20. Haden Blackman
Project Lead
LucasArts

Blackman has built up a commanding resume of Star Wars books, comic scripts, and video game scripts, making his one of the preeminent contemporary voices for George Lucas’ timeless universe. Case in point is the monumental blockbuster Star Wars: The Force Unleashed: Blackman led the project, and while it was not universally lauded for its gameplay or technology many noted its story as a powerful, affecting work of science fiction, and the best Star Wars story since perhaps the original trilogy. Blackman recently shared a Writer’s Guild of America award for that story, beating out text-filled titles including Fallout 3.




19. Mathijs de Jonge
Director
Guerilla Games

De Jonge has been an artist and director for Guerilla since the studio was known as Lost Boys Games, and has been a major contributor to the two extant properties created by the studio. The first is Shellshock, but the other, Killzone, is far more important and controversial. De Jonge for his part pulled Killzone away from its roots in mediocrity with the PSP Killzone: Liberation and then Killzone 2, a game that for most intents and purposes is the PS3. Both games have split the audience on their relative merit, but they’ve also cemented Guerilla as technological wizards with solid design fundamentals. It would be a shame if the talents of de Jonge and his team were lost in the torrents of hype and bickering.




18. Hideo Kojima
Studio Head
Kojima Productions

In the middle of 2008, Kojima delivered the biggest PlayStation 3 exclusive yet in the form of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. Typical of the famed designer, the game was verbose, strange, technically brilliant and critically hailed. It’s also almost certainly the fastest selling PlayStation-only title of the generation so far, and caused PS3 sales to spike in a summer Sony needed to win. It’s clear that Kojima’s unique brand of game making still speaks to a huge number of gamers. What he does next should be particularly fascinating.




17. Emil Pagliarulo
Lead Designer
Bethesda Softworks

An alumnus of Looking Glass and Ion Storm Austin, Pagliarulo spent his earlier years at Bethesda doing design work Morrowind expansions and Oblivion. But it will be his design work on last year’s game of the year contender Fallout 3 that he will be known for from now on, as that game presented an unforgettable world and a meticulous, unique gameplay sensibility. The team at Bethesda is still focusing on Fallout 3, with the variety of content additions due out in coming months.




16. Stig Asmussen
Director
SCE Studios Santa Monica

Asmussen graduated from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh in 1998, moving into an art role at Midway shortly after receiving his degree. After working on Guantlet: Dark Legacy and Dr. Muto Midway shut down its San Jose development house, and Asmussen migrated to Santa Monica—just in time to lead the environment art team on the original God of War. He has worked on that legendary franchise ever since: he was promoted to art director on God of War II, and is now directing the creation of God of War III, which is almost inarguably Sony’s most important in-production PS3 exclusive.




15. Greg LoPiccolo
VP of Product Development
Harmonix

In 2007, LoPiccolo and Harmonix created Rock Band as a platform, and a new way of looking at the rhythm genre. It took one year for the competition to even catch up to the new four-instrument standard, but by then Rock Band 2 had already refined the formula. And actually, the primary refinement came earlier in 2008, when the original Rock Band got its in-game store. That little change turned the franchise into a true platform, one with reliable and easily acquirable content updates. It’s the first gold standard on how to do downloadable content in games, and yet another piece of evidence that LoPiccolo’s team is the go-to group for innovation in music gaming.




14. Dustin Browder
Lead Designer
Blizzard

Browder’s resume reads like a legacy of genre greats, and not just in the real time strategy genre: he was also the lead on western cult mecha games MechWarrior 2: Mercenaries and Heavy Gear. But then he contributed design to RTS touchstone Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2, before moving on to Command & Conquer: Generals and The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle Earth II. So he has a variety of sci-fi and strategy game experience, which is almost certainly why Blizzard put him in charge of the careful balancing act that is designing Starcraft 2, an instant classic in potentia if there ever was one.




13. Cliff Bleszinski
Design Director
Epic Games

With Gears of War 2, Bleszinski’s franchise of chainsaw bayonets and gigantic armor now stands shoulder to shoulder with Halo as the Xbox 360’s flagship exclusive franchise. The Gears series in turn could well be the most influential of the generation, with its cover system being the most frequently cribbed design mechanic since bullet time. Unreal Engine 3 is now completely entrenched as the go-to technology for next-gen games of any type. Bleszinski and Epic do not only have recent success under their belt. They have a legacy that will inform this medium for the foreseeable future.




12. Yoshinori Ono
Lead Producer
Capcom

Capcom’s longtime sound designer found his current career in production with the PS2 Chaos Legion. He followed that initial effort with progressively better and better action titles, moving from Shadow of Rome to Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams. He is also the man credited as being brave enough to actually go to the top brass at Capcom and ask pointblank for a new numbered Street Fighter. That he got the project says a lot. That Street Fighter IV is already burning up Japanese arcades says more. If any game is going to reignite the fighting genre in 2009, Ono’s Street Fighter IV is it.




11. Rob Pardo
Vice President of Game Design
Blizzard

It seems that the influence of World of Warcraft grows with every passing year. Take the holiday release of Wrath of the Lich King, the expansion pack for WoW that sold over 2.4 million copies in its first 24 hours: that’s even more than the last expansion, The Burning Crusade. Pardo and Blizzard have managed to turn genre-leading design into a seemingly endless source of unimaginably high revenue. With Starcraft II, Diablo III, and another unannounced project waiting in the wings, it seems that Pardo and his team will be only taking more hours from gamers in future.