The Armchair Empire - Interviews: Jeff Tunnel (GarageGames) Q&A

Willy Beamish. Rise of the Dragon. Heart of China. The Incredible Machine. Titles from the past that speak to any old school gamer. All from the late, great Dynamix. A name inextricably associated with Dynamix is Jeff Tunnell. Of late, Jeff has been one of the driving forces behind GarageGames, a company aiming to create a thriving indie games scene. He recently spared us some of his time to give us the low-down on GarageGames, what happened with Willy Beamish's sequel, his view on corporate raiders, and the biggest lie in the gaming industry (you'll never guess what it is). Thanks for your time, Jeff!

Related Links:

- Classic: Adventures of Willy Beamish

- GarageGames Official Site

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Jeff Tunnell (GarageGames) Interview Conducted by Omni

If it’s possible, in less than 1,500 words, could you encapsulate who you are, how you became involved with the gaming industry, and points in-between?

My stock bio says most of it…

Former Executive Director of Dynamix, which was a game development division of Sierra On-Line. I founded Dynamix in Eugene, Oregon in 1984, guided the company from an independent game developer for Electronic Arts to an affiliated label of Activision, then sold the company to Sierra On-Line, a publicly traded company (and now the entertainment division of Vivendi/Universal), in 1990. Right after completing Willy Beamish, which was a tremendously large product for its time, Ken Williams supported me in founding a studio called Jeff Tunnell Productions (JTP), where we built products such as The Incredible Machine, Trophy Bass, and 3D Ultra Pinball. These products ended up being the most successful ever released from Dyanmix, but circumstances drew me back into a leadership role at Dynamix in 1995. Once back, I continued my role that revolved around being the product and technology visionary and creative spark, directing development of new game genres and on new platforms. In my career I have either designed, produced, or directed more than 70 original titles, including Rise of the Dragon, The Incredible Machine, Starsiege, and TRIBES (Online Game of the Year, 1998). I’m credited with pioneering new game genres such as Outdoor Sports with Trophy Bass and Family Entertainment with the 3-D Ultra line of products that includes such mass-market titles as Pinball, Maximum Minigolf, and Cool Pool.

After leaving Dynamix in early 2000, I have been working with more than full time to get GarageGames off the ground. Fostering and supporting the independent games movement by providing technology and a marketplace is what we are all about. Getting back to the fun of making games is my passion, and building a new segment of the gaming industry, the independent game development movement, is just a means to that end.

GarageGames has a large and vibrant development community of over 30,000 members working on over 1,000 games. Since we started selling games near the end of December, 2002, we have now released original titles such as Marble Blast, Chain Reaction, Orbz, Tennis Critters, and Think Tanks. For the future, the product pipeline is full of many more innovative titles.

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Why didn’t the world ever see a sequel to the Adventures of Willy Beamish? Were there plans for a sequel?

Like I said above, Willy Beamish was a very large project that pushed the technical envelope at the time with many industry firsts such as cell animations and working with Hollywood writers that made it a tremendous amount of work. At one time, I had Rise of the Dragon, Heart of China, Willy Beamish, and several other

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Dynamix games in development at one time. I was the hands-on director and designer of all of those titles as well as having responsibility for the development of other Dynamix titles. After Willy, I wanted a change, so I decided to move out of the building with a hand selected team of developers and work on some smaller, more creative ideas. Even though I had Willy 2 in development before I left, it just did not survive the transition, and was later cancelled. Unless you are there on the front lines, it is difficult to understand just how hard it is to keep a project on track, on budget, and politically viable in a company where many different people are trying to pull your project in many different directions.

How is GarageGames an offshoot of Dynamix? Or can there be a relationship drawn between the two?

GarageGames is not an offshoot of Dynamix. All of the founders, which include myself, Tim Gift, Rick Overman, and Mark Frohnmayer worked together at Dynamix, and we planned on some form of entrepreneurial venture for many years before it happened. We did end up creating GarageGames with Sierra's blessing, but we would have done it either way.

Dynamix was an awesome place to work, and I think nearly every ex-Dynamix employee has fond memories of the years we spent there creating awesome products. But, with the very large corporate ownership (by the time we left Vivendi Universal was the owner) demanding more lay-offs and project compromises while showing very little leadership at the very top (note that Vivendi's chairman was finally ousted last year and the pseudo-empire that he built is being torn down and sold), we felt that we had no choice but to strike out on our own.

Two years after we left, Dynamix was closed down by these same corporate raiders. As you can probably tell, I am not a fan of greedy CEO's and big corporations. A couple of individuals at the top of a crumbling empire tore down what Ken Williams and hundreds of impassioned employees built over a fifteen-year period in a manner of months. The employees walked away with unemployment insurance, the CEO's walked with millions in severance. Go figure.

Does GarageGames have plans to produce games for the console world?

We’re committed to building games as an independent developer and we’d love to see our own game designs and those of our partner studios be built for consoles. It is very difficult for indies to break into the console world. Our answer for the time being is to concentrate on PC games. Keep checking back though.

What is the driving principle behind GarageGames?

GarageGames is built on the belief that we need to have an independent game development segment in our industry. Just like in other entertainment industries like film and music this means keeping true to making and owning your own games, not just the proven formulas. It means creating the technologies, community and market necessary to realize the dream of having innovative studios making a living building “indie” games (that may get picked up by a label or find their own players through word of mouth).

Are you part of the “Old Guard” of game designers? By this, I mean, part of the game pioneers that didn’t take courses in Game Development, like the upcoming crop of designers will have under their belts.

I'm not sure I have seen a lot of successful game designers come from the design schools yet. I think there will be eventually, but they will also come from many other places. Of course, I didn't go to a game design school because they did not exist:)

How has game development changed in the last 15 years?

The standard answer here is that games are much harder to create, have larger budgets and larger teams. I actually call bullshit on the conventional wisdom! Games are easier to create than in any time in history and they will get easier. Technology used to be the Holy Grail that normal people could not get access to. Now the Torque and even free open source technologies are available to anybody that wants access. Content and art creation tools continue to get cheaper, more accessible, more powerful, and easier to use. Making a game is a lot like being in a rock band. Get together with a couple of like-minded people, learn your different crafts (programming, art, audio), and make a wildly innovative and fun game. To quote a beaten phrase, "…the world will beat a path to your door."

How important is the IDSA to the gaming industry?

Not something I think about much. I'm so busy getting GG off the ground that I can't really say.

Is there anything consistent about the gaming industry or is it always changing?

It changes constantly. Stay up or die. I always try to look a couple of years into the future for development and technology trends, but I also steep myself in popular culture, play a lot of games, and watch others playing games. If you don't live for doing this, then you are in the wrong business.

(June 29, 2003)