How much creative control do game directors have?

[Salus]

I'm not in the games industry, but it seems to me that video games aren't as influenced by one person's vision as, say, movies are. In terms of creative control in the arts I imagine it goes like this:

- Literature (least diluted)
- Painting / Art
- Music
- Film
- Video Games (most diluted)

Of course, budget plays a big part in this, since Fez was basically pure Phil Fish (he practically made it himself) and indie movies are much more focused than blockbusters like Transformers where there are many, many people pulling the strings in their own directions.

I think that indie video games, made by core teams of 1-6 people, have the potential to be an extremely pure artistic experience, without having to compromise much to outside influences.

For example, Hotline Miami really struck a chord with me, because despite being made in GameMaker in pixel-art, it managed to raise serious questions about violence and how we play video games, in addition to being an all-around awesome game (the best indie game I've ever played).

So in general, how much creative control do game directors (like Jay Wilson) have on the end product?

 

[FalloutJack]

There are some cases in which a director will have massive influence on the video game. For instance, they pulled in John Carpenter for the creation of The Thing game. Now, this doesn't always happen, but there will be cases where it does.