Some developers specialize in making games for a specific audience. Others like to branch out and try something different. Back in the 8 and 16-bit days, games were largely considered by mainstream audiences as children's entertainment, but with the burgeoning PC and 32-bit machines, publishers were starting to see a market in creating games that catered to a more mature audience.
No matter the source material, if a developer is gifted enough, they can make a compelling game out of anything. Though the following names and studios have gained a reputation for dark and mature titles, their first entries were considerably more lighthearted and family-oriented.
10 Before The Walking Dead, Telltale Adapted More Lighthearted Comics Like Bone
Telltale may be more well known for their dark and morally ambiguous adventure titles based on graphic novels such as Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead and Bill Willingham's Fables, but the studio's debut titles were much more in line with the titles they made when they worked at LucasArts. Bone: Out From Boneville was the studio's first foray into the graphic adventure genre and episodic gaming, but the series only lasted two episodes before the rest of the season was shelved. Efforts such as Sam & Max and Tales From Monkey Island proved more successful, paving the way for titles based on more contemporary licenses like Homestar Runner.
9 Al Lowe Did Whimsical Adventures Before Partying It Up With Larry Laffer
Al Lowe is best known for creating and helming the first six installments of the Leisure Suit Larry games. Players controlled the eponymous middle-aged loser in his quest to get involved with beautiful women while getting a suitably comedic comeuppance for his chauvinistic attitude and crass behavior ala' Johnny Bravo. However, before partying it up with Larry Laffer, Lowe worked on several family-friendly adventures at Sierra such as Donald Duck's Playground, Winnie the Pooh in the Hundred Acre Wood, and two titles in the King's Quest series.
8 Rockstar San Deigo Used To be Angel Studios
Before they were known as Rockstar San Diego, Angel Studios had worked as a division within Sega of America on titles such as Ecco Tides of Time for the Sega CD and Mr. Bones for the Sega Saturn. The company shifted its focus on the Nintendo 64 and worked on Nintendo's Ken Griffey Jr. franchise with Major League Baseball and Slugfest. Eventually, they handled an N64 port of Resident Evil 2, which squeezed a 2-disc survival horror into one cartridge with the FMVs, voiceovers, and violence intact. Capcom was originally set to publish Red Dead Revolver until they canceled it and sold the IP to Rockstar.
7 Super Monkey Ball Was Made By The Creator Of Yakuza
Toshihiro Nagoshi got his start at Sega as a member of its AM2 division, which worked on arcade franchises such as Daytona USA and Virtua Fighter. In an effort to prove that a simple arcade title could be made, Nagoshi developed a game where players maneuvered a sphere through a maze with no buttons and just a simple joystick: Monkey Ball. Two follow-ups were headed by Nagoshi and developed for the GameCube by Amusement Vision. Nagoshi and his studio would collaborate further with Nintendo on F-Zero GX. During the tail end of the sixth generation, Nagoshi created the Yakuza series in order to chase the lucrative mature gaming market.
6 Before GTA, Lemmings Was DMA's Moneymaker
Before Rockstar gained its reputation with Grand Theft Auto, they were known as DMA Design and had worked on family-friendly titles such as Uniracers for the Super Nintendo and the first three titles of the massively popular Lemmings series. One of the intended launch titles for the Nintendo 64 was a game by DMA called Body Harvest with the Big N originally assuming the role of publisher. However, creative differences forced the two to go their separate ways. When developing a game called Race'n'Chase, the team realized that players would have more fun playing as the robbers than the cops, which led to the genesis of GTA.
5 Penguin Adventure Was Hideo Kojima's First Game
Hideo Kojima is another example of a famous gaming auteur. He created the highly cinematic Metal Gear franchise and even worked on other properties such as Castlevania and Silent Hill. After leaving Konami, he collaborated once again with Norman Reedus on the title Death Stranding. However, his first game was a cutesy cartoon platformer called Penguin Adventure for the MSX. Despite its saccharine presentation, the game has an unhappy ending where the hero fails to make it to the princess in time and she dies from her illness. Players can avert this outcome by pausing once, and only once, throughout the entire game.
4 Shinji Mikami Worked On 3 Disney Titles Before Entering The World Of Survival Horror
Before Shinji Mikami made a name for himself with the Resident Evil and Dino Crisis games, he'd previously worked on three back-to-back titles based on Disney properties. Who Framed Roger Rabbit was a top-down adventure title for the Game Boy, Goof Troop was a puzzle co-op title on the Super Nintendo, and Aladdin was an acrobatic 2D platformer on the same system.
During the development of RE1, producer Tokuro Fujiwara picked Mikami to serve as its director. When Mikami protested that he didn't like getting scared, this emboldened Fujiwara who stated, "you can’t make a horror game if you don’t have any fear."
3 Commander Keen Was The Debut Title Of A Studio That Revolutionized Shooters
Before Carmack, Romero, and Hall revolutionized gaming with their World War II-themed shooter, they turned a Super Mario Bros 3 tech demo for PCs into an original platformer franchise known as Commander Keen. In contrast to the bloody death animations and GIBs that would be seen in Id's shooters, none of the enemies in the Commander Keen games died. Instead, they'd get embarrassed and cease to be hostile. The eponymous hero has made some cameos in Id's subsequent titles. It's mentioned that he's the descendent of William "BJ" Blascovich from Wolfenstein 3D and the ancestor of the space marine from Doom.
2 Jazz Jackrabbit Was Blasting Hostiles Long Before Marcus Fenix
Epic Games is best known for the cover-based third-person shooting franchise Gears of War and the battle royale shooter Fortnite. When developing Gears, Cliff Bleszinski took inspiration from Resident Evil 4 and Namco's Kill Switch. However, before Cliffy B put players in control of foul-mouthed chainsaw-gun toting space marines, he helped design two games that put them in control of a ray gun-toting rabbit. Jazz Jackrabbit and its sequel were 2D Platforming Run & Gun titles for the PC as they fended off a hostile alien tortoise race.
1 Before A Homicidal Clown And A Vengeful God, There Was A Mouse
David Jaffe has gained a reputation for his over-the-top visceral games and his equally outspoken online personality. The game that really put the developer on the map was the demolition derby car combat game Twisted Metal. As singleTrac, Jaffe and his studio had worked on the first two titles of the series because it was outsourced to another division within Sony. In the twilight years of the PlayStation 2, Jaffe spearheaded the violent and dark hack and slash God of War series, serving as a director on the debut title. However, before Jaffe made games where players ran over pedestrians and decapitated deities, he worked on the lighthearted platformer Mickey Mania.