Utah Games Speaker Series presents:

Escaping the Crunch Trap
Ruth Tomandl

When: Tuesday, November 5, 2024,  from 4:00-5:00
Where: Building 72, Lecture Room 103, University of Utah

There are usually so many constraints on your game project (including all the cool things you want to make!) that it’s very difficult to finish on time. Crunch is one of the main correlating factors to your game not hitting your goals: crunch doesn’t make your game bad, but bad games and crunching often happen for the same reason. A producer’s responsibilities include understanding your project’s constraints, communicating them clearly to the team, and making sure that the work done on the game is able to be completed within those constraints. Crunch is a symptom of failure in that chain.

About the speaker:

Ruth Tomandl worked in game development for 14 years in a variety of roles including level designer, producer, and team lead, and then managed a human-computer interaction research program at Oculus/Facebook/Meta for another 7 years. Since 2022, she’s been taking a break from full-time work and doing some consulting, but is on the lookout for ways she can help people do their best work. She’s also always looking for opportunities to apply her algebra degree and her experience as the first person to play through Dungeon Siege with a full party, but those don’t come up as often as you might think.