The next-gen hot 100 (game) developers 2008

February 20, 2008 3:39 AM

Next Generation presents the Hot 100 Game Developers of the year. See which developers are lighting up the world of games in 2008. For the impatient: skip to the end.

From the article: The ordering of this list represents the opinion of Next Generation. We feel the controversial nature of this presentation is appropriate to our primary goal of this feature, which is to inspire discussion about and promote awareness of the people who make the games rather than the games themselves (the games, after all, get center stage for the rest of the year). We feel that in 2008, these are the people who will greatly influence what you play and how you play it.

posted by slimepuppy (12 comments total)

Posted less for the Top 100 list aspect, and more for the good overview and brief profile of some of the people currently working in the games industry as developers.
posted by slimepuppy at 3:45 AM on February 20, 2008

It does seem a bit silly to have this ranking, as it's just reflecting the sales and esteem of games released in 2007. Bioshock, COD4, and Halo 3 were top sellers, so the project heads of those three games takes the top three spots.

Still, it's gratifying to see Kim Swift (of Portal fame) at #12.
posted by suckerpunch at 3:52 AM on February 20, 2008

No Tarn Adams? Really? How many of these "artists" "made" "game devs" could live exclusivelly out of donations from random internet people ecstatically grateful to be allowed to play a buggy alpha version of his/her project?

Yes i thought so.
posted by CautionToTheWind at 4:12 AM on February 20, 2008 [1 favorite]

Many of those people are more like project managers/spokesmen/evangelists/egos than developers.
posted by snoktruix at 5:08 AM on February 20, 2008

Still, it's gratifying to see Kim Swift (of Portal fame) at #12.

That was a triumph.

(I am an evil joke thief.)
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 5:58 AM on February 20, 2008 [3 favorites]

Ironclad Games needs to be higher than #88 - Sins of a Solar Empire is a fantastic, DRM-free game.
posted by NationalKato at 8:00 AM on February 20, 2008

Does 'hot' refer to the games or the developers, and if the developers, is it meant professionally or personally? Poor wording of the headline does not incline me to RTFM.
posted by tippiedog at 8:02 AM on February 20, 2008

(Not a criticism of the poster, but of the article itself)
posted by tippiedog at 8:03 AM on February 20, 2008

I admit I skipped to the top ten/eleven, but it was a good list. Seems a little console heavy, but that's also where most of the gaming worlds attention and money are going right now. Bioshock for the win -- nice to see a great game get its accolades.
posted by Pantengliopoli at 8:15 AM on February 20, 2008

I have to admit I was hoping for more left-field suggestions like the one-person teams behind Everyday Shooter or Audiosurf. Jenova Chen was nice to see, as was Ironclad Games (though it seems like Sins is starting to become a big deal so maybe the latter isn't so surprising).
posted by chrominance at 10:15 AM on February 20, 2008

Many of those people are more like project managers/spokesmen/evangelists/egos than developers

Having worked with him, I can vouch that at least one of them (near the top) is an 'actual' developer! :)
posted by blenderfish at 1:56 PM on February 20, 2008

I have to admit I was hoping for more left-field suggestions like the one-person teams behind Everyday Shooter or Audiosurf.

Seeing the CoD4 guy in the 3rd place reminded me of my favorite cheat code: "power underwhelming".
posted by ersatz at 3:40 PM on February 20, 2008