Best Developers of 2007

Gamasutra continues their various “best of” features for the year 2007, this time looking at the top game developing studios.

5. BioWare (Mass Effect)

While it may verge on the over-complex in some gameplay mechanics, BioWare’s masterful Mass Effect feels like a genuine space opera. It has whirling emotions and a genuine story arc – so genuine, in fact, that you start to realize how basic the story in many other games is.

In addition, the character customization using Unreal Engine 3 made players even more acutely aware of their immersion in the action. And with fruits from Dragon Age to the ‘mysterious’ MMO still due under new taskmaster Electronic Arts, one can’t help but think that the golden age of BioWare’s story-driven epics has only just begun.

3. 2K Boston/Australia (BioShock)

Of course, the team we’d all love to call Irrational always knew that BioShock was a critical darling, but to break out to commercial success – and with such a relatively odd, highbrow setting – was a surprise to many.

But Ken Levine’s team took their time and presented a carefully structured game world where morals mattered, dynamic and emergent gameplay was rife, and Daddies were Big. It may already be a ‘franchise’, but as an original piece of art, BioShock rocks, and 2K Boston should be proud of the iteration and perseverance in birthing it.