The VG Resource

Who are some of your favourite game developers? This can be a single people or entire companies, indie or commercial, even active/alive or closed/dead!
Your reasons can be anything you prefer as well, whether you like the developers themselves, just the games they make, their effect on other games, or whatever.

One of my favourites is Jonathan Blow. Not only did I thoroughly enjoy Braid (I'm currently replaying it for the third time) and the Witness looks amazing, but from some interviews and talks I've seen he has an interesting view on games and what they are as a medium. I enjoy watching him talk about games, different aspects about them and what he thinks of what other developers do. I agree with a lot of his points, although sometimes I'm at odds with his opinions. One of the things he mentions a number of times is that "click" you get in your head when you figure something out, and I really like it when that happens in a game.

I also like Terry Cavanagh. His two commercial games VVVVVV and Super Hexagon are both quite difficult, but at the same time I love the ideas they use. He also has a great taste in music, I love both of their soundtracks.

So yeah, tell us which devs you like and why!

Level-5

They have yet to make a bad game and every game they have made is generally critically acclaimed and seen as fantastic by the gaming community.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Level-5

I forgot about Level-5, you're completely right. The Professor Layton games are one of my favourite series (of any media), and I'm considering playing the Inazuma Eleven games simply because it's made by Level-5.

Atlus, by far. It's extremely rare to play a game with their logo on the box and have it not actually be a good game.
Also WayForward. The amount of care and love that they put into their games (even the most shovelware of titles) is crazy and you can see that they're really passionate about what they do.

Seconding Wayforward, mostly because of the love and devotion they put into their creations. When I play one of their games, I can tell that they actually had fun making it. They've got a great sense of humor, too.

There's also HAL Laboratory and Intelligent Systems, both of whom are responsible for giving birth to some of my favorite game series, period. Games under those two ooze some sort of quirky charm that other devs don't seem to have. Hell, even their less-than-acclaimed titles retain it.

Platinum Games.

I've played all of their games except Infinite Space, and I love (or at the very least, like) them all, my favorites being Bayonetta, The Wonderful 101, and Madworld. They put so much work into their games, include lots and lots of action, make very loveable/likeable characters and intriguing stories, and care deeply about their fans. But aside from Bayonetta, Vanquish, and Metal Gear Rising, their games never get the recognition they deserve, and that's sad.

Heck, the main reason I bought a Wii U was not just for Nintendo's first-party offerings, but for Platinum's offerings. (The Wonderful 101 was the first game I ever played on Wii U, believe it or not)

Classic Konami

Treasure

WayForward

HAL Laboratory/Sora

Nintendo

Level-5

In no particular order

insomniac

Sakurai's my favorite troll.

Even though Microsoft messed the company up, I still have good memories whenever I think of Rare. That company and Nintendo really made for a great team and churned out timeless classics such as the Donkey Kong Country games and the first two Banjo-Kazooie games.

Also, I'm very fond of Lucas Arts for creating adventure games that have a lot of charm and does not punish you for making a little mistake and exploring your options.