Sign in to follow this  
Karimi

The big names in gaming

Recommended Posts

Then you might as well add the Chronic Logic people too :shifty:

I never played any of their games. Gish looked nice, but it didn't make go "yay!" inside just from looking at a screenshot.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Jordan Mechner (for gods sake)..

I thought he served merely as a consultant and didn't do anything for the Sands of Time.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

n0wak, Walter and Ben have already all mentioned him, but it's a fucking crime that Tetsuya Mizuguchi isn't on your list yet. Even if all he'd ever done was Rez, he'd be necessary, but he just keeps on going. Add him already, and right this horrible wrong.

Also, who created Gyakuten Saiban? (Phoenix Wright) Only one game in english, but 3 in Japan and as from what I hear they're all of similar quality, this person may be a good one to keep an eye on.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I thought [Jordan Mechner] served merely as a consultant and didn't do anything for the Sands of Time.

Yes, but he designed the original Prince of Persia games as well as the master-piece adventure game The Last Express.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
In recent years Carmack designed exactly one game : Quake 3 Arena.

THAT'S what happens when you let Carmack design a game ... it creates a revolution. Q3A was the first arena based DM game, and the first game that was a purely multiplayer affair.

Carmack didn't design Q3, besides, there's also Unreal Tournament that was released at about the same time.

Carmack is reponsible for much of what GPU's have become today, and the likes of nVidia and ATi come to him for answers on what should be done with graphics next.

It's not like he's the only one. There's also Tim Sweeney, and ... well all lead engine programmers.

Disappointingly, the Doom3 engine didn't take off quite as well as his previous engines (which in effect, allowed some of the greatest games to be created) but he is certainly still a huge force in the gaming industry

Yes as programmer, but isn't this thread mainly about game developers?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Carmack didn't design Q3, besides, there's also Unreal Tournament that was released at about the same time.

The concept was pretty much his. He wanted to make a game that was purely multiplayer, pure action to the point where even the single-player was essentially a multiplayer game in disguise. I recall reading that there were people on his own team that didn't quite get what he wanted to do! :) So sure, he wasn't the Lead Designer or anything like that, but the concept was all his.

Also, do keep in mind that he was very much involved in Wolf3D & Doom, which I'm sure you'll agree are iconic games ... when id software was smaller, he wasn't *just* a programmer.

It's not like he's the only one. There's also Tim Sweeney, and ... well all lead engine programmers.

Errr, I'm written engines before ... does that mean nvidia listen to me? :)

Difference is of course Carmack has been leading the pack for quite some time. One of the first games to come out with a 3dfx patch was Quake. The first game that was developed to require a 3D card was Q3A. The theory behind all FPS maps today (Binary Space Partitioning) was Carmacks/Abrashs. The first game to try real-time lighting was Doom3. Modding was non-existant up until Quake1 and even then, other engine developers didn't bother with adding mod support.

Disappointingly, the Doom3 engine didn't take off quite as well as his previous engines (which in effect, allowed some of the greatest games to be created) but he is certainly still a huge force in the gaming industry

Yes as programmer, but isn't this thread mainly about game developers?

Yes, and Carmack is a game developer. Look, if you believe that Carmack simply codes engines, and does nothing else, you're out of your mind. In game development, every member of the team makes a difference. All id software games wouldnt have been the same without the engine behind it, and the design decisions Carmack made on his engines greatly defined how the game would turn out, and of course, what direction other games would take too.

SiN

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
So then the likes of Ted Woolsey should be added to the list? He was a part of a team and a number of high profile games wouldn't have been the same without him.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Woolsey

Heh, well there's a difference here. Carmack designs an engine, and id software designs a game to best take advantage of the engine. In a sense, Carmack lays the primary design work for each game.

When Carmack wanted to do Q3A he designed a very stripped down low-latency engine. The curved surfaces were about the only major bit of fancyness the engine had ... otherwise it was a very minamalstic engine.

For his next engine, he really wanted to play around with the idea of real-time lighting, but at the time, it wasn't viable to have more than a couple of them around. Thus, Doom3 was born, as the team knew that the engine would work best with something moody and dark.

IMO, that's definitely worthy of being an important person in gaming.

SiN

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Also, do keep in mind that he was very much involved in Wolf3D & Doom, which I'm sure you'll agree are iconic games ... when id software was smaller, he wasn't *just* a programmer.

Let's see... iD in the early years was John Carmack, Adrian Carmack, John Romero, Tom Hall.

Well ofcourse, everybody plays an important role in the development of a game. But Carmack pretty much always played the role of die hard programmer.

Errr, I'm written engines before ... does that mean nvidia listen to me? :)

If your engine is commercially interesting (e.g. other companies are interested in licensing your engine), and pushing the boundaries of the current limitations.

Modding was non-existant up until Quake1 and even then, other engine developers didn't bother with adding mod support.

Duke3D was quite modable, and it was released a short while before Quake1. In fact ROTT could also be modded, altough quite limited.

Anyway... this discussion can go on forever. The fact is that I don't see john Carmack as a game designer but as a very skilled game\3d engine developer.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I would have said Larry Holland and Ron Gilbert but it's not like they have done anything very noticeable these past years.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

If you're talking about people with historic significance in gaming then Carmack is that. But if you're talking about people who shape gaming and will continue to do so in the future, Carmack is either out or you also include whoever the project leaders are for RenderWare, Source, and UT3.

By the way, looking at some of the names in this thread:

Fumito Ueda (ICO, Shadow of the Colossus)

Goichi Suda (Killer7, Contact)

Atsushi Inaba (Viewtiful Joe, Okami)

Keita Takahashi (Katamari)

Tetsuya Mizuguchi (Rez, Lumines, Meteos, EEE, 99 Nights)

Hirofumi Matsuoka (the old Metroids, WarioWare)

Shigeru Miyamoto (...yeah)

... Western developers are pussies?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I thought he served merely as a consultant and didn't do anything for the Sands of Time.

Well that was how it started - but everyone had fun - so Mechner took his wife and moved to Montreal for the duration. I think he ended up being responsible for the story, dialogue - and also somewhat general proof-reader kind of thing throwing ideas around - I think a bit like Sid Meier does these years...(sort of)..

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

...

So, keeping with the "original designs" - Tim Schaefer (who made the excellent Psychonauts) recently commented in an Xbox magazine that he's been told by publishers that users don't want original content.

I think there's a balance to be had. Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue. Take an existing formula and twist it. I don't think it's always a good thing to be 110% unique. Sometimes, the more unique your game and universe design the more difficult it can be for millions of gamers - ranging from hardcore to casual - to latch onto your game mechanics and characters.

The most original and unique films are often not commercial box office hits. They're the groundbreaking ones that other more mainstream flicks draw from in years to come as the larger audience evolves with them. All the while the true film geeks are in a corner saying "That technique was in his first film 'Pi' which was FAR, far superior!"

Unreal was Quake with color, unique weapons, and more open ended worlds. Halo was Unreal/Quake with vehicles and great controls on a new console - marketed like mad.

The bottom line is we need to hit from both ends. We need Ico and System Shock as much as we need Madden and Burnout.

Then, every so often, a game hits on both accounts. And you have a GTA.

...

source

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Heres the updated list. My criteria were :

1. Past accomplishments

2. Has some importance. (Ie "Carmack says ...")

3. Has a future

Tim Schafer

Hironobu Sakaguchi (Final fantasy)

Hideo Kojima

Peter Molyneux

Sid Meier

Will Wright

Warren Spector

The Bioware guys (Ray M and Greg Z)

Feargus Urquhart

American McGee

John Carmack

Fumito Ueda

Shigeru Miyamoto

Tetsuya Mizuguchi

Gabe Newell

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

There's also an attention whore factory.

Let's take 3 major game engine developers:

* John Carmack

* Gabe Newell

* Tim Sweeney

Gabe is clearly the largest attention whore between those three. But of the three I think he's the least influential.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I don't think that's true. Valve doesn't just have Source, but Steam too. He's the guy with the most influence right now, regardless of press attention.

Tim Sweeney is a close second. The UT engine is being used for a lot of games. Few people know it but even Splinter Cell runs on it.

John Carmack is hugely overrated at the moment. How many games use the Doom 3 engine? Not many. How special is the Doom 3 engine? Not very.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
The UT engine is being used for a lot of games. Few people know it but even Splinter Cell runs on it.

And, not to forget, Duke Nukem Forever

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

What about Cliffy B?

On the musical side of things, why not Peter McConnell, Michael Land, and Clint Bajakian.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
John Carmack is hugely overrated at the moment. How many games use the Doom 3 engine? Not many. How special is the Doom 3 engine? Not very.

It's the most special engine of them all. From a purely technical point of view, it's the only truly "next-gen" 3D engines.

The Source engine doesn't do much thats new at all. It's using BSPs, lightmaps, and a couple of other fancy (but very current-gen) effects, with the havok engine hooked up to it, and with some great facial expression stuff. Apart from the facial expressions, there's nothing here we haven't seen before ... it's the game (HL2) that makes Source special, not the technical details behind the engine itself.

The UT engine, I'm not very sure about. It does alot of things, but to my mind, I haven't seen a UT-based game that's blown me away ... not like the facial expression in Source or the real-time lighting in Doom3. The UT3 screens are looking quite great, but again, it looks like it's just using a bunch of current-gen effects and cranking them up to "MAX".

The Doom3 engine on the other hand, has it's real-time lighting, which is genuinely a step forward. That's one less thing that needs to be done at compile time, lightmapping. That opens up a bunch of new doors in terms of what can be done with gameplay, and is a step towards the ultimate goal of having completely dynamic maps.

It's an engine built to last, so in the years to come, you'll see more games use the D3 engine, with many, many more lights at once. Remember that the Q3 engine started off at a similar slow pace, but has gone on to be licensed up until this year.

SiN

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Doesn't Far Cry have unified lighting system just like Doom 3?

Deus Ex: Invisible War did also, and it beat Doom 3's release date by almost a year. (although it's slow as hell) Plus it had havoc physics and everything was interactive, just like Half-life 2. (although it's shitty and unrealistic as hell)

Truly DE:IW is the pioneer of pioneers of next-gen engines.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Starbreeze's Riddick engine had lighting system like in Doom 3.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The Doom3 Is so diffirent because everything is rendered real-time. You don't need to compile anything when you make a map for D3. This is, to my knowledge, not the case with any other engine. This makes the doom3 engine so unique. And don't forget the incredibly cool interface possibilities the scripting engine has.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Doom3 also has prerendered lighting, on top of the dynamic lighting. Anyway, UE3 also had 100% dynamic lighting (and a shit load of other "cool" features like self shadowing, softshadows, various forums of displacement mapping (which much further than any 'current' engine has shown).

All these things, specially the dynamic lighting and post render things (bloom, etc), have an enormous impact on the performance.

The question is... is the performance hit worth it.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Doesn't Far Cry have unified lighting system just like Doom 3?

AFAIK, only for the indoor stuff, the outdoor world uses more conventional lighting

Deus Ex: Invisible War did also, and it beat Doom 3's release date by almost a year. (although it's slow as hell)

Nah, DEIW only had real-time lighting on characters/entities, but the geometry itself was statically lit.

Starbreeze's Riddick engine had lighting system like in Doom 3.

But was slow as hell.

Doom3 also has prerendered lighting, on top of the dynamic lighting.

No it didn't. I made a couple of doom3 maps, and never saw any sort of lightmapping going on. I guess you may be talking about those spotlights that were all over the coridoors, but those were just textures, not anything that was done using lightmaps and such.

There's something to be said about doing something, and doing it right. The D3 engine was more-or-less complete a good 2 years before the game was done ... Carmack spent the rest of the time pretty much tweaking/optimizing it to work on a 1.5ghz system.

Like elmuerte says, UE3 has quite the crapload of features, but my fear is that unlike the D3 engine, these won't be "properly" implemented (jack of all trades, master of none, anyone?) so you'll need to turn them off if you want to play the game. Which entirely defeats the purpose.

Yeah the D3 engine doesn't feature a billion different types of shader effects, but what it does have works very, very well. I'm willing to bet if you put UE3 and D3 on a mid-end system, D3 would actually look better.

(Also, lets keep in mind D3 is released and already 2 years old, whereas UE3 hasn't even been released yet ... who knows what id have working now?)

SiN

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
AFAIK, only for the indoor stuff, the outdoor world uses more conventional lighting

Did it? I don't have Far Cry so I must've been wrong.

Nah, DEIW only had real-time lighting on characters/entities, but the geometry itself was statically lit.

Actually I'm pretty sure everything in that game is dynamically lit and it does not rely on traditional lightmapping. There were quite a number of developer interviews discussing how unified dynamic lighting system is gonna affect the gameplay and how it's "the future of gaming" and everything. Plus I played the game.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this