Poll of the Day > I am composing a top 20 greatest gane devs list and need suggestions.

(+) Yeah! (+)

This is just for fun.

Here are the rules:

1. No one hit wonders. Said game studio needs to have released at least 3 quality games and they would be judged as a whole. So no "Released one excellent game and two dogwater games". CD Projekt Red fails to make the list because as far as I am concerned they've only made one, arguably two, quality games.
2. IP diversity is encouraged. It is not an automatic disqualify them but it does weigh against them if their entire thing is just making one series of games. Perfect example is Team Aces who only makes Ace Combat and nothing else.
3. No generic in house devs for major publishers. So no Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, EA, Activision, Ubisoft, Square-Enix, Capcom, Konami, Bandai-namco, etc. The reason why is because they tend to shuffle staff and dev structure so often that they can't really be judged as a whole.
4. But second party studios of major publishers are allowed. Intelligent systems, Sucker Punch, Rare, Obsidian are all eligible.

With that in mind here's what I have so far:

From Software
Treasure
Sucker Punch
Insomniac
Naughty Dog
Level-5
Monolith (both of them)
Bungie
Genki
Clover Studios
Platinum Games
Rare
Obsidian

I need more suggestions!

Actually if I can choose only one dev it would be Neversoft

On top of releasing better and better THPS games every year for like 6 years straight, they also released a fantastic Spiderman game

Troika Games made exactly THREE quality IP diverse games then shut down.
Also id Software has to be there as one of the legendary studios.

josh posted...

Troika Games made exactly THREE quality IP diverse games then shut down.
Also id Software has to be there as one of the legendary studios.

Troika is such a great suggestion and gosh do I want to put it on the list because Arcanum and VTM: Bloodlines were both phenomenal. But Temple of Elemental Evil is such a painfully average game and I honestly didn't like it.

Valve
Supergiant Games

VioletZer0 posted...

But Temple of Elemental Evil is such a painfully average game and I honestly didn't like it.

I wish I could argue you on this but i'd lose

Arkane - their weakest title is Dishonoured 2, let that sink in

edit: I would want to say ArtePiazza, but 'as a team' they haven't done a whole lot... but their individual members are in EVERYTHING

I would say Humongous Entertainment Inc who made a lot of "edutainment" which I remember from the Putt-Putt, Pajama Sam, and the various Backyard Sports titles. Maybe put it on the backburner for the list since I'm sure there are others who made more games for the masses and not for young kids.

alicesoft revived the visual novel genre almost singlehandedly from being a mindless porny cashgrabby mess back in the 90's and they technically have done multiple genres of games (Rance 01/02, 5d, 6, 7/kichikuou, 8, 9, and 10 are all very different genres within the same series, and they have a bunch of other IPs like evenicle or dohna dohna). theres a lot of legendary VN studios out there, but not many gameplay focused with a breadth of genres and IPs

but noone cares about the horny games around here except me :(

Am I confused?

rockstar?

Really hard to rank developer teams. You can have a great team with hundreds of talented people and it only takes 1 to fuck it all up.

Like a CEO that is just some nepo-failson, or a writer that is just painfully unfunny. Borderlands 3 dialog was terrrrrible. Such a shame, writing funny dialog was like 0.00001% of the work that needed to be done but it soured the whole thing. Also, the infinite gun mechanic just didn't matter to me at all?

Valve has a great studio, but that might be because they aren't a public company that lights itself on fire. Everyone in charge there built the company. They don't give a shit if something they do loses them money in the short-term, and they don't squeeze the life out of their IPs. The best studios always have someone protecting them from the higher-ups ruining everything.

MICHALECOLE posted...

Am I confused?

rockstar?

Rockstar absolutely counts although I personally greatly dislike Rockstar's games so it'd be difficult to rank.

Yellow posted...

Really hard to rank developer teams. You can have a great team with hundreds of talented people and it only takes 1 to fuck it all up.

Like a CEO that is just some nepo-failson, or a writer that is just painfully unfunny. Borderlands 3 dialog was terrrrrible. Such a shame, writing funny dialog was like 0.00001% of the work that needed to be done but it soured the whole thing. Also, the infinite gun mechanic just didn't matter to me at all?

Valve has a great studio, but that might be because they aren't a public company that lights itself on fire. Everyone in charge there built the company. They don't give a shit if something they do loses them money in the short-term, and they don't squeeze the life out of their IPs. The best studios always have someone protecting them from the higher-ups ruining everything.

If it simplifies things I am ranking them on the quality of their game library not their internal politics.

VioletZer0 posted...

Rockstar absolutely counts although I personally greatly dislike Rockstar's games so it'd be difficult to rank.

Oh so this is just like a your opinion thing?

MICHALECOLE posted...

Oh so this is just like a your opinion thing?

yes exactly

I am just asking for help

VioletZer0 posted...

If it simplifies things I am ranking them on the quality of their game library not their internal politics.

It's hard because you take a developer like rockstar and look at all the squandered opportunity. No linux users allowed, wants to install a rootkit on your PC to make line go up. Terrible online, terrible live service model, honestly pretty terrible writing. The games? The most fun you'll ever have with your friends just messing around.

No excuse for the wretched online. I know how to code and I could 100% have done it better. Either those engineers are bad or the higher ups don't let them do their jobs right.

Idk just google list of game devs and put them in the order you like

i feel like most of the ones i would name have all gone to shit in the last decade or so, so i'm just gonna second the valve suggestion.

MICHALECOLE posted...

Idk just google list of game devs and put them in the order you like

I want y'all's input too.

Nintendo GameCube era was cranking out banger after banger and they didn't know how to fail.

Those games were so good that all Nintendo games just copy them to this day.

Playground Games

It may also depend on the potential success of the upcoming Fable game. The Forza Horizon series is up there with some of the other most consistently great series of all time (on Metacritic the games are rated 85, 86, 91, 92, 92).

CD Projekt Red and Larian Studios

Without them, the list is worth nothing.

Disagree with Larian, pretty much only BG3 and DOS2 are anygood

TheGuiltySpark posted...

Without them, the list is worth nothing.

VioletZer0 posted...

This is just for fun.

Lord forbid someone do something just for fun.

Id Software
Raven Software
Apogee

Was going to say Monolith but I see they are already on there.

Omega Force

Lokarin posted...

Disagree with Larian, pretty much only BG3 and DOS2 are anygood

Divinity Original Sin 1 was good too