Tuesday
Mar032009
Edge's Top 100 Game Developers of 2009
Tuesday, March 3, 2009 at 12:13PM I'm on Edge Magazine's top 100 game developers list for 2009. Thanks Edge.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009 at 12:13PM 
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Tuesday, March 3, 2009 at 12:13PM
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Reader Comments (24)
Grats Sirlin!
Nice pic too ;)
congrats Sirlin, a lot of SRK people are using modified versions of that picture of you ( most notably the humorous Mango Sirlin one ). Just wondering do you plan to attend Evo 2009 and participate in both SF4 and the SF2 HD remix tournaments?
Gratz
Great, as if Sirlin needed any more inflation of his already gargantuan ego...congratulations, you overweight old man, you.
Cool pictures for developers 92 and 91, by the way.
Contrats Sirlin!
FinalSlayer, how passive aggressive!
Are you insinuating that someone who is old or overweight can't be a successful game developer - which is certainly what Sirlin is? Of course not- you're angry and you've left reason behind. Regardless of whether this will inflate, deflate, or leave Sirlin's ego unchanged isn't the aspect you should pay attention to: You should instead note that the accolade justifies his ego.
Leave the spite at home.
Congratulations!
I like this kind of list because it shows that there are actual living, breathing people working behind those big name logos, which I find is something that we gamers tend to forget.
~Z
You earned it
Great!
Also, #95 is cute
That picture, that must be a still from a video. Like when I was watching Star Trek Enterprise on my computer, when the storyline got boring I'd pause the video when someone was talking to freeze their face in a funny way.
OH HE GOT DAT MANGO SIRLIN
Obviously Edge was bribed.
Nah, just kidding. Congratulations!
I'm surprised you wasn't higher in ranking, but hey, it's still an act of recognition for your work. Interesting photo- I too presume it's a 'video still'?
Dave-
Haha, oh boy. You're probably the only person who read that message and thought I was being serious. Hell, you're the type of guy who gets offended by something on "The Simpsons" or "South Park".
Gratz!
Personally I think you should be much higher but... ;).
Well FinalSlayer, now you ARE being passive aggressive...
Anyway yea that list sucked and Sirlin should have been ALLOT higher if for no other reason than Kongai. Just look at the top ten:
10: Football game designer... wow, really? Void by default.
9: Never played his games so I can't comment.
8: LittleBigPlanet... guess I can't really argue with that.
7: RE5... I guess I'll have to wait and see.
6: SSBB, a game riddled with design flaws and that wouldn't be successful at all if it weren't for nostalgia from the days when nintendo gave a **** about the nerds that kept the company alive to this day.
5: I'd agree with this if he went back to making the games that make his successful in the first place (mario) rather than making worthless gimmick games.
4: Guitar Hero... well the games are selling well but from a design stand point it doesn't seem like he's really adding anything... not sure how much credit he should actually get.
3: Mario Kart DS was actually a fairly well designed game and probably the most balanced Mario Cart ever... then Mario Kart Wii comes along and basically undoes it all and then complicates basic menu function and versus mode. Not really sure what he's doing now or what he has left to do since Wii already has it's version of Cart...
2: Valid
1: GTA4 was a let down.
By my count that's maybe 4 of the top ten that even belong above 50, if on the list at all. Overall the list seems more like "Top 100 marketed games as listed by Game Developer." Just because a game sells well doesn't mean it was designed well and just because a game was designed well doesn't mean the person in charge should actually get all or even any of the the credit (guitar hero).
Gratz Sirlin I will send you a check.
But remeber guys, designing a game is not only balancing it.
Guitar Hero sucks.
I don't understand how you designed HD remix. You simply took SF: T and added some nice balancing tweaks to some of the characters. All the other mechancis remained intact.. So there was an artwork upgrade and some character tweaks and you're considered a developer?
"By my count that's maybe 4 of the top ten that even belong above 50, if on the list at all. Overall the list seems more like 'Top 100 marketed games as listed by Game Developer.'"
That was my impression of the list as well. I'm glad to see you get some recognition as a developer but the list seemed to be without direction. To me it sounds like the list was more about how much the developer communicated with the community. Important but odd for a way to define the top developers. Then again I tend to disagree with most lists anyways.
Also besides just balancing SF:T Kongai was released last year if I'm not mistaken. And balance tweaks = developer. I'm a dev for a business application and I spent a good chunk of my time fixing bugs :P it comes with being a dev.
Also FS even if you're not being serious it's still passive aggresive (though I agree it's not really offensive).
TheChosen-
Your words can be used to describe just about any update to a fighting game ever, including such seismically different changes as SF2- World Warrior and SF2- Super Turbo.
Balancing is really no different than designing when it comes to fighting games.
Logo, bbojs-
You idiots are hilarious.