19 - Ed Boon

"The Populist"

Key games:

Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat II, Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe

Midway Games may be struggling, but Ed Boon is nestled calmly within the eye of the storm. "In the midst of everything going on around us," Boon said in a recent interview with GamePro, "we're still focusing in on our next game... We want to make it the game that we want it to be." For this creator of the ground-breaking Mortal Kombat series, pleasing the masses has always been the central goal. Mortal Kombat never earned as much technical praise as its longtime rival Street Fighter II.

But in many ways, Mortal Kombat was a more essential, and more important, moment in the nascent 90's-era videogame industry. The blood-drenched brawler served as a lightning rod for violence-in-games controversies and signaled a significant shift in game design away from esoteric button-tapping exercises and towards mass-market acceptance.

Game design hallmarks of Ed Boon:

Over-the-top action; simple control schemes; mass-market appeal

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Sid Shuman: What game made you want to be a part of the video game business?

"For me, there were three pivotal games. The game that made me want to be in the business the most was probably Pac-Man. At the time, as a teenager, I was playing Defender and Missile Command. But with Pac-Man, suddenly girls were playing - I was noticing that videogames were more than a fad, it was becoming a phenomenon. Pac-Man intrigued me because it was so simple and so accessible; you just put your hand on a joystick and that's it. With Missile Commander and Defender, I loved the games and wanted to become a better player. But with Pac-Man... I wanted to study it and learn why it was so big."

What's an up-and-coming game developer to watch? Indie, established, or otherwise.

"When I find out about a new developer, it's usually because they worked with Sony or Microsoft and they're splitting now to form [a new studio]. I don't look at those guys as being new because they've already made some big hit.

To me, the ones who have stood out are the stories of, say, iPhone game developers. Somebody who worked on his own, part-time, and ended up making a million dollars on some puzzle games. These are the guys who, if they take more and more aggressive approaches to game development, I could see them going to the consoles.

What was the biggest high point of your career?

"I've been lucky enough to have a few of those. One that stands out was when I was in the Acclaim booth at CES. They were preparing to release the first Mortal Kombat to the home consoles. They told me they were planning to spend 10 million on advertising, run the game commercial in theaters - something that was unheard of that time - and they were going to hold an event called "Mortal Monday" and open stores at midnight. I remember thinking, 'these guys are expecting way too much out of this [game launch].'

Then I saw the commercial that they made, the one with the kids standing in New York yelling "Mortal Kombaaat!" The production values behind it...I remember it as a goosebump moment, it had taken on a life of its own. It had gone so far beyond an arcade game made by four guys. That was a big moment for me, seeing something take off like that."

On the flip side, what was a low point in your career?

"We released Mortal Kombat 4 before it was done, in the arcades. There was this road tour going on...the stage was set so far in advance, and dates had been picked and all that. But it was new hardware - this was the first 3D Mortal Kombat we had made - and we had no wiggle room in terms of the date. But I made the decision to adhere to that date, and to adhere to those expectations. I always took our responsibility very highly, but in retrospect, I would have waited. I would have called earlier and said, 'this thing isn't done, we need to hold onto it.' It would've ruffled some feathers, but in the long run we would've won."

Make a gaming-related prediction for 2015.

"I'll take a guess. I think at least half the games sold to consumers will be digitally distributed. I think we're going towards an iTunes, Amazon-type of distribution for games. By 2015, I think the next generation of hardware will be coming out. I suspect they'll have a huge amount of storage, terabytes of storage. I don't know if we'll be at the point where everything is sold digitally, getting rid of the brick-and-mortar distribution entirely. But I gotta believe that's the direction we're heading. Six years from now, I can easily see half of games being sold digitally."

Name your three favorite games of all time.

"I think you get the most impact from something when you're young. You're in your formative years, you haven't established your opinions on things. So for me, my favorite games were games I played as a teenager. That's not to take away credit from the gigantic masterpieces like Grand Theft Auto, Halo, Gears of War...those games are all great, and I look at them in awe.

But for me, it was Defender, Missile Command, and Millipede were the three games. I might actually swap Robotron 2084 in there for Missile Command. They were major events. It's like music: you buy Pink Floyd's The Wall, you buy Prince's Purple Rain...they represent these big moments in your life."

How do you see the art and business of video games evolving over the next year or two?

"For the business side, digital distribution is the direction that things are going in. I think the cost of making games is going up so much - we're seeing this right now - that it's affecting company's decision making on how to make money. Instead of 20 million dollar games, now it's 50 million dollar games... and now it's $100 million dollar games. Nintendo very intelligently decided not to chase 'bigger and better' but different, unique, and accessible. We're all going to be forced to do that. At a certain point, you won't be able to wow people with super-realistic graphics - those will be assumed. The thing that will make you stand out will be how your game is different, and how accessible it is.

I mean, I played Defender. It had 7, 8, 9 buttons on it, and a lot of people I knew couldn't grasp the game. That's why I thought of Pac-Man as the more influential game, because it was so accessible."

How have non-traditional gamers changed your approach to game design, if at all?

"I wouldn't use the word 'change,' because that implies that at some point I wasn't looking at that. For me, that defined my approach to game design. If there's a cool feature can only [be appreciated by] 30 or 50 percent of audience...then for me, it hasn't lived up to its full potential. I'm a big fan of some of our competitor's games, and I spend a lot of time learning them. But then I'll pause and think myself, 'God, I can't imagine the majority of the public getting this and enjoying it.'

To me, accessibility has been a requirement for everything that I've worked on. Can the average person play this game and enjoy it? That has defined my approach to the games. I've always made the Mortal Kombat games so that anybody can pick them up and have fun, as opposed to taking a college course in them. People just don't have the kind of attention span to spend three weeks learning one [facet] of a game."

Do you have any words of wisdom to share with aspiring young game designers out there?

"We had four guys working on the first Mortal Kombat: one programmer (me), two artists, and a sound guy. For our new game, 50-something people are going to be working on it. So the whole idea of one person making their name, getting their ideas out there...it's much more difficult now, when you're trying to stand out in a group of 50 people.

I think some of the traditional paths aren't as feasible now with the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. But there are other avenues: iPhone games, Flash games on the PC, PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade games...I think these are a very realistic way for somebody to prove themselves in the industry and actually make a name for themselves. So if somebody has enough drive and determination, they can certainly put together a game or a demo to get some attention. I think that's a very real direction to take."

18 - Todd Howard

"The Architect"

17 - Ken Levine

"The Intellectual"

16 - Hideo Kojima

"The Auteur"

Key games:

Metal Gear Solid, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Metal Gear Solid 4

Hideo Kojima, creator of the fan-favorite Metal Gear Solid series, can be considered the godfather of the cinematic movement in videogames. His groundbreaking stealth masterpiece Metal Gear Solid shattered players' expectations by thrusting them into the middle of an elaborate, highly stylized world of intrigue and deception. Kojima's masterstroke wasn't the game's iconic stealth gameplay (though he pioneered that as well), but rather his storytelling technique. He borrowed from the language of film, lending surprising gravity to Metal Gear Solid's otherwise crudely-rendered cinemas. The results were some of the most beloved scenes in modern videogaming - the tender, almost sympathetic death of Sniper Wolf, or Solid Snake's ongoing duel with his arch nemesis, Gray Fox. For the first time, video games could approach the majesty and emotional impact that has so long graced the silver screen.

Kojima is sometimes scolded by modern (particularly Western) game critics for his reliance on these non-interactive "cutscenes," which stand in opposition to the seamless, real-time storytelling delivered in games like Half-Life and BioShock. But in 1998, Kojima's approach had enormous and lasting impact on the medium of videogames, and over ten years later, he is still regarded as the master of that intimate, idiosyncratic style of storytelling. Case in point: Metal Gear Solid 4. Upon its arrival in 2008, critics knocked his "excessive" cinematic interruptions during gameplay. Consider, however, how Kojima's direction is instantly identifiable -- a feat other, more "progressive" game designers have largely failed to accomplish.

You may disagree with his approach, but Kojima's style is unmistakable, his vision unquestionable, and his influence, indisputable.

Game design hallmarks of Hideo Kojima:

Highly stylized storytelling using the visual language of cinema; highly personal themes that draw from real-world events and conflicts; idiosyncratic storytelling that is almost intimidating in its density and complexity

15 - Sid Meier

14 - Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk

13 - Gabe Newell

Key games:

Half-Life,
Steam

Gabe Newell doesn't receive our recognition as one of the most influential people in the games industry of the last two decades just because of the co-founder and managing director of the Valve Corporation's involvement in Half-Life -- a hallmark which, in the end, is still just another first-person shooter series. It's for all the work this ex-Microsoft executive was doing on the Steam service while the rest of his company was working on the game that defined FPSes. Half-Life 2 is an evolution, but Steam (despite an extremely rocky start) is truly a revolution in game access and distribution, and for that reason Mr. Newell, we salute you.

Gabe Newell may have dropped out of Harvard University, but he's since played a crucial role in his thirteen years at Microsoft working on the first three incarnations of Microsoft Windows, and has since become a millionaire in the video games biz.

12 - Trip Hawkins

Key games:

Too many EA games to name,
the 3DO Console

Trip Hawkins, the founder of Electronic Arts, 3DO and mobile-game outfit Digital Chocolate may be more famously remembered for his misses: the mid-1990s failure of the 3DO console and his development studio's implosion in 2003. But if it wasn't for the Silicon Valley entrepreneur shifting EA's primary focus to the Sega Genesis console in 1990, it's possible that the world's largest third-party would still be nothing more than a mid-sized computer publisher.

Aside from launching one of the most colossal video game companies in existence that's been responsible for developing and producing numerous triple A series, Trip Hawkins has also designed his very own video game-related major at Harvard University called "Strategy and Applied Game Theory."

More To come

Don't worry! There are plenty more exciting features, developer interviews, behind-the-scenes photos, and original videos on the way that we're revealing over the next two months. Check back soon for constant updates so you don't miss out on any of our GamePro 20th anniversary content.

More To come

Don't worry! There are plenty more exciting features, developer interviews, behind-the-scenes photos, and original videos on the way that we're revealing over the next two months. Check back soon for constant updates so you don't miss out on any of our GamePro 20th anniversary content.