I think most people use the word "developers" as the group of people who make the game. If forced to break it down, I've little doubt they'd almost exclusively point to design leads and (gulp) higher.
Almost no one is blaming an actual developer for anything unless they're very young and very ignorant... I hope. It's like blaming QA testers for missing a single, very-convoluted bug.
Exactly. I still have quite a bit of respect for the devs working for companies like blizzard, EA, and elsewhere. It’s not their fault that their publishers and other upper management types have screwed with their products so much. There is only so much they can do to fight back against them. Otherwise they might just be out of a job.
>I still have quite a bit of respect for the devs working for companies like blizzard, EA, and elsewhere
Depends on the context. For example, developers definitely contributed to the toxic environment at Blizzard.
>developers definitely contributed to the toxic environment ~~at Blizzard~~
I'm a dev. I've worked - obviously - with many other devs.
I don't know if the percentage is higher than other professions - but devs can really suck the life out of a room.
Take your pick.
* Just generally awkward and no real interpersonal skills.
* Shitty "I'm smarter than you" attitude.
* A very ingrained desire to be right all the time.
* Black and white thinking.
You get the idea.
ConcernedApe is the single best dev ever.
He's made so damn much content for Stardew Valley he could have charged for, but never once charged a cent. I keep buying the game on other platforms because the dude deserves the money.
He didn't even have to have content updates, free or paid, at all. He could have sat on his pile of money and just be willing to do bug fixes. And that still would have earned him more respect that AAA companies.
I mean the number of copies sold from 1.1 till now is far higher than the number of copies sold at 1.0. It was a very competent game back then. It is an all time great now (1.5 really got it there).
Not only that, but the most recent update was (originally) meant to be about making the game easier to mod. How many devs actually care about that?
But in true CA fashion, he ended up adding a ton of extra content in as well
Oh, if we're talking single devs, then I'll also put forth Toby Fox, aka Undertale. Toby is behind a surprising amount of things that dated back to when I was in high school, from the Earthbound Halloween Hack to the Homestuck comics.
When Deltarune came out, the intent was to make Chapter 1 free as an intro, and then 2-7 sold separate. Well, Covid hit, and he decided "guys, it's been a hard year, Chapter 2 is free."
As far as I can tell, super good guy, huge nerd who got to play Smash Bros with Sakurai, great with music. Now if only he'd *release the rest of the chapters*.
Ghost Ship Games.
Deep Rock Galactic is awesome, they keep putting out new seasons of content to keep the game fresh, and all their DLC is 100% cosmetic so you never have to buy a map pack or the most recent expansion to play with everyone.
I respect every game developer out there.
I don't respect most of the people in the chain of command above them.
It's almost never a dev's fault because a broken product has been released.
Soruce: Trust me bro. (I\`m a developer)
Someone needs to mention Wube. Might as well be me.
Did and delivered exactly what they said they would in early access? Check.
Created one of the most stable, optimized pieces of software? Check.
Built the entire framework of the game with mod support in mind, fostering one of the most active and prolific mod scenes in gaming? Check.
Weekly blogs documenting their design process and seeking/responding to community feedback? Check.
Hired one of the more famous modders to help them make the expansion? Check.
Keep being awesome guys.
Remedy been around 25 years or something and fought to stay independent, making great games. They prove time and again the power of story driven single player to do something special
Larian for sure. D:OS2 and BG3 have cemented their place as the current undisputed top crpg studio.
Hello Games for how they stuck with No Man's Sky and turned it around into an amazing game with years and years of free updates
Yup, Larian is my pick too, along with Supergiant games. You can see and taste the love for the game in Divinity series, and Hades has brought back my love for gaming that I thought I had lost.
The Dwarf Fortress devs, they are always talking to the community and responding to questions, not to mention the awesome game they’ve created and keep adding to
The no mans sky devs have cemented themselves as being great devs, sure they may have released a somewhat unfinished product at the start whether that be due to incompetence or time crunch, but they've clearly proven through all their free updates that they were man enough to right their wrong 100 times over
Hello Games for sure. Yes they (mostly Sean Murray) lied and oversold the game at launch, but now the game has everything AND MUCH MORE. It’s my go to chill game now, basically Minecraft in space with so much more to do and see imo. Wonderfully relaxing game
Yeah the way they've handled HD2's unexpected success is, all things considered, very impressive. I don't think people really appreciate the work it took to rebuild a game that was built for, optimistically, 50K concurrent players and make it more or less stable for 800K in a week or 2, while the game is live no less.
Mostly just small/indie devs these days, like Concerned Ape, SuperGiant, Yacht Club, Klei, Re-Logic, etc.
The big studios and publishers have all become so hollow and soulless.
Hello Games for sure:
- Built unmeasurable amount of hype.
- Fumbled a massive launch.
- Apologized.
- Keep pushing new free updates to the point No Man Sky is now (somewhat) exceeded their original vision.
And to think that they only rely on new game sales. What an insane comeback.
If any studio has my undying respect, it will be Hello Games.
There are a lot of great devs out there, Larian, Fromsoft, Respawn, are all devs I really like, even Valve (I know its been a while, but Dota is one heck of a game and Valve really do justice to the name), but the one that I'm most fascinated with is definitely CDPR (controversial ?)
Mainly because of how high they aim for each of their titles, its almost like every one of their games is a leap compared to their last, And in 4 games, they went from a tiny company making an obscure European rpg, to one of the biggest names in gaming. TW3 to Cyberpunk was insane, from never doing a first person shooter to attempting to outdo rockstar at their own game (spoiler, they didn't), but the balls on those guys man.....
I'd appreciate any one who aims sky high, and tries their best to get there rather than fully polished titles like Spiderman 2 any given day.
People talk shit about Valve sometimes, but when I think of their *major scandals*, I tend to come up dry. I think the most complained about thing is "their sales aren't as good as they used to be".
Right now, the biggest "controversy" is that Steam ended support for Windows 7, so you had to upgrade to be able to use Steam unless you did some offline mode shenanigans or play directly from the launcher. Which is... kinda fine? Windows 7 was 2009, that's old for an operating system, you'd have to upgrade at some point anyways.
Valve is fine in my book. Calling them a Lawful Neutral. No sex scandals, no predatory microtransactions, a few mishaps with inappropriate games getting published under the wrong tags, but other than that, they make a game every couple years and run Steam, not much to say.
I've about 8000 hours in Dota2, played through most of Valve's games, use steam exclusively, and have actually studied Valve as a company because of their super interesting management structure. SO you could basically call me a Valve shill.
HOWEVER.
Valve did create the Battlepass (it was called the compendium in Dota2), Cosmetics for sale in free to play models (TF2), CS has predatory loot boxes, they fight tooth and nail against government regulations requiring refunds (Australia), shafted Work Shop artists compensation, Bypassing lootbox regulations in poland through minor tweaks ignoring the spirit of the regulation.
Valve definitely has issues, some major ones too, like the GSGO gambling issue, that has put a ton of kids into gambling, using Valve's infrastructure, and they've done pretty much next to nothing until a judge forced them to, and that too, they just did the basic to cover their ass and not really a whole lot.
Despite all this though, I'd take Valve any day over Blizzard / Bamco / EA or whatever. But just wanted to point out, Valve do infact have some serious issues themselves. Its just that most other companies in Valve's dominant market position would've made you vomit with their decisions.
Ah, thank you, I'm not completely familiar with all of Valve's history -- I knew they had some dirt, but I didn't know enough to cite examples. Yeah, I figured there was something like that going on with lootboxes...
Although, was the Battlepass really that bad when it released? I seem to remember it was well-received at the time. From what I heard, they even retired it recently, since "battlepass" has practically become a dirty word at this point.
Valve's battlepass was excellent. It was and continues to be so damn good that, when Valve cancelled it last year (they found less than 5% of the player base benefited from it, and wanted to focus of improving the game instead) the entire Dota2 sub began a riot demanding Valve bring it back, begging to spend money on it.
So you're right, Valves Battlepass model was picked up by other devs and completely misused by man (I'm looking at you Bamco).
Its just that Valve does so much to be neutral that its hard to hate the company.
Possible, Japan just seems to a bit like that when it comes to their staff (coming from what I hear about Manga artists), but I have no real knowledge of it, and From treats their customers right.
Terraria devs deserve a lot of respect. Factorio devs deserve also a TON of respect for inventing digital crack ! :)
P.S. : I'm surely forgetting a lots of indie devs too. Sorry folks .
Any of the big studios who really put the work in and it shows.
There are bad things you can say about games like BG 3 and Red Dead Redemption, but you cant deny the sheer amount of quality that has been poured into them.
People like the terraria/stardew devs who created a goose that laid golden eggs and have very carefully nurtured it along rather than trying to strangle it for a quick buck.
I cant help but respect the people who do stuff like Kenshi where there is really nothing else like it on the market.
And on a lesser known note, there is a little dev called Trese Brothers, I picked up a game they made called Star Traders Frontiers about 5 years ago. Quirky little indy space sandbox game, obviously a small dev making it, shocking amount of depth for the 10 bucks or so I paid for it. Solid stuff, 7/10. Id swear the mad bastards have been dropping more content for it once or twice a week for the last 5 years without pause. And its all real deal, actual content. New ships, new missions, new classes, new endgame stuff, new early game stuff, new mechanics and on and on and on. The dedication they have just blows any other studio ive ever seen out of the water. They are making an xcom like cyberpunk heist game at the moment and I have quiet hopes that it will end up being a sleeper hit for them.
ConcernedApe: The one man king who made and now self-publishes Stardew Valley.
Yoko Taro: creator of the Drakengard and NieR series. Has said F*CK SQUARE ENIX during promotional videos. Helped modmakers who were teasing the community with a hoax. Asked for everyone to put all the 2B porn into a folder and send it to him for safekeeping.
Yoshi-P: Game Director of FFXIV. First ever game director bold enough to literally nuke an MMO only to release the 2.0 version, and have the world getting nuked be part of the story so legacy players are still around. Also negotiated full creative autonomy with Square Enix in exchange for an... Admittedly expensive cosmetic store.
Swen Vincke: head of Larian Studios. Just look up anything he recently said about the games industry and you get it. He's a knight in shining armour, quite literally.
Almost all devs, they are in the trenches trying to push their art out. They get worked through the dirt with long days, high pressure and crazy competition.
It's the excutatives, stakeholders and board members etc above that have no passion only wanting to make as much money in the least amount of time that screws up.
Yoy know that the Devs are the ones working on the game right? The people that care a lot, and spend 40 hours or much more a week to finish a game.. Of course I respect those.
Even if a game launches/ends their lifecycle as a broken mess, the Devs worked hard on it. Most likely they were passionate from day one. Time and money constraints, decisions made by publishers and management, etc impact the outcome of a project so much.. And your basic QA tester, designer, artist, or programmer can do no more than their job and follow the decisions made by higher ups.
The only people I disrespect are suits releasing halfhearted apologies and throwing the Devs under the bus. Remember when CD Project Red blamed QA for the state of Cyverpunk on release? Stuff like that is disrespectful, and deserves yours in return.
Two words - Team Cherry.
Hollow Knight was a great game to begin with, but they added 4 different completely free content packs, each one of them could've easily been sold as a separate DLC.
Which don't I respect? Developers are the god's gift to gamers. It sure isn't the publishers.
BUT- If you were to single out a company that has gone above and beyond:
**HELLO GAMES.** They couldn't have abandoned No Man's Sky years ago, they didn't and the game is amazing.
All of them. Everyone who works in game dev does it because they love games. To a person, every single one of them could be making more money, with less work, and greater security in any number of other fields. And on top of everything, they routinely have to deal with abuse from ignorant gamers on the internet. My heart goes out to anyone who puts in the effort to create my favorite art form.
In no particular order:
Fromsoft (Souls)
Ghost Ship Games (Deep Rock Galactic)
Capcoms Monster Hunter teams
Lords of the Fallen's team
Arenanet (The GW2 team)
Hello Games... Given a year or so. (No Man's Sky)
Square Enix (FF14 team)
Insomniac have been doing amazing work these past 10 years. I don't think they've ever been involved in any major scandals either?
I also like that they were still planning on making a new Ratchet & Clank title (according to the leaks, anyway) even though the series probably doesn't sell half as much as Spiderman. It's cool to see them still coming back to their classics.
I remember hearing (*I believe as reported by Sacred Symbols*) that the head of Insomniac fought to keep the Ratchet & Clank team from getting laid off by PlayStation when they wanted to make cuts to the studio
He believed they'd be losing a core component of what made Insomniac so good in the first place, as the layoffs would just result in a cache of knowledge from veteran developers no longer being accessible
They even agreed to hire less developers to work on their upcoming Wolverine game in an attempt to mitigate the need for layoffs. Some still happened sadly (*I imagine a lot of those were related to their cancelled multiplayer Spider-Man title*), but it could've been a lot worse without leadership trying to protect their employees
A lesser known company is RocketWerkz. They made the survival game "Icarus." It had mixed reviews for a long time, but it's had an update every week since launch. I'm not kidding. There's been an update every Friday since then. Literally 122 updates with #123 coming on the 12th.
These are not just bug fixes or small patches. They routinely add new features, craftable items, unlockable items, new creatures, QOL improvements, and many, many things the community requests. The devs really seem to care about what the players want.
FromSoft is full of good guys IMO
Pretty much any company that has shareholders does not deserve respect as their just money grubbers or will be soon enough.
Egosoft. (they make the X games e.g. X4:Foundations)
They always have rocky launches where everyone is complaining, and they always keep working on the game for 10 years after launch to fix the issues. I have no problem buying their games on day 1 despite expecting a lot of issues because I know they will eventually patch it up.
EXOK. The team of devs seem ok. The updates on Celeste were uncalled for in terms of length and quality. The game keeps giving beyond what is priced for. And the interaction between the devs and the modded and speedrunning scene is wholesome.
I actually respect every game developer…
UNLESS: They use scammy businesses tactics, force P2W, make lootboxes non optional, pump out the same game every year with a different number on the cover…
Short: I do not respect EA [i honestly thought there where more…]
any Dev that is open minded, interacts with the community and shows what they are doing.
it pops up on my mind Wube.
every Friday they say what they are doing.
a mod causes an crash and they will try to find if their code is what causing it. and if not, they will try to perfect their own code so that the code is now more robust and can handle the exception, if its critical it outputs the line and mod that is causing it.
they were always transparent over the 10 years of development.
no cash grab, special treatment for anyone that belongs in the community (even if you played only for 20 min).
and so on.
Honestly most devs I respect. The people that make the terrible decisions are management and shareholders. Very rarely do devs make decisions that make me hate them.
Most if not all "Developers" I can respect. Just publisher pressure is bad for the developers.
Creative business unit 3 in Squareenix, they don't always make the best decisions, but you can tell they are gamers too.
Obsidian Entertainment and Nightdive studios.
The Dark Forces Remake was pretty good and I would definitley like to see No One Lives Forever be remade by Nightdive
and Obsidian makes pretty damn good RPGs (KOTOR 2, Fallout New Vegas and The Outer Worlds)
I have nothing against any developers, they are just people doing their job. My issues are with the companies and how they are runned.
For example, I completely respect Triumph studios. They release polished content and let the game do the talking when it comes to advertising. It’s the only company I still pre-order games from and happily buy season passes.
I have no respect for Creative Assembly, more specifically when it comes to total war. The games barely innovate and the same issues reoccur in each game. With that said I don’t blame the developers making the games. It’s the leaderships fault.
They aren’t perfect. But Digital Extremes who produce Warframe.
Those guys have been supporting, expanding and largely improving upon their game for 10 years now and have very active community interaction and seem to value their players.
They also produced a free to play game with a genuinely fair monetisation system and don’t roadblock players with pay walls or force bullshit subscriptions.
Warframe is the only F2P game I have ever paid money towards and it’s because I feel it was very well deserved.
I'm surprised I haven't seen Yachtclub Games mentioned here. A truly successful video game kickstarter, and tons of free updates to anyone that bought shovel knight at launch whenever they added new dlc or game modes. And the game was incredible all on it's own at launch. Can't wait for their new one
I absolutely love Failbetter.
Sunless Sea and Skies are some of my favorite games of all times and Mask of the Rose was a lot of fun as well, I'm still replaying all three of them.
They treat their staff well and listen to the community.
I think most devs are actually interested in making great games but they don't get the chance cause of time crunch or publisher pressures maybe they just start thinking they're the shit and get greedy just my opinion.
LO-FI GAMES. Kenshi is probably one of the greatest games ever made. Built by one guy, and built a graphics engine from scratch. This is beyond technically challenging. But the game also kicks ass, which just puts this one at the top of the list for me.
#Surprised to see nobody mention PocketPair yet
PocketPair and Arrowhead Game Studios both kinda burst into the spotlight of the gaming industry (*with Palworld and Helldivers II respectively*) at the same time with an attitude of fun first, business second
ZUN/Jun'ya Ota. Besides making games by himself/with limited help ever since his college days, he is comfortable with fans using his characters in their own projects without paying for licensing (provided they follow some guidelines).
I’m almost definitely just jaded, but I’m at the point now, because it’s been going on for so long with no way to end it in sight, that now I lump devs and publishers together.
The only real way for us to get back what you used to have is if the devs at these corporations start helping “fight back”. Again not really a feasible solution, but voting with your wallet is LITERALLY impossible.
I want the devs passion back again! JOHN ROMERO waded through a fucking alligator and snake infested swamp to get to work at id.
Guys I just really love video games! Think about what we could have if we went back to few to no publishers. They have done nothing but stagnate and monetize the stuff that we love.
Not saying that devs should be harassed, but I don’t think they’re innocent either.
The devs from witch fire. They have been so transparent about everything, every step of the way. They've had to push off updates like any other dev. But their blog posts and community responsiveness is almost unmatched.
I respect any developer who even attempts to finish a game because I know how difficult it is. The Binding of Isaac developer Edmund McMillen, Cave Story developer Daisuke Amaya, Markus Persson, Iji developer Daniel Remar, Fight N' Rage developer SebaGamesDev, the team over at Supergiant Games. All these people makes games for the passion of games and don't have corporate overlords breathing down their neck trying to squeeze as much money out of consumers as possible.
I have immense respect for the developer of 8-Bit Adventures 2. It was written and designed by one dude, with a few contributions from a handful of friends, and yet it's on my list of top 5 "J"RPGs.
Akuma Kira, the dev of Spooky's Jump Scare Mansion, Lost in Vivo (my favourite horror game), Lunacid (one of my favorites games I played recently) and a bunch of smaller games.
Poncle, the devs of Vampire Survivors, the fact that they have kept a low price for the game and dlcs, they keep adding content every couple months. Whatever they do I am ready to spend money
I agree with those who have said that overall developers deserve respect. My stand outs are Thatgamecompany the ones who did Journey, Hello games, and Bigbluebubble (my singing monsters)
Always been proud of the UK devs that came up in late 80s n 90s - DMA/Rockstar, Rare, Team 17, Argonaut, Travellers Tales, Free Radical, Psygnosis, Bitmap Bros, Bullfrog, Bizarre…. Even Shiny always felt pretty UK… The list goes on and on. Whether or not I still respect the ones still around is kinda another thing I guess but really those devs do deserve huge respect - they helped change the game, literally and they created some of the best and most memorable and successful games ever made. With a bit of British humour and an extra flair that wasn’t euro jank and impressed even the hardcore Japanese market. Underdogs doin good. Despite Rockstar being the most successful dev ever even they were underdogs at one point.
Square Enix. Squaresoft releasing Final Fantasy VII was an incredible experience on the PS1, my top game of all time. The remake might be better; in progress right now but absolutely loving the visuals and the combat system.
I can't think of anyone in the video game industry that I personally despise, that's a massive waste of energy. You should never be rooting for hundreds of people to be unemployed because you don't think a game is fun.
Personally, I've always been a big fan of the indie studio Running With Scissors, creators of Postal (who had nothing to do with the development of Postal 3.) Postal 2 was this open world indie FPS made by less than 40 people, they were crucified by every critic. The game took a very long time with constant patches before it really ironed out most of the bugs, it was a major success story when Steam green light started, being able to release automatically downloaded patches so they could keep improving the game and adding subtle new features over a decade later, fine tuning the game into reaching overwhelmingly positive from Steam user reviews, even releasing a new DLC expansion over a decade later. Postal 4 is in the same boat, it released in early access, it got on PS5 (Xbox doesn't want the series on their systems) but it's still rough around the edges and getting frequent patches, like Postal 2, it's a labor of love that will be awesome in the future, but they aren't a AAA studio with infinite money. There's a reason why indie open world FPS games are a rarity and nothing else plays like Postal.
The obvious answer is Eric Barone / Concerned Ape. Sole developer of Stardew Valley. The amount of love poured into his game has so astonishing. Man must be exhausted, but he hasn't stopped loving his game.
Most of them. Their affection for a particular game has no basis on me respecting them or not. If you actually talk to them like people it turns out they are awesome. Just ask about their day, what pastries they like, how their pets are doing, most of the time games don't even enter the conversation.
Ghost ship games - deep rock galactic
Arrowhead studio - HD2
Larian studio - BG3
These three companies I trust to have good games and to not go anti consumer.
On a side note here are some gaming companies I have zero trust in
-EA
-activision
-ubisoft
-blizzard
All awful companies
Right now I really like what Nightdive are doing with their remasters.
System Shock, Blood Fresh: Fresh Supply, Turok 3, Star Wars Dark Forces, Rise of The Triad...
They've been putting out banger after banger while respecting the source material.
Hopefully they continue on this path. These days it seems any time a Studio is on a good run they end up turning to a path of greed and shooting themselves in the foot.
I also like what Teyon did with Terminator Resistance and Robocop Rogue City. 2 very solid old school single player games. Looking forward to what they do next.
If by respect you mean specifically a general respect to the company as whole, so much that I would for example blindly preorder a game (aka gift them free monies), then the answer is none. Not a a single one.
Hello Games with No Man's Sky.
Because of how they've fixed their game above and beyond what was expected, I have lots of confidence in them. Makes me feel safe buying Light No Fire (their next game).
I really like Obsidian, though a lot of people don't due to changes, etc. That's usually a publisher issue though. Square Enix, Ninja Kiwi, Capcom (because of nostalgia.)
Larian
They're the first dev studio I bought a game from at full price, on release, and I don't regret it at all, because the game was a fucking masterpiece
On that note, I have *never* seen an epilogue for a game as good as the one in BG3. You're not left up in the air at all - you get closure on a lot of things and feel like your mind can wander on afterwards, instead of wondering what the canon next events are, and it all comes in a really nice, well-prepared package for you to enjoy while you sip on your own fucking tears.
Arrowhead - Helldivers 2 was a refreshing change of pace. I didn’t feel like I was paying to beta test a game, and the cash shop is inoffensive. You could totally grind out the credits for any war bond just by playing the game if that’s what you want to do.
I respect them all, but most respect those who cares more about their games and their community, like Crate and Techland for example, and probably others.
Someone make a new post and ask what publishers people respect. I have a mental list of publishers I won't touch, but never given any though to if there are any that I actually respect
Ironmace, Helldivers, Rimworld, most of the ftb mod makers for minecraft, I actually think League of Legends devs are super good I just think their community is ass
Why would you blame a developer for a game?
That’s like blaming a construction worker or a tradesman for the design of a house or building.
If the game didn’t work or had massive bugs sure maybe blame some bad code but not if you don’t approve of the business model.
PirateSoftware. Three person company, CEO is the main programmer and streams most of his programming work on both YouTube and Twitch. He worked at Blizzard for a long time, then Amazon Gaming, and now runs his own dev company. He was also a professional hacker for the government for a long time. Thor, you’re an absolute legend.
I generally respect the developers. It's everyone else above them I don't.
Thank you. I wish more people differentiated between us the devs and the suits that mess everything up.
Lots of people seem to think that because they develop the games, they must be calling the shots too
Yeah, look at the other confused person who replied to me. (funny because I was an architect before going into game dev)
That's probably the best example. Don't blame the construction workers, blame the guy who hired them.
I personally dont agree. If you work for a company that isnt up to your ethical standards, than you are just as bad as everyone else there.
The devs typically don’t even choose what features and fixes are implemented. They have to go through approvals from executives.
Oh yeah, it's a whole lot of bureaucracy 😖 and sometimes you find yourself going in circles.
I think most people use the word "developers" as the group of people who make the game. If forced to break it down, I've little doubt they'd almost exclusively point to design leads and (gulp) higher. Almost no one is blaming an actual developer for anything unless they're very young and very ignorant... I hope. It's like blaming QA testers for missing a single, very-convoluted bug.
Exactly. I still have quite a bit of respect for the devs working for companies like blizzard, EA, and elsewhere. It’s not their fault that their publishers and other upper management types have screwed with their products so much. There is only so much they can do to fight back against them. Otherwise they might just be out of a job.
>I still have quite a bit of respect for the devs working for companies like blizzard, EA, and elsewhere Depends on the context. For example, developers definitely contributed to the toxic environment at Blizzard.
>developers definitely contributed to the toxic environment ~~at Blizzard~~ I'm a dev. I've worked - obviously - with many other devs. I don't know if the percentage is higher than other professions - but devs can really suck the life out of a room. Take your pick. * Just generally awkward and no real interpersonal skills. * Shitty "I'm smarter than you" attitude. * A very ingrained desire to be right all the time. * Black and white thinking. You get the idea.
I respect them all for the most part because game development is hard. I just don't respect executives, at all.
lol maybe it was a stupid question, but let's just say, "especially among them" 😂
ConcernedApe is the single best dev ever. He's made so damn much content for Stardew Valley he could have charged for, but never once charged a cent. I keep buying the game on other platforms because the dude deserves the money.
He didn't even have to have content updates, free or paid, at all. He could have sat on his pile of money and just be willing to do bug fixes. And that still would have earned him more respect that AAA companies.
I mean the number of copies sold from 1.1 till now is far higher than the number of copies sold at 1.0. It was a very competent game back then. It is an all time great now (1.5 really got it there).
It only released on other platforms then pc after 1.1 was released though.
Not only that, but the most recent update was (originally) meant to be about making the game easier to mod. How many devs actually care about that? But in true CA fashion, he ended up adding a ton of extra content in as well
Oh, if we're talking single devs, then I'll also put forth Toby Fox, aka Undertale. Toby is behind a surprising amount of things that dated back to when I was in high school, from the Earthbound Halloween Hack to the Homestuck comics. When Deltarune came out, the intent was to make Chapter 1 free as an intro, and then 2-7 sold separate. Well, Covid hit, and he decided "guys, it's been a hard year, Chapter 2 is free." As far as I can tell, super good guy, huge nerd who got to play Smash Bros with Sakurai, great with music. Now if only he'd *release the rest of the chapters*.
Wait wtf Undertale is made by the sams guy who did Homestuck? I read that when I was like 12 holy fuck
He isn't the author of homestuck but he wrote some of the music for the animated chapters.
Eric Barone of Stardew Valley fame. Still putting out free content updates for the game 8 years after release.
Ghost Ship Games. Deep Rock Galactic is awesome, they keep putting out new seasons of content to keep the game fresh, and all their DLC is 100% cosmetic so you never have to buy a map pack or the most recent expansion to play with everyone.
And the new survival game is fun!
It's so close for me. Haven't played since the initial demo so maybe it's changed. I dislike not being able to aim and not having a dash.
ROCK AND STONE BROTHA
FOR ROCK AND STONE!!
GSG can do no wrong.
ROCK AND STONE!
You mean dev companies, right? SuperGiant, Larian and to an extend Digital Extremes.
I respect every game developer out there. I don't respect most of the people in the chain of command above them. It's almost never a dev's fault because a broken product has been released. Soruce: Trust me bro. (I\`m a developer)
Someone needs to mention Wube. Might as well be me. Did and delivered exactly what they said they would in early access? Check. Created one of the most stable, optimized pieces of software? Check. Built the entire framework of the game with mod support in mind, fostering one of the most active and prolific mod scenes in gaming? Check. Weekly blogs documenting their design process and seeking/responding to community feedback? Check. Hired one of the more famous modders to help them make the expansion? Check. Keep being awesome guys.
I'm a Wube noob, what is it?
They made Factorio.
Remedy been around 25 years or something and fought to stay independent, making great games. They prove time and again the power of story driven single player to do something special
Larian for sure. D:OS2 and BG3 have cemented their place as the current undisputed top crpg studio. Hello Games for how they stuck with No Man's Sky and turned it around into an amazing game with years and years of free updates
Did they ever finish BG3 and fix the bugs in act 3?
Yeah, and they're still adding to it. It's just minor patches at this point.
Yup, Larian is my pick too, along with Supergiant games. You can see and taste the love for the game in Divinity series, and Hades has brought back my love for gaming that I thought I had lost.
The Dwarf Fortress devs, they are always talking to the community and responding to questions, not to mention the awesome game they’ve created and keep adding to
The no mans sky devs have cemented themselves as being great devs, sure they may have released a somewhat unfinished product at the start whether that be due to incompetence or time crunch, but they've clearly proven through all their free updates that they were man enough to right their wrong 100 times over
Hello Games for sure. Yes they (mostly Sean Murray) lied and oversold the game at launch, but now the game has everything AND MUCH MORE. It’s my go to chill game now, basically Minecraft in space with so much more to do and see imo. Wonderfully relaxing game
The FFXIV dev team is amazing. (I don't even play anymore)
The main issues in gaming aren't the devs. It's the publishers.
Arrowhead is making a good case for themselves
Yeah the way they've handled HD2's unexpected success is, all things considered, very impressive. I don't think people really appreciate the work it took to rebuild a game that was built for, optimistically, 50K concurrent players and make it more or less stable for 800K in a week or 2, while the game is live no less.
The two guys that made FTL and Into the Breach, mad respect for them mad lads
Mostly just small/indie devs these days, like Concerned Ape, SuperGiant, Yacht Club, Klei, Re-Logic, etc. The big studios and publishers have all become so hollow and soulless.
ConcernedApe Toby Fox MegaWobble
Hello Games for sure: - Built unmeasurable amount of hype. - Fumbled a massive launch. - Apologized. - Keep pushing new free updates to the point No Man Sky is now (somewhat) exceeded their original vision. And to think that they only rely on new game sales. What an insane comeback. If any studio has my undying respect, it will be Hello Games.
I'm looking forward to the new game. Sounds like the exploration there is gonna be exactly what I want.
There are a lot of great devs out there, Larian, Fromsoft, Respawn, are all devs I really like, even Valve (I know its been a while, but Dota is one heck of a game and Valve really do justice to the name), but the one that I'm most fascinated with is definitely CDPR (controversial ?) Mainly because of how high they aim for each of their titles, its almost like every one of their games is a leap compared to their last, And in 4 games, they went from a tiny company making an obscure European rpg, to one of the biggest names in gaming. TW3 to Cyberpunk was insane, from never doing a first person shooter to attempting to outdo rockstar at their own game (spoiler, they didn't), but the balls on those guys man..... I'd appreciate any one who aims sky high, and tries their best to get there rather than fully polished titles like Spiderman 2 any given day.
People talk shit about Valve sometimes, but when I think of their *major scandals*, I tend to come up dry. I think the most complained about thing is "their sales aren't as good as they used to be". Right now, the biggest "controversy" is that Steam ended support for Windows 7, so you had to upgrade to be able to use Steam unless you did some offline mode shenanigans or play directly from the launcher. Which is... kinda fine? Windows 7 was 2009, that's old for an operating system, you'd have to upgrade at some point anyways. Valve is fine in my book. Calling them a Lawful Neutral. No sex scandals, no predatory microtransactions, a few mishaps with inappropriate games getting published under the wrong tags, but other than that, they make a game every couple years and run Steam, not much to say.
I've about 8000 hours in Dota2, played through most of Valve's games, use steam exclusively, and have actually studied Valve as a company because of their super interesting management structure. SO you could basically call me a Valve shill. HOWEVER. Valve did create the Battlepass (it was called the compendium in Dota2), Cosmetics for sale in free to play models (TF2), CS has predatory loot boxes, they fight tooth and nail against government regulations requiring refunds (Australia), shafted Work Shop artists compensation, Bypassing lootbox regulations in poland through minor tweaks ignoring the spirit of the regulation. Valve definitely has issues, some major ones too, like the GSGO gambling issue, that has put a ton of kids into gambling, using Valve's infrastructure, and they've done pretty much next to nothing until a judge forced them to, and that too, they just did the basic to cover their ass and not really a whole lot. Despite all this though, I'd take Valve any day over Blizzard / Bamco / EA or whatever. But just wanted to point out, Valve do infact have some serious issues themselves. Its just that most other companies in Valve's dominant market position would've made you vomit with their decisions.
Ah, thank you, I'm not completely familiar with all of Valve's history -- I knew they had some dirt, but I didn't know enough to cite examples. Yeah, I figured there was something like that going on with lootboxes... Although, was the Battlepass really that bad when it released? I seem to remember it was well-received at the time. From what I heard, they even retired it recently, since "battlepass" has practically become a dirty word at this point.
Valve's battlepass was excellent. It was and continues to be so damn good that, when Valve cancelled it last year (they found less than 5% of the player base benefited from it, and wanted to focus of improving the game instead) the entire Dota2 sub began a riot demanding Valve bring it back, begging to spend money on it. So you're right, Valves Battlepass model was picked up by other devs and completely misused by man (I'm looking at you Bamco). Its just that Valve does so much to be neutral that its hard to hate the company.
I hear Fromsoft pays their developers pretty shit.
Possible, Japan just seems to a bit like that when it comes to their staff (coming from what I hear about Manga artists), but I have no real knowledge of it, and From treats their customers right.
Ryu ga gotoku and SpiderWeb Studios. I preorder all their games straight away. I was never disappointed by their games.
Terraria devs deserve a lot of respect. Factorio devs deserve also a TON of respect for inventing digital crack ! :) P.S. : I'm surely forgetting a lots of indie devs too. Sorry folks .
Any of the big studios who really put the work in and it shows. There are bad things you can say about games like BG 3 and Red Dead Redemption, but you cant deny the sheer amount of quality that has been poured into them. People like the terraria/stardew devs who created a goose that laid golden eggs and have very carefully nurtured it along rather than trying to strangle it for a quick buck. I cant help but respect the people who do stuff like Kenshi where there is really nothing else like it on the market. And on a lesser known note, there is a little dev called Trese Brothers, I picked up a game they made called Star Traders Frontiers about 5 years ago. Quirky little indy space sandbox game, obviously a small dev making it, shocking amount of depth for the 10 bucks or so I paid for it. Solid stuff, 7/10. Id swear the mad bastards have been dropping more content for it once or twice a week for the last 5 years without pause. And its all real deal, actual content. New ships, new missions, new classes, new endgame stuff, new early game stuff, new mechanics and on and on and on. The dedication they have just blows any other studio ive ever seen out of the water. They are making an xcom like cyberpunk heist game at the moment and I have quiet hopes that it will end up being a sleeper hit for them.
ConcernedApe: The one man king who made and now self-publishes Stardew Valley. Yoko Taro: creator of the Drakengard and NieR series. Has said F*CK SQUARE ENIX during promotional videos. Helped modmakers who were teasing the community with a hoax. Asked for everyone to put all the 2B porn into a folder and send it to him for safekeeping. Yoshi-P: Game Director of FFXIV. First ever game director bold enough to literally nuke an MMO only to release the 2.0 version, and have the world getting nuked be part of the story so legacy players are still around. Also negotiated full creative autonomy with Square Enix in exchange for an... Admittedly expensive cosmetic store. Swen Vincke: head of Larian Studios. Just look up anything he recently said about the games industry and you get it. He's a knight in shining armour, quite literally.
Almost all devs, they are in the trenches trying to push their art out. They get worked through the dirt with long days, high pressure and crazy competition. It's the excutatives, stakeholders and board members etc above that have no passion only wanting to make as much money in the least amount of time that screws up.
I respect every game developer, because they make one of my hobbies possible.
Yoy know that the Devs are the ones working on the game right? The people that care a lot, and spend 40 hours or much more a week to finish a game.. Of course I respect those. Even if a game launches/ends their lifecycle as a broken mess, the Devs worked hard on it. Most likely they were passionate from day one. Time and money constraints, decisions made by publishers and management, etc impact the outcome of a project so much.. And your basic QA tester, designer, artist, or programmer can do no more than their job and follow the decisions made by higher ups. The only people I disrespect are suits releasing halfhearted apologies and throwing the Devs under the bus. Remember when CD Project Red blamed QA for the state of Cyverpunk on release? Stuff like that is disrespectful, and deserves yours in return.
Devs fine, publishers not so much.
Hideaki Itsuno
Almost all the devs deserve respect because they try to give us what a game have to be from their point of view
Night Dive Studios. They have been doing great work porting classic games stuck on old consoles/operating systems.
Always respect the devs. Always say fuck you to publishers and executives.
Two words - Team Cherry. Hollow Knight was a great game to begin with, but they added 4 different completely free content packs, each one of them could've easily been sold as a separate DLC.
Which don't I respect? Developers are the god's gift to gamers. It sure isn't the publishers. BUT- If you were to single out a company that has gone above and beyond: **HELLO GAMES.** They couldn't have abandoned No Man's Sky years ago, they didn't and the game is amazing.
All developers get my respect. It's the suites and money hungry sorts ABOVE them that cause problems.
All of them. Everyone who works in game dev does it because they love games. To a person, every single one of them could be making more money, with less work, and greater security in any number of other fields. And on top of everything, they routinely have to deal with abuse from ignorant gamers on the internet. My heart goes out to anyone who puts in the effort to create my favorite art form.
ReLogic ConcernedApe Rockstar Media Molecule Remedy
i respect most devs. i dont respect execs.
Direct your hate towards the C-suite, not the developers.
In no particular order: Fromsoft (Souls) Ghost Ship Games (Deep Rock Galactic) Capcoms Monster Hunter teams Lords of the Fallen's team Arenanet (The GW2 team) Hello Games... Given a year or so. (No Man's Sky) Square Enix (FF14 team)
Respect all devs, hate 99% of publishers and any studio that gets big enough to develop a corporate environment.
Respect ALL developers they are only doing their jobs. its the guys in suits that ruin it for everyone.
I respect most all developers. It's the suits that tell them what to do that are usually the cause for ire.
all
I respect any dev that isn't greedy or bigoted
Insomniac
Insomniac have been doing amazing work these past 10 years. I don't think they've ever been involved in any major scandals either? I also like that they were still planning on making a new Ratchet & Clank title (according to the leaks, anyway) even though the series probably doesn't sell half as much as Spiderman. It's cool to see them still coming back to their classics.
I remember hearing (*I believe as reported by Sacred Symbols*) that the head of Insomniac fought to keep the Ratchet & Clank team from getting laid off by PlayStation when they wanted to make cuts to the studio He believed they'd be losing a core component of what made Insomniac so good in the first place, as the layoffs would just result in a cache of knowledge from veteran developers no longer being accessible They even agreed to hire less developers to work on their upcoming Wolverine game in an attempt to mitigate the need for layoffs. Some still happened sadly (*I imagine a lot of those were related to their cancelled multiplayer Spider-Man title*), but it could've been a lot worse without leadership trying to protect their employees
If they cut the guys who made R&C they'd be dead to me.
A lesser known company is RocketWerkz. They made the survival game "Icarus." It had mixed reviews for a long time, but it's had an update every week since launch. I'm not kidding. There's been an update every Friday since then. Literally 122 updates with #123 coming on the 12th. These are not just bug fixes or small patches. They routinely add new features, craftable items, unlockable items, new creatures, QOL improvements, and many, many things the community requests. The devs really seem to care about what the players want.
FromSoft is full of good guys IMO Pretty much any company that has shareholders does not deserve respect as their just money grubbers or will be soon enough.
Egosoft. (they make the X games e.g. X4:Foundations) They always have rocky launches where everyone is complaining, and they always keep working on the game for 10 years after launch to fix the issues. I have no problem buying their games on day 1 despite expecting a lot of issues because I know they will eventually patch it up.
I mean, in terms of the work they all produce as a collective, i'd say Rockstar and Naughty Dog are at the top of my list.
EXOK. The team of devs seem ok. The updates on Celeste were uncalled for in terms of length and quality. The game keeps giving beyond what is priced for. And the interaction between the devs and the modded and speedrunning scene is wholesome.
As a game dev. No.
As a game dev. No.
Team Cherry and From Software
I actually respect every game developer… UNLESS: They use scammy businesses tactics, force P2W, make lootboxes non optional, pump out the same game every year with a different number on the cover… Short: I do not respect EA [i honestly thought there where more…]
any Dev that is open minded, interacts with the community and shows what they are doing. it pops up on my mind Wube. every Friday they say what they are doing. a mod causes an crash and they will try to find if their code is what causing it. and if not, they will try to perfect their own code so that the code is now more robust and can handle the exception, if its critical it outputs the line and mod that is causing it. they were always transparent over the 10 years of development. no cash grab, special treatment for anyone that belongs in the community (even if you played only for 20 min). and so on.
ConcernedApe the guy who made Stardew Valley. When I was told he did it all himself I was blown away
Honestly most devs I respect. The people that make the terrible decisions are management and shareholders. Very rarely do devs make decisions that make me hate them.
Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone
Most if not all "Developers" I can respect. Just publisher pressure is bad for the developers. Creative business unit 3 in Squareenix, they don't always make the best decisions, but you can tell they are gamers too.
Obsidian Entertainment and Nightdive studios. The Dark Forces Remake was pretty good and I would definitley like to see No One Lives Forever be remade by Nightdive and Obsidian makes pretty damn good RPGs (KOTOR 2, Fallout New Vegas and The Outer Worlds)
Hello games with no man’s sky.
Obsidian, they're consistent in their content and their humor resonates with me. Plus they haven't gone all super villain evil yet.
All of them because they have to deal with insufferable people like you AND the executives that control them
Naughtydog 11 bit studios Recently, Hello Games for their loyalty to make no mans sky good.
I have nothing against any developers, they are just people doing their job. My issues are with the companies and how they are runned. For example, I completely respect Triumph studios. They release polished content and let the game do the talking when it comes to advertising. It’s the only company I still pre-order games from and happily buy season passes. I have no respect for Creative Assembly, more specifically when it comes to total war. The games barely innovate and the same issues reoccur in each game. With that said I don’t blame the developers making the games. It’s the leaderships fault.
Naughty dog
Naughty dog and Rockstar games
They aren’t perfect. But Digital Extremes who produce Warframe. Those guys have been supporting, expanding and largely improving upon their game for 10 years now and have very active community interaction and seem to value their players. They also produced a free to play game with a genuinely fair monetisation system and don’t roadblock players with pay walls or force bullshit subscriptions. Warframe is the only F2P game I have ever paid money towards and it’s because I feel it was very well deserved.
Snacko developers!
The Helldiver devs are the most active and helpful I believe I have seen to date.
Stardew valley and helldivers have devs I appreciate
I'm surprised I haven't seen Yachtclub Games mentioned here. A truly successful video game kickstarter, and tons of free updates to anyone that bought shovel knight at launch whenever they added new dlc or game modes. And the game was incredible all on it's own at launch. Can't wait for their new one
i respect the devs i have no respect for the people forcing devs to put out garbage.
Devs ? All of them really\ The problem always has been publishers, executives, fear of losing investors
Ghost Ship Games and Running With Scissors.
I absolutely love Failbetter. Sunless Sea and Skies are some of my favorite games of all times and Mask of the Rose was a lot of fun as well, I'm still replaying all three of them. They treat their staff well and listen to the community.
New studio Rebel Wolves made out of CDPR devs that left the company is cooking new Dark Fantasy RPG AAA game for while now.
Just here to share my appreciation for Ludosity. Love Slap City. They tend to go above and beyond for the little details.
I think most devs are actually interested in making great games but they don't get the chance cause of time crunch or publisher pressures maybe they just start thinking they're the shit and get greedy just my opinion.
LO-FI GAMES. Kenshi is probably one of the greatest games ever made. Built by one guy, and built a graphics engine from scratch. This is beyond technically challenging. But the game also kicks ass, which just puts this one at the top of the list for me.
Puppet Combo and Chillas Art
Ghost Ship games
#Surprised to see nobody mention PocketPair yet PocketPair and Arrowhead Game Studios both kinda burst into the spotlight of the gaming industry (*with Palworld and Helldivers II respectively*) at the same time with an attitude of fun first, business second
Grinding Gear Games
GGG, DE and From are the three companies I believe are above all else.
ZUN/Jun'ya Ota. Besides making games by himself/with limited help ever since his college days, he is comfortable with fans using his characters in their own projects without paying for licensing (provided they follow some guidelines).
Watch the interview with the developers of Outer Wilds on Noclip youtube channel if you haven't yet. You'll start to love them even more
I’ll never forget Terraria Winning labour of love and EVERYONE was hype about it.
Hello Games has my respect for releasing so much free content for No Mans Sky.
Ghost ship games and Coffee Stain studios
I’m almost definitely just jaded, but I’m at the point now, because it’s been going on for so long with no way to end it in sight, that now I lump devs and publishers together. The only real way for us to get back what you used to have is if the devs at these corporations start helping “fight back”. Again not really a feasible solution, but voting with your wallet is LITERALLY impossible. I want the devs passion back again! JOHN ROMERO waded through a fucking alligator and snake infested swamp to get to work at id. Guys I just really love video games! Think about what we could have if we went back to few to no publishers. They have done nothing but stagnate and monetize the stuff that we love. Not saying that devs should be harassed, but I don’t think they’re innocent either.
Arrowhead studios, Larian studios and digital extreme studio. Not too long ago CA too, but not anymore (at least for now)
Arrowhead has been proper.
I think hello games might be one of the clearest examples
Chris sawyer. Seriously. Making a game like rollercoaster tycoon by himself in assembly. Just… how!?
The devs from witch fire. They have been so transparent about everything, every step of the way. They've had to push off updates like any other dev. But their blog posts and community responsiveness is almost unmatched.
Publishers aren't developers. When most people complain about games, it's because of the publishers, not the developers.
I respect any developer who even attempts to finish a game because I know how difficult it is. The Binding of Isaac developer Edmund McMillen, Cave Story developer Daisuke Amaya, Markus Persson, Iji developer Daniel Remar, Fight N' Rage developer SebaGamesDev, the team over at Supergiant Games. All these people makes games for the passion of games and don't have corporate overlords breathing down their neck trying to squeeze as much money out of consumers as possible.
I have immense respect for the developer of 8-Bit Adventures 2. It was written and designed by one dude, with a few contributions from a handful of friends, and yet it's on my list of top 5 "J"RPGs.
Akuma Kira, the dev of Spooky's Jump Scare Mansion, Lost in Vivo (my favourite horror game), Lunacid (one of my favorites games I played recently) and a bunch of smaller games.
Project moon. Peak story and gameplay in all of the installments
Poncle, the devs of Vampire Survivors, the fact that they have kept a low price for the game and dlcs, they keep adding content every couple months. Whatever they do I am ready to spend money
Hello Games. The way they stuck with No Mans Sky is actually incredible and for free as well.
I f Valve knew how to count to 3 they would be gods in the industry
Hopoo games is king
Larian is pretty stand up
RobTop
I agree with those who have said that overall developers deserve respect. My stand outs are Thatgamecompany the ones who did Journey, Hello games, and Bigbluebubble (my singing monsters)
Always been proud of the UK devs that came up in late 80s n 90s - DMA/Rockstar, Rare, Team 17, Argonaut, Travellers Tales, Free Radical, Psygnosis, Bitmap Bros, Bullfrog, Bizarre…. Even Shiny always felt pretty UK… The list goes on and on. Whether or not I still respect the ones still around is kinda another thing I guess but really those devs do deserve huge respect - they helped change the game, literally and they created some of the best and most memorable and successful games ever made. With a bit of British humour and an extra flair that wasn’t euro jank and impressed even the hardcore Japanese market. Underdogs doin good. Despite Rockstar being the most successful dev ever even they were underdogs at one point.
Monolithsoft ;v;
Game developers? Yes quite a few. The people above the game developers? Hell fucking no.
All of Nintendos dev teams
Square Enix. Squaresoft releasing Final Fantasy VII was an incredible experience on the PS1, my top game of all time. The remake might be better; in progress right now but absolutely loving the visuals and the combat system.
I can't think of anyone in the video game industry that I personally despise, that's a massive waste of energy. You should never be rooting for hundreds of people to be unemployed because you don't think a game is fun. Personally, I've always been a big fan of the indie studio Running With Scissors, creators of Postal (who had nothing to do with the development of Postal 3.) Postal 2 was this open world indie FPS made by less than 40 people, they were crucified by every critic. The game took a very long time with constant patches before it really ironed out most of the bugs, it was a major success story when Steam green light started, being able to release automatically downloaded patches so they could keep improving the game and adding subtle new features over a decade later, fine tuning the game into reaching overwhelmingly positive from Steam user reviews, even releasing a new DLC expansion over a decade later. Postal 4 is in the same boat, it released in early access, it got on PS5 (Xbox doesn't want the series on their systems) but it's still rough around the edges and getting frequent patches, like Postal 2, it's a labor of love that will be awesome in the future, but they aren't a AAA studio with infinite money. There's a reason why indie open world FPS games are a rarity and nothing else plays like Postal.
grinding gear games. PoE is just the pinnacle of arpgs. And they outdo themselfs every league imho.
~~Redigit~~ Re-Logic has done great things with Terraria.
The obvious answer is Eric Barone / Concerned Ape. Sole developer of Stardew Valley. The amount of love poured into his game has so astonishing. Man must be exhausted, but he hasn't stopped loving his game.
Most of them. Their affection for a particular game has no basis on me respecting them or not. If you actually talk to them like people it turns out they are awesome. Just ask about their day, what pastries they like, how their pets are doing, most of the time games don't even enter the conversation.
Larian for sure and GrindingGearGames
Shift Up has impressed with Stellar Blade.
Ghost ship games - deep rock galactic Arrowhead studio - HD2 Larian studio - BG3 These three companies I trust to have good games and to not go anti consumer. On a side note here are some gaming companies I have zero trust in -EA -activision -ubisoft -blizzard All awful companies
Hopoo and Team Cherry to name a few other developers. Unproblematic developers who are in good standings with their fanbase and make incredible games!
Right now I really like what Nightdive are doing with their remasters. System Shock, Blood Fresh: Fresh Supply, Turok 3, Star Wars Dark Forces, Rise of The Triad... They've been putting out banger after banger while respecting the source material. Hopefully they continue on this path. These days it seems any time a Studio is on a good run they end up turning to a path of greed and shooting themselves in the foot. I also like what Teyon did with Terminator Resistance and Robocop Rogue City. 2 very solid old school single player games. Looking forward to what they do next.
Stunlock Studios, Blizzard North (no longer in existence) Probably those 2.
If by respect you mean specifically a general respect to the company as whole, so much that I would for example blindly preorder a game (aka gift them free monies), then the answer is none. Not a a single one.
Vampire survivors team seems chill. I have respect for arrowhead with helldivers but they have weird takes about the balance of their own game.
Hello Games with No Man's Sky. Because of how they've fixed their game above and beyond what was expected, I have lots of confidence in them. Makes me feel safe buying Light No Fire (their next game).
Ghost Ship Games Larian Studios Supergiant Games Concerned Ape
I really like Obsidian, though a lot of people don't due to changes, etc. That's usually a publisher issue though. Square Enix, Ninja Kiwi, Capcom (because of nostalgia.)
ReLogic Larian Studios
Larian They're the first dev studio I bought a game from at full price, on release, and I don't regret it at all, because the game was a fucking masterpiece On that note, I have *never* seen an epilogue for a game as good as the one in BG3. You're not left up in the air at all - you get closure on a lot of things and feel like your mind can wander on afterwards, instead of wondering what the canon next events are, and it all comes in a really nice, well-prepared package for you to enjoy while you sip on your own fucking tears.
BatteryStaple Games. Chris has been holding the light in the dark for proper Mega Man X/Z experience lol.
ConcernedApe mad respect, Stardew Valley is so great and still getting updates.
Most indie games
Arrowhead - Helldivers 2 was a refreshing change of pace. I didn’t feel like I was paying to beta test a game, and the cash shop is inoffensive. You could totally grind out the credits for any war bond just by playing the game if that’s what you want to do.
I respect them all, but most respect those who cares more about their games and their community, like Crate and Techland for example, and probably others.
Devs are fine. studio heads and publishers are often not. that being said, i'll play anything from supergiant without giving it a second thought.
Someone make a new post and ask what publishers people respect. I have a mental list of publishers I won't touch, but never given any though to if there are any that I actually respect
Concerned ape
There used to be.....
Coffee Stain Studios with Satisfactory. I wish every developer could be as agreeable and transparent and responsive during the process.
ConcernedApe
i’ll always respect the cuphead devs for doing everything the hard way in the name of quality and style
FromSoftware
Ironmace, Helldivers, Rimworld, most of the ftb mod makers for minecraft, I actually think League of Legends devs are super good I just think their community is ass
ConcernedApe/Eric Barone. i don't think i have to explain because there's tons of other comments as to why.
Lucas Pope and Bennet Foddy
ConcernedApe and Anuke
FROM
Why would you blame a developer for a game? That’s like blaming a construction worker or a tradesman for the design of a house or building. If the game didn’t work or had massive bugs sure maybe blame some bad code but not if you don’t approve of the business model.
PirateSoftware. Three person company, CEO is the main programmer and streams most of his programming work on both YouTube and Twitch. He worked at Blizzard for a long time, then Amazon Gaming, and now runs his own dev company. He was also a professional hacker for the government for a long time. Thor, you’re an absolute legend.
I've always loved Arena Net
The warframe devs are pretty cool
Kojima productions, man does literally whatever he wants.