Jeff
Tunnell
Game maker.
I co-founded Dynamix in 1984, made a bunch of games, then co-created The Incredible Machine with Kevin Ryan. Since then I've started GarageGames, PushButton Labs, Spotkin and Monster Ideas. In all of those years I have not been able to get TIM out of my mind. Millions of kids have played those games. Today we are building PlayWorlds, a web based, much expanded version of TIM.
The build log
Forty years, one idea- 1984
Dynamix Co-founder
Co-founded with Damon Slye in Eugene, Oregon. Early games included Arcticfox, Skyfox II and A-10 Tank Killer. Dynamix was acquired by Sierra On-Line.
- 1990
Jeff Tunnell Productions Founder
Created The Incredible Machine (with Kevin Ryan), Sid & Al's Incredible Toons (which earned a patent), Trophy Bass and the 3-D Ultra Pinball series, some of Dynamix's most successful titles.
- 1995
Back to Dynamix Leadership
Returned to Dynamix in a leadership role, through the years of Starsiege: Tribes and Return of the Incredible Machine: Contraptions.
- 2001
GarageGames Co-founder
An independent publisher and engine company. We licensed the Torque engine to indie developers for $100 and built a community around it that shipped games like Marble Blast Ultra. Acquired by IAC in 2007.
- 2009
PushButton Labs Founder
Led development of Playdom's Social City, one of 2010's biggest social games at more than 10 million monthly players, plus Grunts: Skirmish and The Incredible Machine: Mobile. PushButton Labs was acquired by Disney.
- 2012
Spotkin Founder
Made Contraption Maker (2014), a modern successor to The Incredible Machine that puts the level editor in players' hands.
- 2020
Monster Ideas Founder
Came back to game development to explore games built by and for their communities, starting with the Builders & Warriors universe.
- Now
PlayWorlds Building
A physics sandbox and maker suite with an AI companion. Everything I've learned about contraptions, tools and communities, in one place.
Selected games
Of 40+ shipped
The idea
After a lifetime of building games, I still can't get The Incredible Machine, Contraption Maker and now PlayWorlds out of my mind. They all give me the same little feeling of satisfaction every time I build something and it comes to life. They are not the most economically viable games to build, but for over 30 years, they have been my calling.
The other lesson came from GarageGames. The engine got people in the door, but the community of makers is what made it matter. PlayWorlds is built on both ideas.