The Hopeful Beginning and Abrupt Shuttering of Funomena
How the indie developer behind Wattam fell apart after years of apparent mismanagement. (Full Article on Fanbyte.com)
by Imran Khan
In a 2020 Game Developers Conference Q&A, Funomena CEO Robin Hunicke advised, “We need to be okay with being less productive and more caring to one another. If we don’t do that, we’ll never get through anything.” She signed off a few minutes later on the optimistic note that people are the heart of what makes game development work, remote or not.
Hunicke, who had long been a fixture of the annual gaming industry event and even hosted its awards show in 2018, was replying to a line of questions focusing on how to manage a studio in the brave new world of social distancing, pandemics, and protests by empowering employees and caring about the human element. Less than two years later at the first in-person GDC since 2019, Hunicke was notably missing from her scheduled appearances and the show floor where she once could consistently be found mingling. Her absence following a bombshell report from YouTube channel People Make Games, which alleged from numerous current and former employees that Hunicke had fostered a hostile work environment at Funomena, spoke volumes[...]