WHO HE IS: He became senior producer at Wide Load Games after spending two years as studio director at motion capture-focused Red Eye Studios.
At Red Eye, Krusell brought animated life to popular Xbox game “Stubbs the Zombie: Rebel without a Pulse” for Chicago-headquartered Wideload.
Other Red Eye work included Xbox titles “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and “Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude” for High Voltage Software, where his game design career began.
HOW HE VIEWS HIS JOB: “Planning, managing and communicating all around the world and working with technology to tell stories in a new way.”
PROS: “Working with really inspiring, smart people.”
CONS: “Callused thumbs from all the video game playing.”
KEY TO SUCCESS: “To really work hard and to infectiously communicate the passion of what I do!”
ON THE SIDE: When he isn’t volunteering as a set designer at Redmoon Theater, Krusell works on a conservation project with 12 friends.
Last summer, they converted the original diesel engine of an old school bus to run on peanut oil.
“We ran it on hair relaxer for a while,” he boasts. They drove the vehicle using alternative fuel while taking road trips to Reno and Detroit. “This summer we’ll focus on beautifying the bus.”
BACKSTORY: He tested games at High Voltage during his first year out of Columbia College where he earned a B. A. in film and video.
The next year, he worked there on a digital animated comic book based on sock puppetry which eventually spun off into a separate sister branch, “Sock Puppet Studio.”
He produced “Sock Puppet Studio” for one year before going to Red Eye.
BIG BREAKS: “Game testing brought greater access to experienced people.”
WORDS OF WISDOM: “Create a benchmark by getting a broad sampling of the competition. Seek critiques.”
HIS ULTIMATE GOAL: “To work on something that truly crosses media lines.”
A SOURCE OF INSPIRATION: Key note speakers like Electronic Arts’ EP/GM Kudo Tsunoda and Wideload’s founder and Bungie software ing?nue Alex Seropian who influenced him at GDC game developers conferences.
Wide Load Games is located at 560 W. Washington; phone 773/875-3315. See www.wideload.com.
