Developers That Don't Get As Much Recognition As They Deserve

[Mr. Omega]

Clover (RIP...)
Platinum (Madworld, Vanquish and Bayonetta. The kind of insanity the game industry desperately needs.)
Retro (the Metroid Prime trilogy was amazing, and Donkey Kong Country Returns was awesome.)
Double Fine (Like Platinum, these guys are awesomely insane.)
Telltale (They still got it. Even if nobody plays their newer games...)

 

[-Drifter-]

Starbreeze. They accomplished the impossible and made a fantastic game out of a movie ip. Escape from Butcher Bay is one of the most innovative games to come out of the previous generation. It seamlessly AND I MEAN SEAMLESSLY blends stealth, gunplay and melee with and has a great setting and atmosphere. Dark Athena ain't bad either.

Plus, you know, The Darkness.

Yes, inferior though it may be...

Is it inferior in the story department though? Because I can't imagine any Riddick property after Pitch Black having a good narrative.

 

[Trivun]

Funcom. They made what is probably the best pair of adventure games outside the Myst series, and have an adventure MMO coming up (along with a sequel to the aforementioned adventure games) that look set to completely blow the competition out of the water. And yet so few have heard of them. Despite the fact that they developed a series that has as a main character the most realistic and best representation of women in ANY game, EVER. Not just an opinion here, but something I'm even willing to claim as fact.

And since I mentioned Myst as well, Cyan are pretty unrecognised too, and yet deserve plenty of praise. They made the Myst series, and did a brilliant job at creating a series with a unique premise, engaging characters, an incredibly detailed and well-written storyline, and some very interesting, unique, intriguing and challenging puzzles throughout...

 

[Xanadu84]

Let me try to go a tad more obscure with Tale of Tales. Can they be pretentious, ary fartsy, smarter then thou blowhards from time to time? Absolutely. But they also innovate games as a medium in some shockingly unique ways. They should get some serious props, if anything so they stop talking about mainstream gamers like they are holding them back.

Also, Dejobaan Games. They have a very unique, surreal style, are trying to include players in the development process, and contributed to the Portal ARG.

 

[Arcticflame]

Blizzard.
I know they get a lot of recognition.

But they probably deserve even more. Whatever genre they touch, they make the best games in it.

They only made RTSs and a MMORPG

Never played diablo huh?

 

[Kotep]

Larian Studios. They're some of the friendliest people who actually talk to their fans, and the support for their games is actually pretty impressive. The lead developer there says that he tries to make his games recapture what he felt when he played Ultima, which is just pretty awesome in my book.

Like other people have said, Insomniac is up there, but they are still pretty popular. Sucker Punch is probably my favorite out of the Sony Trio.

Oh, and Bit Blot. Even if they're defunct now, Aquaria was a great game that gets disregarded for looking like 'mermaid fairy princess saves the ocean with magic singing powers'.

 

[chromewarriorXIII]

I've always thought that Camelot was incredibly under-appreciated. They made the Golden Sun games and while I haven't played the third, I'm pretty confident that they wouldn't screw it up.

 

[Mike Richards]

Retro Studios. The Metroid Prime series was golden, and no one should ever be allowed to handle Metroid again.

Couldn't agree more. Oh, such fond memories...

And I second Remedy. I mean, the writing wasn't always as even as it could have been, but Alan Wake was a damn fine piece of work.

But the one I keep coming back to is Cyan. Yeah, the basically only made Myst, but no one really seems to appreciate how important Myst was anymore. Such a shame.

EDIT: Just after posting I find Trivun has already made my point for me. Nice to see they aren't as forgotten as I feared.

And since I mentioned Myst as well, Cyan are pretty unrecognised too, and yet deserve plenty of praise. They made the Myst series, and did a brilliant job at creating a series with a unique premise, engaging characters, an incredibly detailed and well-written storyline, and some very interesting, unique, intriguing and challenging puzzles throughout...

 

[MrCollins]

Tale Worlds, mount and blade is ridiculously fun

 

[Tax_Document]

PARADOX - COME ON!!!

 

[Tax_Document]

Tale Worlds, mount and blade is ridiculously fun

YES-YES-YES-YES!

OH GOD YES!

DID I SAY YES?

 

[AndrewF022]

Team Bondi.. Whenever people talk about the upcoming LA Noire game they always seem to forget that they're working on it.

GSC Game World.. STALKER series, it may have its issues, but they are great games that deserve more credit.

 

[Sharalon]

DICE

I think that the Battlefield series have been really good. They add something more to spice up the usual shooter multiplayer.

Maybe I like them because they are swedish, but SHUT UP!

 

[Fooz]

The engine guys at epic deserve some applause. People may love or hate Epic's games but nobody seems to care about the guys who worked on the engine and I want to give them a hand for it, its an awesome engine.

This.

 

[darth.pixie]

Larian. They made one of the best RPGs ever and people rarely even mention it. And even if there are bugs in them, they get fixed pretty quickly. And their ideas for quests, soundtrack and dialogue are always amazing and very very fun.

 

[WanderingBiscuits]

This developer are by no means the best but they deserve a LITTLE recognition. I never hear anybody praise them.
Grasshopper Studios.

No More Heroes series and Killer 7.

Pure quality!

Also
LEVEL 5!
Professsor Leyton series, Dark Cloud series and Dragon Quest 8.

 

[DoctorPhil]

Alphadream, creators of the wonderfull Mario & Luigi RPGs.