1. FromSoftware because if Dark Souls 2 is your worst game (by popular opinion) in the last 15 years you’re doing a good job. Sekiro is also my favourite combat system in any game.

2. Remedy, I love their use of mixed mediums with FMV scenes like Dr. Darling’s tapes in Control. Alan Wake 2 is also a masterpiece of a game and I love how far they push what they are able to do in each game.

3. Paradox because no one does map game and number go up like they do. Victoria 2 is the first game I played from them and I’ve played everything since (the only map game I don’t like is HOI4)

1. The Girl Reading This

2. The Enby Reading This

3. Maddy Thorsten, unless she’s reading this, in which case I guess it’s probably Shiggy.

2. Supergiant Games

3. Crate Entertainment / Iron Lore Entertainment

whoever made QWOP

Interplay/black isle/obsidian

Arrowhead studios

Streum studios

Supergiant
Dodgeroll
Caiys (made Boneraisers Minions which rivals Vampire Survivors for me)

Maxis, Looking Glass, Valve

Arkane and High Noon (Formerly Swinging Ape) honorable mentions.

1. Paradox
2. Firaxis (plus its predecessor Microprose)
3. Blizzard (yeah i know but even if for past glory) or maybe Squaresoft (very much only past glory)

Honorable mention for Koei with their many many iterations of Warriors and Romance series with all the more or less fun spinoffs.
Next one for Bioware, some of the best RPG’s ever, RIP.

Probably

1. Valve
2. Remedy
3. Bohemia Interactive

Valve has to be number one. I replay those games fairly often and always enjoy them. They are just so fresh and enjoyable. I hope they start making more games again because they really are talented.

Remedy mostly because of Control, which is their best game imho. But also because of max payne. It’s very rare to find games with such large production quality still pushing for strange and new elements.

And bohemia because of Arma. I mean I play these games a lot. Arma 3 is a quality milsim and reforger is a good sign for what’s to come. Yes yes arma has a very pro western lens and is kinda sorta filled with propaganda but that’s really just the campaigns. I exclusively play the sandbox modes which produce some of the most fun I’ve ever had. Everything impacts everything. Also dayz is cool

Nintendo EPD, ID, Valve

Terrible business practices aside, as a developer, Nintendo is fantastic. EPD specifically works on flagship titles and where Myamoto kisses each one before launch.

ID- groundbreaking work in the past, and I loved the recent DOOM games. Can’t wait for The Dark Ages

Valve- obviously amazing devs, 3rd on this list for not releasing anything good recently (Alyx doesn’t count because I can’t play it because I can’t afford a VR headset)

Supergiant
From Software
re-logic - they have one game but is a damn good fucking game.

Larian is growing on me with the divinitys + bg3, Arkane I couldn’t mention because I didn’t play deathloop and neither the hot mess that is redfall but the others are so fucking good, Bioware made some of my favorite games but I just can’t put them in the same pedestal of the others, they screwed.

1. New Blood

2. Troika

3. Looking Glass

I’m mostly focusing on design ethos, not the games themselves, otherwise larger companies would dominate unfortunately, like CAPCOM, Konami, Nintendo, Fromsoft, Bethesda, Obsidian, Valve, and CDPR. I tried to focus on what the devs tried and successfully accomplished.

New Blood does cool shit in the realm of blending old and new, constant bangers. Favorite modern dev with actual games under their belt.

Troika has RPG GOATs like Vampire and Arcanum, and had a better team than Obsidian even when Obsidian made New Vegas, my favorite RPG.

Finally, Looking Glass birthed ImSims, which are just incredible moments in game dev history.

Looking forward, I am obviously a fan of Radical Fish, Consumer Softproducts, Team Cherry, and what is now Extremely Ok Games, but those largely have a single game or maybe 2 under their belts. I will buy pretty much anything they release day 1, but they haven’t released anything beyond Crosscode, Cruelty Squad, Hollow Knight, and Celeste in “recent” years despite having games in their pipeline. We will see.

1. Toady One
2. Paradox
3. Wanted to mention ZA/UM, but they are an empty shell for milking Disco Elysium dry now.

Edmund McMillen: The Binding of Isaac was one of the first games I ever bought for myself. Rebirth is one of the most impressive and influential roguelikes ever. Excited to see what he and Glaiel are cooking with Mewgenics after so many iterations.

FromSoftware: Dark Souls kinda signified my second stage of development. I even bought my first PC controller for it! Formed a disturbing amount of my identity around the series from 2014 to like 2017

Larian: I haven’t even played Baldur’s Gate 3 yet! I just love Divinity: Original Sin II.

Crate Entertainment(Grim Dawn, Furthest Frontier)

Supergiant Games(Bastion, Pyre, Transistor, Hades)

CyberConnect2(.hack series)

I still hold out my hope. One day, I’m going to wake up, put on a VR rig, and read the words “Welcome to THE WORLD”. And subsequently find out that I can’t log out, and die.