Yesterday on Twitter, Adam Saltsman (Canabalt) asked his many developer Twitter followers a single question:
"Whenever I play a game by Derek Yu or Daisuke Amaya i get so fired up about just making games in general. Who starts fires under YOUR ass?"
Noting the tweet, I circled back today to see what responses he got. A laundry list of inspirational developers, is the answer; everyone from Bungie to Devine Lu Linvega turned up in the recommendations.
There's no need to simply catalogue all of the developers mentioned; you can go read the answers yourself, if you want that. But some of the tweet replies went more in-depth, and I've collected them below to show a cross-section of the thoughts of the respondents to Saltsman's question.
Which developers most inspire you -- and most importantly -- why and how? Share in the comments!
@ADAMATOMIC crisp, compact games that evoke wider worlds (doing more with less). Aliceffekt, Vlambeer, Konjak, Cactus, Locomalito, Nifflas.
— Hangedman (@JonahD) October 19, 2015
@ADAMATOMIC def @Vlambeer & agree about @amaya_pixel, cave story was massive. But probably the main fire starter for me was @ChimpSquared
— Daniel Lyons (@planckpixels) October 20, 2015
@ADAMATOMIC games like Nuclear Throne, Downwell, Undertale. certain animated shows. remembering that I've already made some neat things
— like a hundred bears (@like100bears) October 19, 2015
@ADAMATOMIC pretty much anything Arcane Kids put out feels specifically built for me. Santa Ragione and Devine Lu Linvega also.
— Rhys Powell (@powellelogram) October 19, 2015
@ADAMATOMIC usually cultural discussions of games get me revved up to make games; @match3podcast has scratched that itch
— Samuel Lopez DV (@WolfOfVictoria) October 19, 2015
@ADAMATOMIC working out of the same office as campo half the time does this a lot to me. They're ...really good.
— idspispopd [YYZ] (@legobutts) October 19, 2015
@ADAMATOMIC Ikiki, Jon Mak, Vlambeer, Droqen, Brough - devs with a cohesive aesthetic.
— raigan burns (@raiganburns) October 19, 2015
@ADAMATOMIC games by real life friends helps me feel like i fit somewhere. also, stealing ideas from @wly_cdgr always gets me going.
— Zeke Virant (@godzekesatan) October 19, 2015
@ADAMATOMIC Simogo, local developers, and when I mentor young kids on making games and see what they come up with.
— Roy42 (@frozentreasure) October 19, 2015
@ADAMATOMIC playing Darkdsiders 2 (the game I was most proud to ship even though we all got fired)
— dead man's pedantic (@cheeseplus) October 19, 2015
@ADAMATOMIC Any game or talk by someone in Vlambeer
— karl ington (@SirKarlington) October 19, 2015