Smart move by Game Developer magazine! Rather than chronologically list their top developers for 2008, they've taken a cue from the Bush administration's anti-terror campaign and split them up into a deck of cards.
The deck is split, as decks are, into four suits. The spades are the industry's "trailblazers". Folks like Blizzard's Rob Pardo, Epic's Tim Sweeney and Media Molecule's Alex Evans.
The clubs are gaming's "ambassadors". Some of those selected for this honour were Valve's Gabe Newell, Nintendo's Satoru Iwata, Hideo Kojima and PSN talent scout Rusty Buchert.
The hearts are "entrepreneurs". So, yes, think the business types. Guys like EA boss John Riccitiello, the Houser brothers from Rockstar, Ted Price from Insomniac and Reggie Fils-Aime.
Finally, the diamonds. Or, as Game Developer would have it, the "progressives". Picked for this group were Goichi Suda, Platinum Games' Atsushi Inaba, Tetsuya Nomura from Square Enix and good ol' Sid Meier.
Those are just a taste of those selected. For the rest (including two predictable "jokers"), and a full run-down on what each of those categories actually means, go check out the full story below.
Game Developer's Top Deck 2008 [Gamasutra]