The #welovegamedevs hashtag went big on Twitter today, with everyone from fans to other developers tagging their favourite games and creators for some personalised public appreciation.
As we wanted to get into the spirit of things but there was no way of squeezing a fair cross-section of our employees’ most loved gaming experiences into a handful of tweets, we threw it open for any Rare staffer to contribute via this blog post. Whether they wanted to big up a bedroom coder or a blockbuster studio, namecheck an early gaming obsession or a recent discovery, anything was fair game. See below for a selection of what we got back!
Kudos to all the games, individuals and studios mentioned. And thanks to everyone who tweeted and tagged Rare itself, of course. You sweeties. #welovegamedevs
Andrew Burt, Lead Animator: “Black Isle Studios. Planescape: Torment’s rich universe, characters and gameplay made me want to create games for a living, and set me on a path for more geeky game adventures to come.”
Karn Bianco, Gameplay Programmer: “Shigeru Miyamoto and Nintendo for Zelda. Yuji Naka and Sega for Sonic. Ron Gilbert and LucasArts for Monkey Island. Shinji Mikami and Capcom for… Goof Troop on the SNES!”
Paul Mountain, Software Engineer: “Jonathan Smith – coding wizard who did amazing arcade conversions for ZX Spectrum in the 80s. After destroying several joysticks playing Hyper Sports I knew I wanted to make games this great.”
Christopher Davies, Senior Designer: “As much as I want to give Thatgamecompany a shout out for providing us with both Flower and the peerless Journey, I dedicate my nomination to Messhof for the fun, laughs, intense rivalry and clammy hands he’s brought to our barn in the form of Nidhogg.”
Remi Gillig, Tools Engineer: “Zachtronics for SpaceChem, the most fun I’ve had with chemistry!”
Rob Stothard, Services Engineer: “Wizball on the C64 was the first game I played to completion. Jon Hare and Chris Yates of Ocean produced an amazing game with awesome music by Martin Galway.”
Topher Winward, Software Development Engineer Intern: “I’d like to nominate Max Foster of Honeyslug Studios, who just shipped Hohokum! His boundless enthusiasm and constant desire to learn and expand helped inspire and grow that same attitude in myself.”
Richard Semmens, Senior Software Engineer: “Natural Selection gave me some of my best gaming memories, so a massive shout out to the guys at Unknown Worlds Entertainment!”
Leigh Loveday, Web Editor: “If I had to choose between heaping giddy praise on Geoff Crammond for The Sentinel, Julian Gollop for Chaos, Square for Chrono Trigger or Capcom for Street Fighter II… well, I wouldn’t. You can’t make me.”
James Thomas, Gameplay Engineer: “Thank you to Double Fine. From Psychonauts to Broken Age and everything in between, their creativity and variety is unmatched in the modern era.”
Valentine Kozin, Technical Artist: “All the wonderful writers of interactive fiction, from the days of Inform through to the Twine era, for creating the most profound and personal experience without so much as a polygon.”
Ben Miller, Lead Engineer: “Lords of Midnight is a classic and its depth is testament to what you can achieve with a just a few kilobytes. RIP Mike Singleton.”
Dale Murchie, Lead Designer: “I spent more hours of last year (and this year) playing State of Decay than is healthy. Atmospheric, bold and inspiring. Thank you Undead Labs!”
Brian Cox, Software Engineer: “Perfect Dark is the game that made me want to get into game development as a kid. 14 years later, I’m here at Rare.”
