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[Grand Theft Scratchy]

Some of my favorite game developers from back in the day were Hiroyuki Ito, Shuntaro Tanaka, Leslie Benzies, and Hideo Kojima. They were behind some of my most-played games between 1998 and 2008. But of course it's easy to look back and reminisce though since longtime developers more or less fade into the background; taking smaller, undisclosed roles, or as supervisors up until they eventually retire, newer games continue to be made by people you probably had no idea of.

Seeing as 2020 is right around the corner, let's classify relatively new as any game between 2010 - 2019.

Anyway, I really like that Jake Solomon is the lead designer and director behind the new XCOM games. I think he and his team did a pretty faithful reboot of the series for both newcomers and veterans. I'm really into aliens and UFOs as a central theme. That said I'm looking forward to a possible XCOM 3 being announced within the next couple years.

Mike Skupa, the lead designer for Sleeping Dogs, is apparently working on an otherworldly horror game as part of new development studio Brass Token. I've come to terms that we'll never get Sleeping Dogs 2 but as a huge fan of the original as well as an interest in horror games (not just Resident Evil or Parasite Eve but also newer ones like Amnesia), it'll be interesting to see what this game looks like and how it plays when he and his team are ready to show it.

 

[Danjin44]

This year I played Atelier Ryza from Gust and Luigi's Mansion 3 from Next Level Games, I never played any of their games but I greatly enjoyed these two.

 

[D3SCHA1N]

Rocksteady are relatively new and I've enjoyed 3/4 of their output so far...

 

[molasar]

Dennaton Games - Hotline Miami games
Bitmap Bureau - Xeno Crisis

 

[Old Retro]

I love love love the jumping hack n slash of Platinum Games. They've put out some masterpieces.

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

Japan Studio... Anything

And admire keiichiro toyama. My respect to him.

 

[LokusAbriss]

Kojima Productions.

 

[Psykodad]

I don't know what defines "new", but Bluepoint Games.

SotC Remake is pure quality.

 

[-Arcadia-]

Kind of hard to say. A few years ago, I would have said DONTNOD for making one of my favorite games of the generation with Life is Strange. However, they’ve truly, totally flushed it all down the toilet.

I kind of feel like my favorite games tend to come from industry veterans, still. The Nintendos, the Platinums, the Kojimas, the Epics, etc.

It’s a bit weird, as they make other people’s games, technically, but I guess I pick Bluepoint and Grezzo. They really have breathed some brand new life into some of my favorite classics, and I’m noticing them more and more.

 

[-Arcadia-]

Individually, Hidemaro Fujibayashi is someone I’ve really been noticing.

He’s been around for ages for handheld Zelda fans, but is really elevating his profile by directing main series Zelda games, starting with Skyward Sword, and through the sublime Breath of the Wild.

Skyward was a good Zelda with some fresh, good ideas, but Breath really makes me think that his contribution to Zelda could end up being massive by the end of his run, if not already.

 

[ROMhack]

The auteur aspect of gaming seems mainly to exist in the indie sphere these days - understandable as gaming is now a huge business. I guess Brendon Chung (Quadrilateral Cowboy), Davey Wreden (Stanley Parable), Christine Love (Analogue: A Hate Story), Lukas Pope (Papers Pls), Jon Blow (The Witness) and Mike Bithell (Thomas Was Alone) spring to mind. Also Tom Jubert and Jonas Krytzes (writers on The Talos Principle) but they haven't done much lately.

As for developers, I'm always interested in games by Inkle, Santo Campo, The Chinese Room, Playdead, Ninja Theory and Nintendo (obviously).

 

[DCDW]

While their talent in the company has been around for quite some time, Hare Brained Schemes has been a solid company that has put out some solid games considering (As far as I know) they have been funded via kickstarter. Shadowrun (and its sequel SR:Hong Kong) as well as Battletech have been very solid games considering the budgets they were made with.

 

[-Troid-]

Since last gen the two developers I think of the most in terms of awesome output and staying power are Platinum games and From software. Except for P*'s arguably subpar licenced games they've both consistently delivered.

Double Helix started getting on a roll too with the Killer Instinct and Strider reboots; too bad they got bought by fucking Amazon.

 

[Sophist]

Zach Barth, the creator of Infiniminer. On the five last years, he gave us

• TIS-100 (2015)
  Spoiler
• Infinifactory (2015)
  Spoiler
• Shenzhen I/O (2016)
  Spoiler
• Opus Magnum (2017)
  Spoiler
• Exapunks (2018)
  Spoiler
• Eliza (2019)
  Spoiler
• MOLEK-SYNTEZ (2019)
  Spoiler

 

[ROMhack]

Zach Barth, the creator of Infiniminer. On the five last years, he gave us

• TIS-100 (2015)
  Spoiler
• Infinifactory (2015)
  Spoiler
• Shenzhen I/O (2016)
  Spoiler
• Opus Magnum (2017)
  Spoiler
• Exapunks (2018)
  Spoiler
• Eliza (2019)
  Spoiler
• MOLEK-SYNTEZ (2019)
  Spoiler

Have you played Eliza? It's on my list and I've heard good things

 

[Sophist]

Have you played Eliza? It's on my list and I've heard good things

Not yet, i don't think it has any gameplay at all.

 

[ROMhack]

Not yet, i don't think it has any gameplay at all.

Yeah it's a visual novel

 

[Sygma]

Hopo games ! Risk of Rain 2 is the craziest game I've played in a long time and its made by literally 2 devs. First one was bloody excellent too

 

[alabtrosMyster]

Pixel junk
Dennaton games (hotline miami)
Thomas app (Axiom Verge)

All independent studios.

 

[Birdo]

Hello Games (No Man's Sky) and Playground Games (Forza Horizon series).

 

[klosos]

For me its Larian Studios (Divinity Original Sin 1 & 2 fame), i had played some of there previous games Divine Divinity 2 from 15 years ago and didn't like it , but today after Original Sin 1 & 2 i will buy anything they release.

Also they are making Baldurs Gate 3 the follow up to G.O.A.T of all time. so i am a happy man

Also Happy Christmas Everyone !!!

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

Brace Yourself Games, makers of Cadence of Hyrule and Crypt of the Necrodancer, two of the coolest mashups in recent memory.

 

[channie]

Jordan Thomas (The Blackout Club)
Aurélien Regard (Penelope)
Sam Barlowe (Telling Lies)
Everything Klei shipped over the past few years (MOTN, Oxygen not included, etc)

 

[RSB]

Toby Fox.

Undertale is one of my favorite games of this decade, and he created it pretty much all by himself, including its incredible soundtrack.

Deltarune Chapter 1 was great too, and he released it for free. Can't wait for the full game.

 

[Jooxed]

Team Cherry

 

[Strife In a Teacup]

Crate Entertainment (Grim Dawn)

 

[Liljagare]

Havent found a new game this year.

Had hopes for Borderlands, but, nah, it was ok.

So still going with Paradox, and Rimworld creator.

 

[Grand Theft Scratchy]

Since last gen the two developers I think of the most in terms of awesome output and staying power are Platinum games and From software. Except for P*'s arguably subpar licenced games they've both consistently delivered.

Double Helix started getting on a roll too with the Killer Instinct and Strider reboots; too bad they got bought by fucking Amazon.

Oh yeah I forgot Amazon branched out into video games. That sucks.

 

[Yoshi]

Playtonic is in my top 5 development houses now. Two games, two major hits for me.