The 100 Hot Game Developers
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Familiar faces are Turbine's Cardell Kerr (#64), Funcom's Ole Herbjornsen (#55), Lionhead's Peter Molyneux (#27), Bethesda's Emil Pagiarulo (#24), Infinite Interactive's Steve Fawkner (#22), BioWare's Casey Hudson (#10), Blizzard's Rob Pardo (#4) and 2K Boston's Ken Levine (#1).
27. Peter Molyneux
Founder
Lionhead Studios
Molyneux has kept news of the upcoming Fable 2 away from prying eyes, thanks to a self-created media blackout that saves him from his own hyperbole. But the things we do know about Fable 2 that it uses a dog to create an emotional attachment to the game world, that avatars get scarred instead of dying, and that sex comes with realistic consequence maintain his reputation for high ambition. A release this year would fill a hole in Microsoft's first party lineup, but no matter when it is released it will unleash a great many new ideas into the design canon.
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24. Emil Pagliarulo
Lead Designer, Fallout 3
Bethesda Softworks
Before coming to Bethesda, Pagliarulo hung with the greats at the sadly defunct Looking Glass Studios, lending design work to well-respected classics like Thief II: The Metal Age. Bethesda in turn has relied on him for tasks as important as the quest design of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. His success in that regard has led to him to become the head of design on the studio's important Fallout revival. It doesn't matter what nonsense the vocal minority spews about Fallout 3; it the project continues in its current way it could be another landmark work for Bethesda, and the game that could make Pagliarulo's career.
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10. Casey Hudson
Project Director, Mass Effect
BioWare
Hudson's eye for detail and love for the genre has made him a leader in western console RPG design. His work on BioWare's biggest projects has allowed the company to successfully marry the complexity of the computer RPG with simpler, more intuitive interface of the console. The results show in the astonishingly well-realized worlds of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect, and the sales of these games show that gamers are more than willing to wrap themselves in Hudson's deep stories.
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1. Ken Levine
Lead Designer, BioShock
2K Boston
Yes, 2007 was a year of staggering achievement and many excellent games. But even in such illustrious company the branchild of Ken Levine, BioShock, managed to stand out. Levine's Rapture was a setting unlike anything ever created, and even as millions played it for its inventive shooting mechanics it spoke complex ideas to all who cared to listen. Theories on philosophy and dogma were in there, as were statements on the nature of choice and the medium of games itself. Levine ambitiously took steps with BioShock that games needed to take; the entire field is better for this game's success.
