ConcernedApe! Can't wait for his next game.

Supergiant

West Wood studios and Bullfrog.

John Carmak ftw

Larian Studios

And Naughty Dog during the PS3 era.

Today One (aka Tarn Adams) who is making Dwarf Fortress and formerly worked on Liberal Crime Squad is way up there.

Redigit (of Super Mario Brothers X and Terraria) is another from the current era.

But if we can go oldschool, Sid Meier is a legend. Civilization and Pirates! are two absolute favorites, especially the remake of Pirates and Civs 2 & 4.

But the real OG, the man who showed me I wanted to make videogames, is Tim Sweeney. Sure, now he's rich and famous, but back in the day, even before UnReal, he ran Epic Megagames out of his parents' basement and sold floppies by mail. His first game, ZZT, came with the tools included to not just edit levels, but to make a whole new game of your own using the ZZT engine. By the time I discovered it there were already hundreds of user-made games being traded on BBS.

I fell in love. I joined the IRC channels and bulletin boards, I made the games I wanted, I shared them with my friends and over the Internet. It sparked a love in me that still burns today. Sweeney moved on, I moved on, but I will always owe him my regard for releasing ZZT into the world. It changed my life.

Wube

The factory must grow.
Now in space from October 20th.

I don't want to single out a favorite, but one who stands out is Tynan Sylvester. Not just for making RimWorld a good game, but for participating in unofficial community forums, discussing features and flaws discovered by players, and bringing a good attitude. This kind of openness helps improve things for everyone, IMHO. I wish it was more common.

FromSoftware, 100%. From the days of Armored Core to all the Souls games.

Retro gaming?

Rare

Someone already mentioned them but I want to reiterate: Westwood Studios

I miss them.

90s era Maxis, Bullfrog, Black Isle Studios, Troika Games.

JoWood also gets a special mention.

This is a more retro selection.

Since this is c/retrogaming, Interplay ca. 1995-2000

Since this is retro gaming, I've got to go with Microprose (Civilization, Colonization, X-Com games and more). But my love also goes to other developers that EA destroyed, in particular Maxis, Westwood Studios and Origin. Special shout-out to three more studios I had amazing memories with: New World Computing (Might and Magic), Sir-Tech (Wizardry) and Blue Byte (Settlers, Battle Isle, Albion).

Sensible Software. Sensible soccer and Cannon Fodder. Epyx for their summer and winter games.

Psygnosis

For Wipeout2097(on PSX), and the 90s Amiga releases.

Gen6/7 Bioware. Supergiant, Larian, Valve.

Ghost ship games

Arkane and Remedy are the two that stand out at the moment.

Redfall was a pretty bad indicator coming from Arkane. But if they get their act together and go back to games like Dishonored, they'll be back on the good list. Keeping them up here out of hope. They make fantastic games when they're allowed to.

Remedy just always puts out bangers. Control is how I found them, and I love their style as well as the obvious amount of love and work put into their universe. Still need to play AW2, but I've only heard good things about it. They're not everyone's cup of tea, but they are mine.

Supergiant (on par with Trese Brothers)

Troika.

Black Isle Studios.

Hands down, no contest.

If you're looking for a name, Chris Avallone. Planescape: Torment and fucking New Vegas.

I only have one tattoo, and it is the Rune of Torment. That piece of art touched me.

Under the constraint that I'm only picking from developers who already have multiple games under their belt, it'd be hard to choose between Zachtronics and Supergiant for me. Both of them have a perfect track record in my book. The only difference being that there most likely won't be any new releases from Zachtronics anymore, whereas Supergiant is only becoming stronger with each release.

Capcom. I will never forget the little blue bomber.

Subset Games

Nolla. They make great games with interesting vibes!

FromSoftware has never made a game I didn't enjoy. From their well known games like Dark Souls, Armored Core, and now apparently everyone on Earth knows about King's Field, to their more niche titles like Metal Wolf Chaos, Kuon, and The Adventures of Cookie and Cream. Yes, I even liked Ninja Blade.

Except Steel Battalion for the Xbox 360 but that is entirely because Capcom mandated the Kinect be used for controls.

Also am a big fan of Konami, pre-2005. They never really had huge masterpieces aside from what Kojima and Team Silent made, but their other games were fun and varied, taking on almost an experimental position. Games like Gungage were very engaging, if a little short.

Ben Esposito

Powerhoof and joy masher make some nice indie games.

Currently: From Software

Team Ninja, from Ninja Gaiden and Nioh to Stranger of Paradise and Wo Long, their gameplay don't miss, ever (Rip DFFOO)