Keith S:  I have great respect for Eugene Jarvis, Ed Logg, Graeme Divine, Shigeru Miyamoto and any of the other game designers who entered the scene during the golden era of video games but are still working and respected in the games industry today. These were the pop-culture heroes of my childhood (though I didn't know their names, only their work) and for them to still be working in this industry 20-30 years later, just makes me feel great to be a part of it with them.

Lee A:  I respect Shigeru Miyamoto (Nintendo), Tim Willits (ID Software), Bill Roper (Blizzard), Lorne Lanning (Oddworld), Tim Schafer (Day of the Tenticle). Why? No reason I just do.

Kale M: Randy Pitchford. I mean, just look at this crazy mess he's responsible for! It's amazing what he's accomplished over the past decade. It's taken a lot brains and a lot of balls to do it. I know a big part of that is surrounding yourself with the right talent in addition to your own, but to coordinate it all and have it come together the way Gearbox has and continues to do so just impresses the hell out of me. Not only does he make an incredible effort to make this company the best developer it can be (and the funnest to work for), but he doesn't forget what it is he enjoys about it all in the first place. To be the guy in charge of all this and still be an uber hardcore gamer at the same time is phenomenal and merits a lot of respect.

Erik A: For my run-of-the-mill answer, I'll have to say Shigeru Miyamoto, since the industry would be radically different without Mario, Zelda, and Samus.  For my more original answer, I really respect Peter Molyneux. The man has a vision he wants to share with gamers, although it often reaches beyond the realm of reasonable development. Though he isn't always able to achieve his goals, he doesn't let the limitations of the medium discourage him in going for them. I find that to be quite admirable.

Mark K: Akira Yamaoka, sound designer/composer/producer of the Silent Hill series. He truly understands how sound can have an impact on a player's game experience, and he exploits it in every way imaginable. The Silent Hill games have some of the most intense and engrossing audio ever created for a game. He's the Randy Thom or Ben Burtt of video games (two others I admire, btw).

Jeff B: John Carmack (because he's really pretty clever).

Mark F: I love Jaffe because he created God of War. I also have a tremendous amount of respect for our founders here at Gearbox because of the way that they have smartly built up this company to be as successful as it has while remaining independent.

Kyle P: Shigeru Miyamoto. Dude created some of the most recognizable and well-known characters of any medium, not just video games.

Charlie W: Allen Blum. You'd just have to work with him.

Andrew W: Michel Ancel, Beyond Good and Evil, EOT.

Simon H:  That's a difficult question - most of the people who designed games I liked are no longer any good at designing games that are successful to the mass market, and a lot of those who are designing successful games seem like industry whores. Plus, most successful games that are good these days aren't the results of one person's work, but a talented, well-integrated team. Those designers still attempting to "lone wolf" the design process tend to ship titles way late (or not at all) that are very niche-market games - they are making the game that they want to play, not one that will appeal to a lot of people.

At various times I had/still have huge respect for: Warren Spector (System Shock/Deus Ex), Shigeru Miyamoto (every successful Nintendo franchise), Shinji Mikami (Resident Evil), Hideo Kojima (Metal Gear), Cliff Bleszinski (Unreal/Gears of War), John Romero & John Carmack (Quake/Doom/Wolfenstein), Richard Gariott (Ultima), Will Wright (SimCity), David Jaffe (God of War/Twisted Metal), Monolith, Valve, and Id (who are the only independent developers left still making great FPS games, besides us), Bungie, Retro, and Infinity Ward (who are still making great FPS games despite being publisher-owned), Rockstar - because GTA may just be the best game series of all time, And Gearbox, who was my favorite game company even before I came to work here!

 

Derek M:  Ed Magnin.  He has introduced me to more people in the industry than anyone in the industry I know. And he was responsible for my first game title: Vegas Casino for the DS was release in Europe first then the states. And took me to my first E3! Thanks Ed!

Trey D:  Roy Harvey and Jim Preston- who are both senior producers on EA GameShow. Not only did these guys give me my first shot in the industry, they are really trying to do something different with the GameShow project- which I always admire.  On a larger level, Randy and the Gearbox guys of course! Bill Roper, Chris Metzen and David Jaffe

Patrick D:  Tim Schafer would be the main person I could single out. I loved playing Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle, Curse of Monkey Island, Grim Fandango, Psychonauts, etc. I'm looking forward to Brutal Legend also.

 

 

 

 

Keith S:  I refer to the Alien movies (all of them) several times a week.

Lee A:  Powers of 2 (because I usually only remember upto 4096 when working with unreal grid units)

Kale M: Google. Where oh where would we be without Google?

Erik A: Firefox's Google search bar is the epitome of "the world at your fingertips", so go Google. Wikipedia also proves quite useful. The info there might not always be accurate, but it does help to start you on the path to knowledge. And, of course, Epic's UDN website for all Unreal-related stuff comes in handy almost every day.

Mark K: gearslutz.com (yes, that's a funny name.  No, it won't lead you somewhere naughty), filmsound.org, sounddesign.org.uk, kvraudio.com, gameaudioforum.com, nuendo-post.com.  I also watch and play a lot of films/games for reference, though this is very dependent upon which project I'm working on (we audio folks get to work on all of Gearbox's games).

Jeff B: grep (because I'm always searching for stuff).

Mark F: cgtextures.com

Kyle P: Wikipedia and Mathworld are usually pretty reliable for mathy-type problems. Recently, I've also been refering to some current games like Burnout Paradise and Call of Duty 4 for inspiration on getting a polished look and feel for certain features.

Charlie W: Google. Instinct. The collective experience of the people around me.

Andrew W: Other co-workers' levels.

Simon H:  Gamasutra, Mobygames, GameRankings, Polycount, FilePlanet, and Kotaku. And a book titled "The Mythical Man Month."

Derek M:  My own notes, which includes cheat sheets and collegue references to information (Can you show me how you did this, or where did find that great information on how to do this).  Also:

Game Level Design (Game Development Series)
Mastering Unreal Technology: The Art of Level Design
http://www.modsonline.com
http://www.doom3world.org
Beginning C ++ Through Game Programming, Second Edition (Paperback)
C++ For Game Programmers (Game Development Series) (Paperback)


Patrick D: All sorts of resources, but the primary one these days is probably the Unreal 3 support site.

 

 

Keith S:  Currently I am playing Condemned 2, alone in the dark with surround sound, nervous and loving it.

Lee A:  Army of Two/Call of Duty 4

Kale M:  I tried Smash Bros. Brawl, but it failed to break my addiction to CoD 4.

Erik A:  Rainbow Six Vegas 2 for the 360. I loves me some Rainbow Six. Though I am sad that the series lost some of its tactical nature in the later games, there are definitely no tears shed for the removal of the buggy-as-crap AI planning phase. God, I hated that thing.

Mark K:  I've been playing Lost Odyssey obsessively. I can't quit. I love it. I'm almost through disc 2.

Jeff B:  Beautiful Katamari (because it's a crazy Japanese game).

Mark F:  Crysis is the last game I completed which was beautiful and a lot of fun to play. I just started playing The Witcher which I am enjoying thus far but am too early on to feel comfortable about giving a "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" at this point.

Kyle P:  I just picked up Rainbow Six Vegas 2. I love that the character customization is tied into the single-player game this time.

Charlie W:  No More Heroes. I want to play through it again.

Andrew W:  Burnout Paradise, TF2, Galactic Civilizations II, Warcraft III. I keep busy.

Simon H:  Half-Life Episode II

Derek M:  Wii Golf

Trey D:  Kane & Lynch. I try not to read any reviews or anything before I play a game so I can form my own opinion. Afterwards, I see it didn't do so well on metacritic! However, I found the premise interesting and ultimately it was entertaining. It's not the paramount of gaming, but it's hard to find good voice acting and good stories in games these days.... though I can't vouch for it's ending.

Patrick D:  I've been rotating between a few games these days, but I'm still play a bit of Rock Band every day, and have started playing Patapon on the PSP







Keith S:  My most recent nerd purchase was a microphone stand for the sole purpose of being able to sing and play guitar simultaneously in Rock Band.

Lee A:  Most nerdiest thing - buying a drum stool and real drum sticks for Rockband.

Kale M:  I used to have a life-size poseable Episode I Battle Droid replica. I own four different copies of the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. I have the first season of He-Man on DVD. It's safe to say most of life has a "nerdy" motif.....

Erik A:  Probably my japanese katana. The blade is "pattern welded" from multiple steels (often referred to as "damascus steel" today, though it isn't) and apparently was folded 13 times in the forging - at least that's what the appraiser said. Regardless, I was able to cut through a small tree with it in one slash. It's definitely a nerdy item to have now, but when the zombie apocalypse happens, it'll become the coolest thing I own.

Mark K:  Probably my Twin Peaks Sheriff's Dept baseball cap, sitting on the tape machine on my desk. I was in Washington state for a recording session early last year, and we ate dinner at the diner from the Twin Peaks TV show. They had the hats for sale (as well as mugs and other goodies) and I, being a David Lynch fanatic, bought a few things. But the hat is my favorite.

Jeff B:  Oscilloscope (because watching "blips" is fun).

Mark F:  My computer.

Kyle P:  A Dot-S toy of Mario inside Kuribo's Shoe. Best power-up ever.

Charlie W:  Entire Saved by the Bell DVD collection. Paid off though cause I think that's the only reason Trey accepted his position on the Aliens project! Oh wait you said nerdiest, not lamest. Hmm... I'll have to get back with you on that one.

Andrew W:  The entire Quake II action figure set.

Simon H :  A Windows 98 computer, still hooked up. There are some great DOS games that won't play on the NT kernel that Win 2000/XP/Vista is built from, and I still sometimes want to play them.

Derek M: Lego mindstorm 1st generation set.

Trey D:  Almost every single battle beast... I'm missing the penguin dude. For those either too young to remember or those unfamiliar.  I wish I owned the Saved by the Bell DVD collection like Charlie. I'd like to think it was me saying Zack fighting Slater was the best moment in Saved by the Bell- that got me the job here.


Patrick D:  Geez, where to start. I guess it would be a radio control tank I got a while back that shoots airsoft pellets.