Shigeru Miyamoto
Nintendo Company Ltd.'s front man needs no introduction, and you should be ashamed if the name doesn't even ring a bell. When the video game industry suffered from the 1983 crash, it was Miyamoto who came up with Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda to prove that there was love for gaming, and the Nintendo Entertainment System had the goods to deliver.

From the iconic moustached plumber, Miyamoto went on to create other endearing classics like Star Fox and F-Zero. Aside from other smash hits like Pikmin and Nintendogs, most of the biggest Nintendo titles are also often related to this man, either as director or producer.

Hideo Kojima
Much like Solid Snake in his near impossible missions, Kojima was lucky enough to pull off his Metal Gear game despite negative criticism of his ideas by Konami Digital higher ups. Since then, as we all know, the notorious hide-and-seek title originally for the MSX spawned the popular Metal Gear Solid series. With the innovations Kojima brought to the table, the experience MGS games deliver has become a holy grail for game designers.

It was Metal Gear Solid that introduced the world to the magic of combining cinematic elements to video games, and showcased how superb voice acting can make the difference. Don't be surprised if a Kojima game asks you to play literally under the sun, tell you to switch controllers, or even command to turn your console off; it's perfectly normal.