"There's a tendency among the press to attribute the creation of a game to a single person" - Warren Spector,

@LordDarias lol im not trying to seriously attribute any of these games to solely these individuals. i mean there are a number of cases where that's warranted but i'm just trying to compile a relatively comprehensive list of people who could reasonably be considered the "auteurs" of this medium. my choice of game when it came to representing each person was mostly based around what's the most popular work that they're associated with

@scissors61 thanks for the suggestion, added

Brian and Andrew Allanson (YIIK)

Shozou Kaga (Fire Emblem)

lol. added

(shozou kaga too, thanks for the recs)

Richard "Lord British" Garriot - Ultima series.

added

Yoshiaki Koizumi, most known for Super Mario Galaxy and Odyssey.

is koizumi looked at as an auteur though, generally speaking? i am trying to make a broad list but i also want to resist just adding every prolific name in the industry - for example, i decided against adding eiji aounuma. generally the people i'm looking for are ones with strong and identifiable authorial voices, and im not entirely sure if koizumi qualifies. i'm not completely opposed to adding him though, i'm sure there are some examples of hypocrisy or inconsistency in my picks when it comes to this.

Please add Haruhiko Shono (Gadget: Past as Future) and Michiaki Tsubaki (Kumdor no Ken, which I just added to IGDB since it's a sad oversight).

I suppose Toby Gard could count, he was pretty much the driving force as to how Tomb Raider came to be and that became a prosperous series analyzed for different reasons.

There's also Takashi Tokita (worked with Square since around the NES era, started as a full timer once FFIV got into development, then directed Live A Live and Parasite Eve), Paul Cuisset (more or less the driving force behind Flashback, also co-developed a game with Eric Chahi called Future Wars), and Hideo Yoshizawa (Klonoa, NES Ninja Gaiden)

Tadashi Satomi, known for the Digital Devil Saga duology and the first 3 Persona games (Persona 1,2 IS and EP)
Yukio Futatsugi, known for the Panzer Dragoon franchise and Phantom Dust for the OG Xbox
Hideyuki Suganami, known for lot of Treasure games, ex. Sin & Punishment, Alien Soldier
Hideo Yoshizawa, known for the Klonoa franchise

itagaki and ninja gaiden black have gotta be on here. also i will second toby gard for tomb raider.

Gunpei Yokoi!!! Huge omission for a list this big.
Also it'd be good to add more notable women to this list. Amy Hennig (Uncharted, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver), Rieko Kodama (Phantasy Star), Kim Swift (Portal), Jade Raymond (Assassin's Creed), etc.
Some others: Markus Persson (Minecraft), Toru Iwatani (Pac-Man), Alexey Pajitnov (Tetris)

so many suggestions! thanks everyone

@dishy i really struggled with whether to add gunpei! but i think i'll add him in after all.

Very interesting list! Maybe add Charles Cecil?

good suggestion, added

Add Leslie Benzies and Dan Houser?

all right, added.

Shin Megami Tensei - Cozy Okada/Kazuma Kaneko?
Seems kinda fair to have them, since you already have other big jrpg guys like Hori, Sakguchi, Nomura and even Hashino or Satomi.
Overall, interesting list, many guys with interesting careers i had no idea about.

admittedly feel a little uncomfortable including a character designer/artist on here but ah, its become a very broad list anyway.