List of video game industry people

Below is a list of notable people who work or have worked in the video game industry, on video or computer games.

The list is divided into different roles, but some people fit into more than one category. For example, Sid Meier is both a game designer and programmer. In these cases, the people appear in both sections.

Game design

"See:" List of video game designers

Online gaming

* Richard Bartle: Wrote the first MUD along with Roy Trubshaw
* Ilan Goldberg: Executive Producer
* John D. Carmack: Developed an early online version of "Doom" which supported up to 4 players. Later "Quake" supported 16 players which helped popularize online gaming
* Don Daglow: Designed first MMORPG with graphics, "Neverwinter Nights" for AOL
* John De Margheriti: CEO of BigWorld Pty Ltd makers of Massively Multiplayer Online Game Middleware (MMOG) technology
* Elonka Dunin: General Manager at Simutronics, senior editor of IGDA Online Games White Papers
* Kelton Flinn: designer of "Air Warrior" and many other pioneering online games, co-founder of Kesmai
* Richard Garriott (a.k.a. Lord British): Creator of "Ultima Online", Work on "Lineage", "Lineage 2" (Electronic Arts, NCsoft)
* Raph Koster: "LegendMUD", "Ultima Online", "". (Electronic Arts, Sony Online Entertainment)
* Nir Bendov: VP Marketing, "Personiks"
* Brad McQuaid: Co-Creator of "EverQuest" (Verant Interactive, Sony Online Entertainment, Sigil Games)
* John Smedley: Co-Creator of "EverQuest" (Verant Interactive, Sony Online Entertainment) and president of Sony Online Entertainment
* Jake Song: Creator of "Lineage" (NCsoft)
* Gordon Walton: Executive producer
* Jordan Weisman: Founder of 42 Entertainment, co-creator of "I Love Bees" and "The Beast"
* Will Wright: Creator of "The Sims Online" (Electronic Arts)

Programming

* Michael Abrash: Pioneer of fast graphics routines & author of graphics programming texts
* Danielle Bunten Berry: "M.U.L.E.", "Seven Cities of Gold" and others
* David Braben: co-creator of "Elite"
* Bill Budge: "Raster Blaster" and "Pinball Construction Set"
* John D. Carmack: "Wolfenstein 3D", "Doom", "Quake", co-founded id Software
* Don Daglow: '70s mainframe games "Baseball", "Dungeon". Also did Intellivision "Utopia", first sim game
* Richard Garriott (a.k.a. Lord British): creator of the "Ultima Online" series, "Tabula Rasa" and founder of Origin Systems
* Wesley Huntress: ' and '
* Andre Lamothe: Author of several game programming texts
* Tim Langdell: EDGE Games programmer and author of several game programming texts
* Al Lowe: Leisure Suit Larry series
* Jeff Mallet: Developer of Zillions of Games
* Jordan Mechner: "Karateka" and "Prince of Persia" series
* Sid Meier: "Civilization" series, "Railroad Tycoon", co-founder of Firaxis
* Alan Miller: Original programmer for Atari 2600, co-founded publishers Activision and Accolade
* Jeff Minter: Founder of Llamasoft and programmer of most of their games
* David Mullich: "The Prisoner" and other Edu-Ware games
* Yuji Naka: "Sonic the Hedgehog" and other Sega games
* Steven Pederson: "Terrorist" and other Edu-Ware games
* Frédérick Raynal, best known for "Alone in the Dark" and the "Little Big Adventure" series.
* Jim Sachs: Programmer of "Saucer Attack" and other home computer era games
* Chris Sawyer: Programmer and designer "Roller Coaster Tycoon" series and other games
* Ken Silverman: Author of the Build engine game engine
* Tim Sweeney: founded Epic Games, "Unreal series" and the Unreal engine
* Anne Westfall: Programmer of the "Archon" series of games
* Will Wright: programmer of first games in "SimCity" series and co-founder of Maxis

"See also:"

Producing

* Thor Alexander ("Metaplace")
* Joel Breton ("Bomberman Live", "Pirates of the Caribbean", "")
* Mark Cerny ("Jak and Daxter" series, "Spyro the Dragon" series and "Ratchet and Clank")
* Brad Fregger ("Hacker" and numerous others)
* Richard Garriott ("Ultima" series)
* Kevin Hoekman ("Freedom Force")
* Sam Houser ("the Grand Theft Auto series", "Bully", "The Warriors", " and others
* Keiji Inafune ("Megaman" character designer, producer of "Dead Rising" and "Onimusha")
* Hideo Kojima ("Metal Gear", "Zone of the Enders")
* Tim Langdell ("Fairlight", "Brian Bloodaxe"}
* Shigeru Miyamoto ("Super Mario 64", "")
* Nir Bendov ("Lassie", "Casper", "The Pink Panther")
* Jade Raymond ("Assassin's Creed")
* Hironobu Sakaguchi ("Final Fantasy" series)
* Bruce Shelley ("Age of Empires")
* Yu Suzuki ("Virtua Fighter" series, "Shenmue")
* Dave D. Taylor ("Abuse (video game)")

"See also:"

Art and animation

* Jordan Mechner: Introduced realistic movement to video games with "Prince of Persia"
* Jim Sachs: Created new standard for quality of art with the release of the Amiga game "Defender of the Crown"

Music and sound

* Martin Galway: composer for Commodore 64's legendary SID sound chip
* Rob Hubbard: composer for Commodore 64
* Koji Kondo: composer for Super Mario Bros. and Zelda series
* Richard Joseph: Bafta winning sound specialist and composer for Amiga and most popular formats since 1986.
* George Sanger: aka "The Fat Man", composer on many titles
* Nobuo Uematsu: composer for Final Fantasy series
* Dave Warhol: composer for many of the Mattel Intellivision games as well as some early EA games
* Jerry Martin: composer for many games in "The Sims" series.

"See also:" List of video game musicians

Technology

* Ralph Baer: Inventor of the Magnavox Odyssey, the first video game console
* John D. Carmack: Pioneered numerous techniques to 3D programming, developed techniques that gave birth to the first-person shooter genre, co-founded id Software
* Masayuki Uemura: Inventor of the Nintendo Entertainment System and Super Nintendo Entertainment System
* Gunpei Yokoi: Inventor of the Game and Watch, Game Boy and WonderSwan

Company officers

* J. Allard: Xbox Officer President
* Marc Blank: Co-founder of Infocom
* Nolan Bushnell: Founder of Atari
* Doug Carlston: Co-founder of Broderbund
* Kelton Flinn: Co-founder of Kesmai
* David Gordon: Founder of Programma International
* Hal Halpin: President of ECA
* Trip Hawkins: Founder of Electronic Arts
* Sam Houser: Co-founder and President of Rockstar Games
* Satoru Iwata: President of Nintendo
* Paul Jaquays: Started the game design unit at Coleco
* Ken Kutaragi: President of Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc.
* Tim Langdell: CEO and founder of EDGE Games, co-founder of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences
* Doug Lowenstein: Founder and former President of the Entertainment Software Association
* Shigeru Miyamoto: General manager, entertainment analysis and development division for Nintendo. Influential in the industry for his innovative ideas and techniques, and the creation of Mario, Link, Zelda, Pikmin, among others.
* Peter Moore: Electronic Arts.
* Peter Molyneux: Founder of Lionhead Studios, Co-founder of Bullfrog Productions
* Scott Orr: Founder of GameStar, Glu
* Steven Pederson: Co-founder of Edu-Ware
* Nir Bendov: Compedia
* Sherwin Steffin: Co-founder of Edu-Ware
* Hirokazu 'Hip' Tanaka: President of Pokémon Co.
* Pat Vance: President of ESRB
* Jordan Weisman: Founder of FASA
* David Whatley: Founder of Simutronics
* Hiroshi Yamauchi: Former president of Nintendo
* Philip & Andrew Oliver: Identical twins & Co-founders of Blitz Games