What is your favourite developer company? Mine is ID Tech because they made games like the original DooM games which have serious long standing modding support and Quake for some of those tense DM games!
What are yours?
- BioWare before EA (Mass Effect 1)
- Popcap before EA (Plants vs Zombies)
- Maxis before EA (SimCity 2000)
- Bethesda before Microsoft (Fallout 3)
I’m going to go a little unpopular here, and say Paradox Interactive.
Their milking of their properties with DLC is the stuff of legends, but at the end of the day, nobody else is even close at modeling rich, complex and hugely broad historical simulation the way they do. They’re everything I ever wanted when I was a kid, playing Koei strat games. When you’re that good at what you do, fine, make money. Whatever.
Oh, look. Another DLC… sigh
Supergiant Games: Bastion, Transistor, Pyre and Hades.
Insomniac, atlus
Tynan.
- Valve, when they actually make games… and when those games aren’t Artifact or Dota Underlords…
- id Software
- Telltale Games
- Frictional Games (Amnesia, SOMA)
- Red Barrels (Outlast)
- Playdead (INSIDE, LIMBO)
- Landfall (Totally Accurate Battle Simulator, ROUNDS, Clustertruck, Totally Accurate Battlegrounds, etc)
- Daniel Mullins (Inscryption, Pony Island, The Hex)
- David Szymanski (DUSK, Chop Goblins)
- Mason Lindroth (Hylics)
- Obsidian’s older stuff
- Rocksteady’s older stuff
- I have a love/hate relationship with FromSoft
- Honorable mention to Nightdive: They do fantastic modern remasters of older games, like Quake 1 and 2, System Shock 2, Blood: Fresh Supply, etc.
FROM SOFTWARE
I’ll probably hear some shit for this one but recently it has been Capcom. They’ve been pumping out high quality games for the past 5 or 6 years and they’re showing no signs of slowing down. Monster Hunter World/Rise, DMC5, RE 2 Remake, RE 4 Remake, Street fighter 6.
Their RE engine is like magic and I’m pumped for MH Wilds and RE 5 Remake.
Remedy Entertainment. They have been making banger after banger in my opinion, all the way back to Max Payne (and i wasted so many hours on Death Rally). Always heavy focus on plot, and well developed gameplay. Memorable soundtracks on most cases too.
I think klei may be my favourite studio. They create amazing games that are all truly unique but backed by strong game design concepts.
Mark of the ninja - great 2d stealth game were most games in the genre are 3d.
Invisible Inc - great turn-based Rougelike stealth game.
Don’t starve - probably one of the best survival games out there that relies on clever resource management rather than combat
Oxygen not included - a base building survival game, that is well designed to ramp up difficulty with the long term needs of your base
Griftlands - deck building game with a charming plot and interesting mechanics.
Each game they output is truly unique and interesting experience with some really clever design choices, but I think the point they became my favourite studio is when I read their article on Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic rewards to appreciate how well thought out their games were.
Yes, Klei, definitely!
They take any genre and create a really polished game in it. Then move on.
Plus - this is subjective - I like their art style.
Id, Bioware, and Bethesda have all been mentioned, and are strong contenders.
Ludeon Studios and Ghost Ship Games each only really have one game (RimWorld and Deep Rock Galactic, respectively), but they’re so damn good and they both have such a strong relationship with their communities that they’re definitely among my favorites at the moment.
I have a love/hate relationship with Paradox Interactive. Their DLC model… leaves a lot to be desired, but I have yet to find much else that scratches the grand strategy itch in the same way they do, and the level of mod support they provide is impressive. I don’t know if I can call them my favorite, but I’ve logged over 1000 hours into EU4 alone, so I have to at least mention it, I feel.
Remedy Entertainment. From Max Payne 1 & 2, to Alan Wake 1 & 2, to Quantum Break, to Control, there has not been a game from them that I’ve played that hasn’t been absolutely fantastic. They have not failed to miss so far.
Developers change so much that it is hard to have a favourite anymore.
SCS have been going for a while now and are doing a great job with ETS2 and ATS, supporting the game and releasing/updating DLC regulary. It feels like a true passion project for them.
Most of favourites are small indie developers and games like Live For Speed, Software Inc, Ostriv.
Coffee Stain Studios. In house, they’ve developed Goat Simulator and Satisfactory. They’ve also published Valhiem and Deep Rock Galactic.
I feel like the only one in the world that played and really liked Sanctum, the game they made before getting popular.
Wube creators of Factorio.
Klei Creators of Oxygen Not Included and Don’t Starve.
Concerned Ape creator of Stardew Valley.
Hovgaard Games creator of Startup Company and Big Ambitions.
