Game developers name games that had an influence on them 

Eurogamer has a really interesting piece up on its site where game developers chat about what games helped "define" their careers and what influenced them creatively.

There's all sorts of folks you may be familiar with in the feature, like Peter Molyneux, Tim Willits, Jonathan Blow, Keita Takahashi, the BioWare doctors, Dave Perry, and Tameem Antoniades to name but a few.

Here's an excerpt from it featuring Peter Molyneux, who has doted on his "inspiration" choice more than once:

I think it's probably ICO. You go back to that title and have a look at it - there were no icons on screen to speak of, the story was told in such an amazing way, it was told without language, it was incredibly iconic, the environment still is one of the most mystical, enchanting environments ever made, its gameplay with the hand-holding mechanic was brilliant.

It broke every rule of gaming when you think it didn't have tangible foes, it only introduced the baddie very late on, mystery was part of its mechanic, it didn't have real power-ups or anything. It was genius and it still remains a work of genius.

If I made something like ICO, I'd be very happy to die.

Read the full thing through here.