so.

[extarbags]

Yeah, I never thought of FF7's graphics as "a crude, experimental, angular art style" so much as "kind of shitty."

[wildpokerman]

Yeah, I was really interested to learn that too. Oddly enough, I have more respect for him now.

Guy that I have possibly less respect for:

http://www.next-gen.biz/images/stories/People/tomonobu-itagaki.jpg

For some reason whenever I see a picture of Itagaki I think of Kitsune. I imagine him playing Dragon Quest VIII and FF XII until his eyes can no longer function in natural light.

[Kitsune]

Gee, that's real flattering, especially since Itagaki fits my picture of the ultimate loser and his face looks like he's trying to cover up the fact that he was a victim of Chernobyl.

What's interesting about the way I play games and what freaks out my friends a bit, is how much I have going at one time. I'll be reading like 15-20 different books or manga, following storylines on TV and playing a good dozen games at a time usually, but I'll only put at most maybe 2 hours into each activity at a time, more likely only 20 minutes or so. I never get confused and somehow manage to keep it all going. It takes forever, but I like switching it up better than staying at the same thing for hours. I'll be write at this tense part in a novel or a game or something and then I''ll put it down, and be like, "So, wanna go eat?" I don't think its an attention span thing, I'm just not a quarter to three type of guy, at least not doing the same thing. Entertainment is cool and all, its just friends (and by that, I mean in the flesh interaction as much as possible) and sunlight are kind of like your daily vitamins, without it, I'd feel wrong.

Last night, I was set to devote some time to FFXII and my friend was like, "Let's play guitar" so I did. I ended up playing FFXII later on for like a half hour. Its all about time management.

I don't think I'll ever stop playing DQVIII, even now I want to play it! :P

Oh and by my knowledge, Kojima wasn't the main creator of Tokimeki (the list strikes me as inaccurate in multiple ways), but I'm not all that up on the series for obvious reasons. Its a shame games like that went down the path they did, when it came out, it was all fresh and a nice idea, now its just creepy and unsettling and makes you want to keep your distance.

-Kitsune

[extarbags]

I'm picturing you sitting in the middle of a queen bed, with two dozen books open laying all around you, across from a wall of TVs, each displaying a different RPG.

[Walter Yarbrough]

My god do we need more women in this industry.

-Walt

[Jim Preston]

My god do we need more women in this industry.

-Walt
Amen.

[Ex-S Woo]

After some Googling around, it looks like Kojima was in charge of the Tokimeki Memorial side project, the "Tokimeki Memorial Drama Series" which was more of a traditional Japanese style ADV...which actually makes sense.

His most famous games at the time were Japanese style Graphic Adventure games (Snatcher/Policenauts) so something like the Tokimemo Drama series probably wasn't too much a leap from what he usually did.

[Alan Au]

My god do we need more women in this industry.

-Walt My sources tell me ~10% of the game development community is female, although you wouldn't know it from that director/president/CEO heavy list. I'm surprised they left off important women like Sheri Graner Ray, but then again, they also left off Brian Reynolds and Chris Hecker.

- Alan

[Lum]

10% seems about right at NCSoft from the purely analytical "poking my head out the office and looking down the hall" method. Mythic has far more than 10% but it's ahead of the industry in that regard.

[Brad Wardell]

Pretty thorough list. If Brian Reynolds gets left out I guess my hopes for being on such a list are pretty remote. ;)

Power on oh delusions of grandier! :-D

[EFlannum]

Pretty thorough list. If Brian Reynolds gets left out I guess my hopes for being on such a list are pretty remote. ;)

Power on oh delusions of grandier! :-D

Actually I'm pretty sure you deserved to be on that list ahead of several of the other people on it... so you're not being all that delusional.

[Troy S Goodfellow]

Actually I'm pretty sure you deserved to be on that list ahead of several of the other people on it... so you're not being all that delusional.

Well, he can't spell "grandeur". That's one strike.

Troy

[Backov]

Gee, that's real flattering, especially since Itagaki fits my picture of the ultimate loser and his face looks like he's trying to cover up the fact that he was a victim of Chernobyl.


http://jamescasey.co.uk/fafnir/redbluestate.jpg

[Cold Blooded]

Considering how complicated and expensive video games are to make these days, individual accomplishments seem to pale in importance compared to teamwork, or so people seem to keep saying.

For maximum relevance, list should've cited top teams, rather than individual people (whose roles can vary widely). Just two cents here.

[BlindSwordsman]

Considering how complicated and expensive video games are to make these days, individual accomplishments seem to pale in importance compared to teamwork, or so people seem to keep saying.

For maximum relevance, list should've cited top teams, rather than individual people (whose roles can vary widely). Just two cents here.

From the Article:

We selected the Hot 100, based primarily on their studio’s market success in 2005. In addition, we kept in mind any potential huge successes for 2006, as well as people who are clearly industry luminaries regardless of their recent or upcoming projects.

Agreed absolutely. I think they tried to say that in the obove. When I have spoken about any of our games at Silicon Knights it has always been about the team and not about myself. You will never see a game by Denis Dyack, only a game from Silicon Knights. I think many people on this list would probably say the same.

[Jason Becker]

Its no diffrent than the producer or director getting credit for a hit movie when it really a large number of people involved. They just want to simpilfy it so they can make their list up.