Jeffrey Tunnell is a video game producer, programmer and designer.
In 1984 he founded Dynamix with Damon Slye in Eugene, Oregon.
In 1990, Tunnell left Dynamix to start Jeff Tunnell Productions. Tunnell would go on to create famous brands such as The Incredible Machine, Trophy Bass, and the 3-D Ultra Pinball series while at Jeff Tunnell Productions. These products were some of the most successful retail products to be published by Dynamix.[1]
In 1993, Sid & Al's Incredible Toons earned Tunnell and Chris Cole a patent for the game's concepts.
In 1995, Tunnell returned to Dynamix in a leadership role.
In 2001, after Dynamix was disbanded, Tunnell co-founded GarageGames, an independent video game publisher, which is also the developer of the Torque Game Engine.
In 2007, GarageGames was acquired by InterActiveCorp, the media conglomerate founded by Barry Diller. Tunnell remained on as Chief Creative Officer of GarageGames. Tunnell was a contributor behind the vision of the original InstantAction distribution platform.
In 2008, Tunnell left GarageGames to pursue other interests.
In 2009, Tunnell founded PushButton Labs along with former partners and employees from GarageGames and Dynamix. PushButton Labs led development on one of the most successful games of 2010, Playdom's Social City, which reached more than 10M monthly active users.[2] PushButton Labs IP was acquired by Disney in 2011 and they subsequently wound down operations.
In 2012, Tunnell founded Spotkin along with former partners of PushButton Labs, GarageGames, and Dynamix.
On March 22, 2017, Tunnell announced his retirement from game development, citing market saturation as a deciding factor.[3]
On June 13, 2020, Tunnell declared his return to gaming development by announcing the creation of Monster Ideas, a company that plans to produce “community economy” games that use crypto technology on the backend.[4]