We sometimes underappreciated video games. We might sit down and play them, enjoy the feeling of being in a different world, or appreciate the smooth mechanics and the compelling story.

But oftentimes, we’re only appreciating what’s in front of us, not the process it took to make that a reality. Making any kind of video game is not easy.

It doesn’t matter if it’s a new AAA release from EpicGames USA, or a smaller slot game from the selection reviewed at JohnSlots UK, crafting the perfect game takes time and effort. To get the theme right, to nail the mechanics, and to create an interesting, engaging story for a specific audience – be that a traditional gaming or iGaming audience – that’s what should be really appreciated.

With this in mind, we wanted to take a moment to consider the most iconic video games and what went into making them, and we’ll start with a special 1997 game that is still beloved 27 years later.

GoldenEye 007

GoldenEye 007 was a 1997 first-person shooter developed by Rare and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. While the main story was based on the 1995 James Bond movie, GoldenEye, it was the multiplayer mode that really took the world by storm.

This introduced a myriad of levels, including sets from popular movies You Only Live Twice and The Man With the Golden Gun, where players pitted against each other to see who could survive the longest.

While it was originally conceived as a 2D platformer for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Martin Hollis, who was the director, proposed a revolutionary 3D shooter where players could play as their favourite spy, complete with a number of weapons and gadgets at their disposal.

The team that created this game were largely inexperienced, having only worked on a few smaller features, and they had to design the game without even knowing how the Nintendo 64 controller would work.

They did so by focusing more on the settings and scenery – rather than the gameplay and objectives – which according to Hollis, gave the game an unplanned approach that only benefited its realistic and non-linear feel. Overall, GoldenEye 007 took over two and a half years to make, and if its longevity is anything to go by – it was recently remastered for Microsoft Xbox – those were 900 days very well spent.

Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag

While some people might be a little surprised to see this one on the list, there’s no denying that Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag was a masterpiece from start to finish. Turning the original Assassin’s Creed gameplay on its head, players were no longer skulking the streets as an assassin, but were playing as full-fledged pirates, plundering lands and navigating the open sea.

All of this while still keeping the mechanics of earlier games, and blending them both into a beautiful concoction. Released in 2013, the reason this game is so iconic is because it paved the way to the AAA games we know and recognise today.

Back then, an RPG wasn’t expected to have a huge map, great, smooth gameplay, and an interesting story – all of those traits had, historically, been pretty much exclusive. Skyrim, for instance, could have made it onto this list, but where that game succeeded in world-building and story, it lacked in mechanics and gameplay.

Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag did everything right. And what’s even more impressive was that it only took a year and a bit to do it. Development began in mid-2011, when a separate Ubisoft team – who were working on Assassin’s Creed III – began coming up with a completely new idea and setting compared to the games that had come before.

With such beautiful graphics and a story that has never been beaten by any Assassin’s Creed game since, this is a game that still feels fresh and new eleven years later.

Red Dead Redemption II

From a game that took an insanely short amount of time to make to a game that took over eight years, Red Dead Redemption II is the pinnacle of what game developers can achieve when they set out on a journey with no time constrictions or pressure to get it right.

Work on RDR2 began shortly after the release of the original game in 2010, but news of its development didn’t get publicised until 2016, when the first teaser was released.

To create the sequel to RDR1, Rockstar Games co-opted all of its studios into one large team, complete with around 2,000 people. The cost of making the game was said to be between $370 million to $540 million, which makes it one of the most expensive video games ever to be developed.

And you can really tell whenever you turn it on and get transported into Arthur Morgan’s shoes. The world feels so alive that it’s hard to believe it was configured so long ago. Despite being released in 2018, even compared to releases in 2024, it still holds up.

This and a number of other reasons – all of which fall down to the hard work of those 2,000 people – is what makes RDR2 one of the most iconic games of all tiem.