Developer's

First, here is a link to a bunch of developer's and what were their influences. Pretty cool read:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/games-that-define-developers?page=1

Secondly, if you could be part of a video game developer who would it be and why?

I would have to say rare before they were sold to Microsoft as the quality of games they released during the SNES and N64 days was amazing. These days I would either go with Nintendo EAD group number 3 (who are in charge of the Zelda games and each and every game for the past 10 years has been amazing) or Naughty Dog ( mainly because of Uncharted 2, the best game ever!).

Rare is a fave of mine
Perfect Dark, GoldenEye, Killer Instinct and the Donkey Kong Country series.

As geeky as it sounds too, I've loved all of Infinity Wards games, as I grew up playing COD 1 and 2.

Team ICO.