“The Stories of 9 of the World’s Greatest Game Creators”

February 13, 2024 311 Views

As a senior in college, in the second semester of my fourth year, it was time to submit resumes to various companies in preparation for employment. Remembering my past experience with games, I decided to earnestly apply to a gaming company and pursued that plan.

As I considered employment in a gaming company, I naturally began searching for various books related to games. This book is one I came across during that process.

“A book containing various stories about figures in game development.”

Actually, while the title of this book is “The Stories of 9 of the World’s Greatest Game Creators,” the number of individuals featured in the book exceeds 9. This is because while there are 9 main figures, the book also introduces one or two individuals similar to them.

When primarily Western game developers are introduced, the format shifts to introduce Japanese or Korean game developers who are similar to them.

“8 Honored in the Hall of Fame of the Game Academy”

Of the 9 main figures featured in this book, all except for the last one introduced, “Bill Roper,” have been honored in the Hall of Fame of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. There is an opinion that Bill Roper’s achievements are slightly lacking compared to the other 8 individuals, which may be why he has not been honored in the Hall of Fame yet. However, as time goes on and he accumulates more achievements, Bill Roper may also be honored in the Hall of Fame.

“The 9 Game Developers Featured in the Book”

The main game developers highlighted in the book, along with Japanese and Korean developers, are as follows:

Miyamoto Shigeru: Development of Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda series
Lee Wonsul: Development of Astonia Story
Sid Meier: Development of Civilization series
Erica Yoji: Development of Romance of the Three Kingdoms series, Age of Empires series
Kim Taegon: Development of Geosang, Lord Online
Sakaguchi Hironobu: Development of Final Fantasy series
Hori Yuji: Development of Dragon Quest series
Choi Yeongyu: Development of Genesis
John Carmack: Development of Doom, Quake series
Tim Sweeney: Development of Unreal series
Song Jaekyung: Development of Wind’s Realm, Lineage
Will Wright: Development of SimCity series, The Sims series
Seo Gwanhee: Development of Pangya and other games
Suzuki Yu: Development of Virtua Fighter series
Bae Jaehyun: Development of Lineage 2
Peter Molyneux: Pioneer of real-time strategy simulation, simulation, and God Game
Kojima Hideo: Development of Metal Gear Solid
Cho Giyong: Development of MU
Richard Garriott: Development of Ultima series
Kim Hakkoo: Development of Ragnarok
Okamoto Yoshiki: Development of Street Fighter series
Bill Roper: Development of Diablo 1, 2, Warcraft, Starcraft
Jung Sangwon

Looking at the list of games above, you can easily find legendary games that you can recognize just by their names. Most of them have made a mark on their era, and some of the games still have a large following even today.

The book unfolds the stories of the main 9 game creators, their representative works, the development process of those games, and stories about the developers’ lives. It’s a book that even people who are not majoring in game development can easily understand.

A common trait that stands out among most of these great developers is that they were good at “mathematics” and had “passion” for their work.

Especially noteworthy are the developers who pioneered each genre of game and held a unique position in their field, akin to fathers. Without exceptional passion surpassing that of the average person, they would not have achieved what they did.

If you want to delve into the detailed stories of each developer, I recommend reading the book.

“The Stories of 9 of the World’s Greatest Game Creators”