The game industry has been growing for decades and has continued to strive for some of the most realistic graphics for games and innovative mechanics that help spawn new sub-genres. The games you see today, whether it's their genre or the game engine they're designed on, wouldn't have been possible without the developers who set the stage.
Listing off individual game developers, it becomes countless. However, some stand out as being among the most influential and helped shape what modern gaming has become. Whether it's survival horror, Soulslikes, open-world, or story-driven games, their evolution had to start somewhere.
10 TT Games - Pivotal Adaptations Lego Style
Big movie franchises like Jurassic Park, Star Wars, and Indiana Jones have seen many game adaptations over the years, but never quite as successful and fun as the ones from developer Traveller's Tales (now TT Games). Starting in 2005 with Lego Star Wars: The Video Game came the ingenious idea of using Lego building mechanics and Minifigure characters to retell major parts of the story.
And then the rest was history, with multiple Lego Star Wars installments, Lego Batman, Lego The Lord of the Rings, The Lego Movie games, and much more.
It can be challenging to capture genuine comedy in a video game, but Lego games can charm audiences of all ages with their humorous cutscenes. The mechanics of switching between characters to complete specific puzzles and needing to destroy every object in your environment to find hidden materials to build is quite inventive.
9 Remedy - Bullet Time And Experimental Storytelling
Remedy is a Finnish game developer receiving creative direction from Sam Lake, the lead writer of its games dating back to the first Max Payne in 2001 (also the face of Max Payne). And it was Max Payne that really popularized the slowing down time mechanic known as 'bullet time' to create some stylish combat situations, which many games have been influenced by since – Red Dead Redemption, Fear, GTA 5, and even Star Wars Outlaws.
Another aspect Remedy excels at is its bold and experimental narratives, always trying something new and innovative with every game. Max Payne had a storytelling style like a graphic novel. Alan Wake is a story-driven horror and one of the earliest uses of episodic storytelling. Remedy went even further with experimental elements in Quantum Break by cutting live-action sequences with its story to create a TV series within the game.
8 Capcom - Influential Zombie Survival Horror And Camera Angles
While Capcom is known for a slew of hit video game series like Street Fighter, Devil May Cry, and Mega Man, it launched the modern survival horror genre with its Resident Evil series. The first game was made in 1996 and effectively utilized the fixed-camera angle system from Alone in the Dark to become influential in future games like Silent Hill.
Then it changed the formula in the zombie series again in 2005 with an over-the-shoulder camera on Leon Kennedy in Resident Evil 4, and it became the standard angle in many games soon after, survival horror and action games alike. Gears of War and Uncharted were big games that directly followed the model.
7 FromSoftware - The Soulslike Genre Is Born
Though FromSoftware has an extensive video game library with series such as Armored Core and King's Field, it's ultimately the developer's Soulsborne titles that gave rise to gaming's most influential genre. Thanks to Dark Souls in 2011, many Metroidvanias and other similarly designed games now aim to recreate the lore-rich punishing experience FromSoftware has mastered.
FromSoftware gives a refreshing and unique dark fantasy experience with each new title it puts out. Whether Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, Bloodborne, or Elden Ring, FromSoftware has magnificent environments with some of the most original and gigantic bosses to be defeated in tough-to-master combat.
6 BioWare - LGBTQ+ Inclusivity
LGBTQ+ representation in the AAA industry, and gaming in general, still has plenty more to work on for better inclusivity. While Tell Me Why, Life Is Strange, and a host of indie games now tell more excellent LGBTQ+ stories, BioWare was among the earliest developers to implement LGBTQ+ romance options in games.
In Knights of the Old Republic, only female characters could have the option to romance a female character named Juhani. With the Dragon Age and Mass Effect series, you have the freedom to explore a variety of romances with other characters, no matter if you're the same gender or not.
5 Valve Corporation - Groundbreaking FPS Titles And Steam
When it comes to Valve, its impact on the industry is incredibly valuable and influential. Aside from developing iconic games, its contribution in 2003 with the Steam marketplace for purchasing games for PC to this day remains one of the most massive online game storefronts, and Valve has since expanded to launching a portable console – the Steam Deck.
Valve Corporation began building its development library with the Half-Life series, creating one of the most iconic FPS protagonists with Gordon Freeman. And it went on to change the FPS genre again with the puzzle game Portal, having you manipulate the environment by creating portals that allow you to teleport and introducing yet another iconic character with GLaDOS.
4 Epic Games - Unreal Engine And Fortnite
Like Valve, Epic Games is another video game developer with an online video game marketplace – the Epic Games Store. While you can always count on it for some cool free game giveaways, Epic more changed the industry with its game engine Unreal and the Battle Royale game Fortnite.
Unreal Engine is one of the most popular engines developers use, and already the surreal graphics of Unreal 5 have been shown off in games like The Callisto Protocol and Layers of Fear. And Epic's Fortnite isn't just an outstanding entry in the Battle Royale genre but a game with constant licensed collaborations and in-game concert events from artists like Travis Scott, Ariana Grande, Marshmello, and The Kid Laroi.
3 Telltale Games - Story-Driven Experiences With Player Choice
Before Life is Strange, As Dusk Falls, and the Dark Pictures Anthology, there was Telltale Games. It popularized the trend of games featuring an immersive branching narrative with your choices affecting the characters and gameplay. It developed those kinds of stories for heavy-hitting properties like Game of Thrones, Batman, Back to the Future, and The Walking Dead (its longest-running series).
The writing, character development, and performances exemplified video games as an art form, and these games paved the way for more compelling story-driven games you see a lot of today. Even though Telltale sadly shut down in 2018, it's now miraculously resurfacing with new leadership to launch The Expanse and the sequel to The Wolf Among Us.
2 id Software - id Tech Engine And Shaping Modern FPS
If it weren't for Doom, Wolfenstein, and Quake from developer id Software in the 1990s, how different would the FPS genre look today? Would we even have some of the FPS games we see today? That's the importance of what id Software accomplished. The developer essentially laid out the blueprints for the mechanics and level design of the genre.
Its games went on to influence System Shock's design, which led to the creation of the critical gem BioShock, and FPS games continued to be improved upon over the decades to how we enjoy them today. Plus, Doom and Wolfenstein are series that are alive and running on the newest versions of the id Tech engine that delivers exceptionally seamless fast-paced FPS combat.
1 Rockstar Games - Immersive Blockbuster Open-World Narratives
Rockstar really changed the industry with the best-selling GTA series as well as the Red Dead Redemption series. The level design, characters, UI design of map markers for character missions, and vehicle variety of early GTA games directly influenced other well-known series like Mafia, Just Cause, and Saints Row.
Grand Theft Auto 5, though developed all the way back in 2013, still has one of the largest active modding communities and player bases. Red Dead Redemption saw Rockstar's penchant for telling crime stories go the Western route, and Red Dead Redemption 2 only upped the narrative, cinematic quality, open-world space, and set pieces.