1. Keiji Inafune (1965)

Japanese Video Game Designer

Illustrator and producer who co-designed the character Mega Man as the Global Head of Production at Capcom. He also produced the video game series Dead Rising.

2. Masahiro Sakurai (1970)

Japanese Video Game Designer

Known for creating the Super Smash Bros. and Kirby video games, he also voiced characters in several of the games in these popular series.

3. Yoshinori Kitase (1966)

Japanese Video Game Designer

Game designer and producer known for his work on Square Enix franchises, particularly Final Fantasy. He also worked on Chrono Trigger, Kingdom Hearts, and Dawn of Mana.

4. Toru Iwatani (1955)

Japanese Video Game Designer

Former video game designer who created the classic arcade games Pac-Man and Pole Position. He worked for the software company Namco.

5. Yuji Naka (1965)

Japanese Video Game Designer

Video game designer who helped create a cultural phenomenon as the lead programmer for Sonic the Hedgehog.

6. Yuji Horii (1954)

Japanese Video Game Designer

Most famous for creating the popular Dragon Quest role-playing series, this writer and designer also oversaw the development of another popular video game: the Portopia Serial Murder Case.

7. Tetsuya Nomura (1970)

Japanese Video Game Designer

Japanese artist and video game designer known for his work with Square Enix. He designed characters for the popular Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts video game series.

8. Yu Suzuki (1958)

Japanese Video Game Designer

Yu Suzuki is a Japanese game designer and producer who has spent his entire career with Sega Enterprises.

9. Yoshio Sakamoto (1959)

Japanese Video Game Designer

Yoshio Sakamoto is a Japanese video game designer working for Nintendo.

10. Tadashi Sugiyama (1959)

Japanese Video Game Designer

Tadashi Sugiyama joined Nintendo in 1983 and served as one of the original young design staff for Nintendo's creative department. Sugiyama contributed graphic design to several games and worked with...

11. Hiromichi Tanaka (1962)

Japanese Video Game Designer

Hiromichi Tanaka is a Japanese video game developer game producer game director and game designer. He was Senior Vice President of Software Development at Square Enix and the head of...

12. Yoot Saito (1962)

Japanese Video Game Designer

Yutaka Yoot Saito is a Japanese game designer famous for designing innovative video games often featuring the use of voice recognition technology such as Seaman for the Dreamcast. In 1996...

13. Koichi Nakamura (1964)

Japanese Video Game Designer

Kōichi Nakamura is a Japanese video game designer. A programming prodigy Nakamura gained fame while still in high school; in 1982 he entered Enix's national programming contest and claimed first...

14. Hiroyuki Kimura (1965)

Japanese Video Game Designer

Hiroyuki Kimura is a Japanese graphics designer. Kimura joined in Nintendo as a trainee in 1988 and designed the character of Super Mario Bros. 3 in the first. After that...

15. Noritaka Funamizu (1965)

Japanese Video Game Designer

Noritaka Funamizu sometimes credited as Poo is a Japanese video game designer formerly employed by Capcom best known for his involvement in the development of several Capcom fighting games. In...

16. Toshihiro Nagoshi (1965)

Japanese Video Game Designer

Toshihiro Nagoshi is a Japanese video game producer and designer for Sega. Nagoshi began working under Yu Suzuki in the AM2 division and worked as a Chief Designer on Virtua...

17. Goichi Suda (1968)

Japanese Video Game Designer

Goichi Suda also known as Suda 51 is the CEO of Grasshopper Manufacture and a former designer at Human Entertainment. The 51 in his nickname Suda51 is a pun on...

18. Yoshiaki Koizumi (1968)

Japanese Video Game Designer

Yoshiaki Koizumi is a Japanese video game designer director and producer. He graduated from Osaka University of Arts as a filmmaker and has been working at Nintendo since 1991. Koizumi...

19. Takashi Tezuka (1960)

Japanese Video Game Designer

Takashi Tezuka sometimes credited under his nickname Ten Ten is a video game designer working for Nintendo. A graduate of the Design Department of Osaka University of Arts he joined...

20. Fumito Ueda (1970)

Japanese Video Game Designer

umito Ueda is a Japanese video game designer born in Tatsuno Hyōgo Prefecture Japan in 1970. Ueda is director and lead designer of the PlayStation 2 video games Ico and...

21. Takashi Iizuka (game designer) (1970)

Japanese Video Game Designer

Takashi Iizuka is a Japanese game producer game director game designer level designer scenario writer and currently the head of Sonic Team.

22. Yasuyuki Honne (1971)

Japanese Video Game Designer

Yasuyuki Honne is a video game artist director and producer. He was employed by Square from 1993 to 1999 and is now working at Monolith Soft. He is known for...

23. Shinta Nojiri (1971)

Japanese Video Game Designer

Shinta Nojiri is a Japanese video game designer at Konami. Born in Tokyo he worked for Konami since 1995 and has directed various games in Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear series...

24. Hidemaro Fujibayashi (1972)

Japanese Video Game Designer

Hidemaro Fujibayashi is a Japanese video game designer working for Nintendo. He is best known for his contributions to the action-adventure game series The Legend of Zelda for which he...

25. Tsutomu Kouno (1972)

Japanese Video Game Designer

Tsutomu Kouno is a Japanese game designer. He was born in Mishima Shizuoka Prefecture and graduated from College of Engineering of Nihon University. He is best known as designer of...

26. Kotaro Uchikoshi (1973)

Japanese Video Game Designer

Kotaro Uchikoshi born November 17 1973 is a Japanese video game designer and scenario writer. He is most known for co-writing the visual novel series Infinity with its director Takumi...

27. Daisuke Ishiwatari (1973)

Japanese Video Game Designer

Daisuke Ishiwatari is a Japanese video game developer illustrator musician composer and voice actor. He is best known for creating the 2D fighting game series Guilty Gear. He designed the...

28. Katsuya Eguchi (1965)

Japanese Video Game Designer

Katsuya Eguchi is a game designer and manager at Nintendo EAD. He was born in 1965 in Tokyo Japan and grew up in the Chiba Prefecture. He began work at...

29. Yoshiki Okamoto (1961)

Japanese Video Game Designer

Yoshiki Okamoto sometimes credited as Kihaji Okamoto is a video game designer credited with producing many popular titles for Konami including Gyruss and Time Pilot and Capcom including Final...

30. Yasumi Matsuno (1965)

Japanese Video Game Designer

Yasumi Matsuno is a Japanese video game designer. He is one of few designers to have two games receive a perfect score by Famitsu magazine: Vagrant Story and Final Fantasy...

31. Rieko Kodama (1963)

Japanese Video Game Designer

Rieko Kodama is a video game designer. She has been involved with some of Sega's high profile projects such as Alex Kidd the Phantasy Star series Sonic The Hedgehog...

32. Yoshihisa Kishimoto (1961)

Japanese Video Game Designer

Yoshihisa Kishimoto is a Japanese video game developer known primarily for his involvement with Technos Japan Corp. He is best known as the original creator of the Kunio-kun and Double...