TORONTO, May 14, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Kuuhubb Inc. (the “Company” or “Kuuhubb”) (KUU.V) has announced the development of its new game “Tiles & Tales.” The game will blend casual match-3 play with digital storytelling, resulting in a unique combination of two highly successful genres. The project will mark the debut of Kuuhubb’s Helsinki studio and has a soft launch date anticipated for Q3 of this year.

The development team, located at Kuuhubb’s headquarters in Helsinki, Finland, consists of industry veterans originating from Rovio Entertainment, RedLynx, Armada Interactive and Koukoi Games, all of whom have extensive experience in developing casual free-to-play games. “Tiles & Tales” is partially funded with a non-dilutive, Finnish government loan of approximately €1M. 

“We are delighted to unveil our new Helsinki studio and showcase our in-house development capabilities,” commented Kuuhubb CEO, Jouni Keränen. “Story-based games are currently one of the truly big trends in female mobile gaming and are a perfect complement to Kuuhubb’s existing portfolio.”

Kuuhubb has also brought onto the project Brunette Games, a leading narrative design studio with special expertise in the visual novel genre. Brunette Games has designed and written four previous books for three other apps, including “Choices,” “Crime Stories,” and a standalone game, “Sender Unknown.” The team is also credited with the narratives for numerous chart-topping match-3 games, including “Matchington Mansion” and “Lily's Garden.” Studio owner Lisa Brunette, who brings to the project 25 years’ experience as a published novelist and journalist in addition to a decade-plus in game writing, will write one of the “Tiles & Tales” books. Three other books are currently in development.

“The team is aiming for another ground-breaking product and we’re certain that the combination of stories and match-3, the first game of its kind, will resonate with our audience,” stated Kuuhubb GM, Apps and Games, Kristoffer Rosberg.

Mobile puzzle games, a category which includes match-3, claimed 60 percent of the $8.1B market for casual games in the West last year. Industry analysts have concluded that story-based games and gameplay innovation, as well as smaller and more focused development teams, are two of the best ways to break into the top segments of the market, and “Tiles & Tales” is making use of both. Between the incorporation of visual novels with game-changing match-3 play techniques and the dedicated and agile team of experienced industry experts, “Tiles & Tales” is poised to impress players.

About Kuuhubb

Kuuhubb is a publicly listed mobile game development and publishing company, targeting the female audience with bespoke mobile gaming experiences. Our strategy is to become a top player in the underserved female mobile game space by identifying new lifestyle trends, partnering with select developers and consumer brands, and creating innovative mobile game apps for our user community to enjoy. Headquartered in Helsinki, Finland, Kuuhubb has a global presence with a strong focus on developing U.S. brand collaborations and Asian partnerships.

Cautionary Note Concerning Forward-Looking Information 

This press release contains forward-looking information. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, that address activities, events or developments that the Company believes, expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future (including, without limitation, statements relating to the potential success of the Tiles & Tales game, future revenue and products and the development and growth of the Company’s business) are forward-looking information. This forward-looking information reflects the current expectations or beliefs of the Company based on information currently available to the Company. Forward-looking information is subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that may cause the actual results of the Company to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking information, and even if such actual results are realized or substantially realized, there can be no assurance that they will have the expected consequences to, or effects on the Company. Factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations include, among other things, the possibility that results from the Tiles & Tales game will not be consistent with the Company’s expectations, risks related to the growth strategy of the Company, the possibility that results from the Company’s growth and development plans will not be consistent with the Company's expectations, the early stage of the Company's development, competition from companies in a number of industries, the ability of the Company to manage expansion and integrate acquisitions into its business, future business development of the Company and the other risks disclosed under the heading "Risk Factors" in the Company's annual information form dated November 8, 2018 filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Forward-looking information speaks only as of the date on which it is provided and, except as may be required by applicable securities laws, the Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise. Although the Company believes that the assumptions inherent in the forward-looking information are reasonable, forward-looking information is not a guarantee of future performance and accordingly undue reliance should not be put on such information due to the inherent uncertainty therein.

For further information, please contact:

Kuuhubb Inc.

Jouni Keränen, CEO

jouni@kuuhubb.com

Bill Mitoulas, Investor Relations

bill@kuuhubb.com

Office: +1 (416) 479-9547

For local St. Louis, Missouri, press inquiries:

Brunette Games LLC

Lisa Brunette, Owner and Head Writer/Designer

Email Link

Anthony Valterra, Director of Business Development

Email Link

Office: (206) 713-9710

The photo accompanying this announcement is also available to download at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/f6ef9989-2e3c-464f-aa30-b3b2930bba25

A screenshot from Ellen: The Game

Here's Dexter Woltman with a window into the student assignment that helped him get a job in the game industry.

Before I was hired on as junior writer/designer here at Brunette Games, I was a student in Lisa Brunette’s class at Webster University. It was a narrative writing class, of course, and one that specialized in video games. Over the course of the semester, Lisa had taught us all sorts of useful practices and tips. When it came time for our final, we students were given a choice. We could either write the script for a game, or turn in an entire game we made ourselves. I did the latter, and it’s part of what led to my involvement with Brunette Games. 

Anyone who has known me for long knows that I’ve always had a habit of writing stories about my friends. In high school, it was short stories and books about friends. In college, it evolved into a different format... first movie scripts, and then games about my friends. Writing about friends is actually a great practice for any writer. It allows you to draw upon pre-established, deep, complex characters, and craft a narrative around them. It helps writers realize the complexity that comes into each character, and how every little quirk is just part of a larger whole. Once a writer understands that, it makes it easier to craft original, equally complex characters. I’ve been practicing my craft this way for a lot of years now, and I’m not even the only one on my campus who does it. 

When it came to Lisa’s final assignment, I decided to create my own game using a software called RPG Maker MV. Coincidentally, during that same semester, it was my roommate Ellen’s birthday. To celebrate the birthday of one of my closest friends, I decided to make my game about her, which is the beginning of how Ellen: The Game came to be.

Ellen: The Game proved to be a successful venture for me. Clocking in at about three to four hours of game time, it was an enjoyable story about my friends and me living inside an actual video game. It also took itself very literally. In the game, my narrative counterpart had created the game world for Ellen, only for the characters to lose control of it to a mysterious villain. Not only did Ellen and my friends love it, but Lisa Brunette did, too, and that helped pave the way for me to eventually join Brunette Games. 

Ellen: The Game also taught me a lot about game development as a whole. To start, it’s so much more than just writing a story. RPG Maker MV does a lot of the heavy lifting for creators, but there’s still a lot of programming and development that goes into the creation process. There are maps to account for, resources, limitations, items, et cetera. All of that had to be funneled into narrative. Just about everything a game needed, I had to create on my own. And when RPG Maker MV couldn’t match my preferences, I had to look to external sources for coding and plug-in management. It was a lengthy process, but also an enjoyable one.

Throughout the entire development process on Ellen: The Game, there were two things I learned that stuck out to me the most. The first was the value of honest feedback. As much as my friends loved the game, nothing is perfect. Bosses were too hard, the level cap was small, and the non-manual save system was limiting. The second thing that stuck out to me was narrative planning. When it came to Ellen: The Game, I thought of it more as a minor, personal project. A lot of the story was sort of made up as I went along, including the ultimate villain reveal, which happened to be a vacuum cleaner named Fuego. I knew that in the future, I had to plan out these narratives more thoroughly. I had to know exactly where I wanted my characters to be, and when I wanted my characters to be there. And that is exactly the mindset I carried into Paradise: The Sequel.

I began creating Paradise: The Sequel the summer after I finished Brunette’s class. A much more ambitious project, it was the next step on the road that eventually came to be the New Dork Trilogy, New Dork City being a primary location in the games that features hundreds of Ellen duplicates as its citizens. This time, I was much more prepared. I learned from my experiences with Ellen: The Game and came into the project with a full narrative outline, as well as with all the feedback I received from my first venture. Bosses were easier, the level cap was doubled, and now players could save on the fly. The story itself was also more ambitious, bringing the characters from the first game into the “Trash Bin” of the original game world. It ultimately led to a split narrative, with an important choice that brought players to one of two entirely different final chapters.

The player makes an important choice in Paradise: The Sequel

Paradise: The Sequel was a hallmark of my personal projects. It gave me a great experience with game and narrative development. By the end, it was about eight hours of adventure, if players included both endings, as well as the different post-stories attached to each one. By the time I was done with it, I didn’t want to stop. I wanted to finish the story and go out with a bang, which is exactly why I began developing Parallel: The Finale.

Parallel: The Finale has been my most ambitious project yet. Nine months in, and I’m still not finished with it. The story follows a large time jump and takes the characters to a parallel universe, doubling the cast with parallel counterparts. The narrative is also much deeper, now having characters deal with losses and personal developments. By this point, I had perfected the characterizations of my friends, and now I wanted to show how I could change them. I’ve also taken what I’ve learned from my time at Brunette Games, doubling down on narrative and emphasizing the value of teamwork by bringing in friends to help with character designs, narrative feedback, and custom animations.

The player enters New Dork City in Parallel: The Finale

What started out as a hobby grew into an academic project. What grew as an academic project led to a position, one that I can continually learn new things from that enhance my writing skills. Filled with passion and commitment, the New Dork Trilogy has been an incredibly momentous project for me. It’s something I will likely never forget. And now, as I evolve to new, exciting things, it’s very likely Parallel: The Finale will be the last story I ever write about my friends. As sad as I am to see that go, it’s almost like a final send-off for me as I graduate college, something that will drive me into the next era of adulthood. Ellen: The Game started a new chapter of my story, but it certainly didn’t end it.

Tamsen Reed here with a review/narrative design analysis.

“It’s a really good game if you can ignore the visuals. And the voice acting. Plus, the dialogue is bad, too.”

My complex love affair with narrative role-playing game The Council has become something of a joke among my peers and friends. I’ll admit that my protestations may sound somewhat ridiculous.

Maybe it’s not a strong endorsement for The Council, an episodic RPG from Bordeaux-based Big Bad Wolf Studio. I don’t believe in misleading people. There’s a LOT you have to ignore in order to enjoy it. This game evokes so many mixed emotions that I can’t truly be sure if I hate it or if I love it.

The PC is confronted by Cardinal Piaggi right as he enters the mansion. We can’t use the Diversion or Science dialogue options, as we haven’t unlocked them yet.

Yet, The Council succeeds because of its innovative use of RPG elements in a narrative-focused game. It makes for arguably a more interesting experience than is offered by most point-and-click adventures or Telltale Games. You play as Louis de Richet, a multitalented secret society member. As Louis, you navigate a 3D environment to solve puzzles and explore a mysterious island in the midst of a political meeting to find your missing mother.

Louis de Richet has a great many possible skills and talents, which are separated into three skill trees. Near the beginning of the game, you select one of the skill trees as your class: Diplomat, Occultist, or Detective. This gives you a baseline set of skills to start out with. As you complete chapters, the game alerts you to your successes, your failures, and ultimate paths you could’ve chosen. Each chapter earns you experience points that allow you to level up skills.

Near the beginning of the game, you choose your occupation. This unlocks an entire tree of skills for you to draw on as Louis de Richet.

These skills prove quite useful in the main gameplay, where you manipulate political figures and investigate your surroundings in order to locate your missing mother. Each NPC has immunities and vulnerabilities to different skills. For example, in conversations with Napoleon Bonaparte, he may be immune to the Conviction and Politics skills, while he might be exploited by using Etiquette. The skills you select affect which dialogue options are available to you.  

Frequently, a character might approach you in a Confrontation—a high-stakes battle of wits where you have a limited number of mistakes you can make. In these player-vs.-NPC encounters, knowing the strengths and weaknesses of your opponents is vital. If you choose incorrectly and fail the confrontation, the consequences are tangible and, sometimes, quite harsh.  

Your skills also may assist you in uncovering clues and solving puzzles around the island. If you get stuck and need a hint, you can spend some of your limited effort points (which replenish at the end of each chapter) in order to use de Richet’s experience to give you, the player, some helpful information.

It is a game with high expectations when it comes to the player's intellectual capabilities. The only way to succeed is to thoroughly explore your environments and to think critically about the clues you uncover—though, for a game with such difficult puzzles, sometimes understanding its dialogue poses even more of a challenge.

I imagine that, in its native French language, the dialogue reads wonderfully. In the English version, there’s a laundry list of issues, the biggest of which is just awkward and clunky text that is frequently phrased in a stilted manner. A lot of the biggest offenders of this type seem to figure in Louis’s internal monologue, where he has such thoughts as:

“I absolutely need to find you, Mother”

“And if I can believe my vision, you don’t have much of a place in her heart”

“For crying out loud, why did you hide supplies in the middle of nowhere, Mother?”

Another issue is text that did not seem to be localized in any way, shape, or form. Localization, for anyone who may not know, is the process of editing text to make it more natural and logical for native speakers. It’s frequently text that’s been translated into English from other languages; however, localization may also occur if you have text native to the UK that you’d like to present to U.S. players. It’s an important process, seeing as unfamiliar and confusing slang may be immersion-breaking.

Another issue in The Council is the anachronistic language. It’s scattered throughout the game and tends to undermine the historical feel. Now, writing period pieces can be extremely difficult, and there is definitely room for some light anachronism, in my opinion. It disrupts the player’s immersion when, in a story that takes place in the 18th century, the main character says, “Pull yourself together, man.” Unfortunately, the quality of the voice acting sometimes draws even more attention to awkward phrasing and anachronisms.

Throughout the game, you get to choose which path to follow. These choices carry quite a bit of weight, and most of the paths diverge quite drastically.

The tragic part is that most of the side characters are voiced reasonably well. The accents are fine, the dialogue seems believable, and the voice actors themselves seem to have changed the text in order to speak more naturally (which is evident in mismatches between the subtitles and the voice acting).

The main character is not handled quite as skillfully. For some reason, the choice was made to use an American actor who does not put on any sort of accent for his character (a Frenchman, born in Paris). It’s not just that they cast someone with an American accent… They cast a man who speaks in a whiney, Californian form of iambic pentameter. It’s what I’d imagine a production of Hamlet to be like if a casting director ever made the grave mistake of putting Hayden Christensen in the title role.

In my gaming experience, I’ve found that convincing acting can make up for mediocre dialogue. Wonderful writing can distract from a so-so performance. But to have awkward writing paired with unconvincing acting? Ouch.

Gregory Holm, just one character who exemplifies the strange (and creepy) animation used throughout the game.

It’s an absolute tragedy that a game with such an intriguing story and incredibly innovative mechanics is so unappealing to two of the senses. Nonetheless, I would heartily recommend this game to anyone with a vested interest in how narrative games are evolving and what they’ll look like in the future. Playing it has been a valuable experience, and, despite its writing flaws, the game has a logical flow and tells a very compelling, original story.

In short, the animation style may be uncomfortable, the dialogue could use additional localization to sound more passable to native speakers, and the voice acting sometimes makes me want to use steel wool as earplugs…

… but it’s also incredibly well-designed from a gameplay standpoint. With puzzles that truly challenge the player, sleek UI and menus, and a leveling system that affects how your player tackles verbal confrontations, this game is simply one that should not be ignored.

It seems to be a truism here at Brunette Games that the only thing that's constant is change. In that spirit, I bring you another announcement: Anthony Valterra is joining the Brunette Games team. 

Anthony brings to the team more than 20 years' experience in brand and grant management. He has stewarded federal, state, and local grants of as much as $10M-plus, with a track record of success evident in above-average outcomes across his career. His game industry experience includes business management for Wizards of the Coast's Dungeons & Dragons and Avalon Hill lines. He was also the founder of Valar Project, publisher of role-playing game products. He primarily serves our client Robot Sea Monster Games as their director of client communications, as well as directing business for Brunette Games. Because if there's one thing Anthony has, it's direction.

What's incredibly cool about this announcement is that Anthony gets to return to games after a decade-long hiatus, in which he racked up all those wins as a grant manager. The two experiences together will make him formidable in any boss battle.

Of course, for those of you who know us, the other obviously cool thing here is that Anthony joining Brunette Games makes this a family business, as he is also my husband. We make an awesome team in so many other aspects of our lives together. We're pretty much unbeatable as the king and queen of games.

Anthony gets SO MANY COMPLIMENTS on this sweatshirt. Seriously.

You can now find Anthony on our team page, but here are some questions I asked him to answer for you, by way of introduction.

Tell us about your experience in the game industry. You've done a lot of different things, and you're well-known in certain circles.

I've had the pleasure of working in both the traditional (board and dice) game industry and the electronic game industry. My very first job is one that most people in the game industry can relate to - working in a virtual sweatshop. I knew enough Photoshop to work on a production line for an interactive sports product. It was a contract gig with a very short deadline. In order to complete it, we had to hot-seat the work (one team would sleep while the other worked, and then we would trade places). We got the project done.

Two years later, I went in for an interview at Wizards of the Coast, and there, on my future boss's desk, was that same sports product. Life is funny that way. Years later, when I left Wizards of the Coast, I made an attempt at running my own companies - Valar Project and Portal East. Valar Project put out 2003's bestselling Dungeon & Dragons-compatible book. But Portal East made more money, by brokering print and manufacturing for game companies out of China. I then worked for a 3D-asset design studio called Lamplighter. Lamplighter created 3D characters and other assets for games, including assets for BioShock.

How have you applied your knowledge of game theory to the world of grant management?

I was quite surprised to find that there are a number of parallels between playing games and managing a grant. Both have a set of rules, sometimes very arcane, using unique terms and often written very poorly. Both have "win conditions" and assets or "meeples." And both require you to work and compete against other people who are also trying to use the rules to reach their win condition. And like the best modern games, the rules can change as you proceed. Frankly, running a grant can be quite maddening, if you don't see it as a game!

What excites you most about returning to the game industry?

The game industry is notorious for being a difficult environment. It suffers from social issues, financial issues, and political issues. And it is my first love. I played D&D as a kid, and the love of gaming has stayed with me my whole life. It may be a crazy world, but it is where I feel at home.

What do you see down the road for mobile game development?

There might be a brand new thing coming that I don’t know about, but if I were going to bet on something, it would be augmented reality. I think Pokemon: Go was an initial foray, and in the coming years, we will see some truly innovative, story-driven, augmented reality games.

***

Please join me in welcoming Anthony to the Brunette Games team.

Last spring, I flew to Copenhagen for a whirlwind week of concept brainstorming with the top-notch team at Tactile Entertainment. The seeds of that work have now come to full fruition: Lily's Garden.

Here's the official game description:

Get your hands dirty in Lily’s Garden, our new FREE puzzle game! Help Lily restore her great-aunt’s garden to its former glory and rediscover her roots. Dig into a story full of twists and turns as Lily interacts with a cast of colorful characters. Plant the seed of romance with her handsome neighbor Luke, and keep her rake of an ex-boyfriend Blaine off her turf. Match and collect flowers in hundreds of unique puzzle levels to earn stars and grow your garden!

And the trailer:

While for business reasons I didn't stay on to write the game text for Tactile, I'm amazed by how much we accomplished in that whirlwind week, as is evident in the release version of the game.

What really impresses me about Tactile is that they prioritize both quality and emotional content in their games. Lily's Garden is only one example. What brought me out to Denmark last year despite a busy game studio and a full-time teaching gig was their dedication to the craft of game development, which you can see in their Bee Brilliant and Cookie Cats series of games. The team was terrific to work with, too, and if I have one regret about the insane 2018 I experienced in transitioning Brunette Games into a fully staffed studio, it's that I didn't get to see Lily's Garden all the way through to the launch finish line. But it's immensely satisfying to see the Brunette Games influence at work anyway. Even more satisfying is simply to play yet another awesome game from this talented team of Danes.

Here are some behind-the-scenes shots from my trip last spring. 

Some of the Tactile gang in an after-work toast. The cozy, light-filled office definitely encourages folks to stick around...

For most of the week, we were holed up in a conference room, brainstorming on a whiteboard. The great thing about this stage is that anything goes. The last thing you want to do when brainstorming is shut down any idea, no matter how seemingly nutty it is. You never know where something will take you.

I loved the views through the office windows. The light in Copenhagen, with the grey, wintry weather and combination of water, sky, and rain, reminded me a lot of Seattle.

When Tactile first contacted me in early 2018, I played and fell in love with their Bee Brilliant games, getting serious heart eyes for the bee babies in the game. You can find plush toy versions of the BBs tucked in spots throughout the offices. Just typing this puts the bee baby theme song back in my head, in a good way.

The other crush I developed on this one-week work trip was for Copenhagen itself. I sorely wished I'd had time to explore, but it was hard enough to sneak away during spring break from teaching. What I did see on my walks and bike rides left me wanting more.

The architecture is olde worlde magnificent. The city's recorded origins are in the 12th century, but archeologists have unearthed settlements dating as far back as 1020.

As someone who's drawn to water but currently finds herself very much landlocked in the Midwest, I couldn't get enough of Nyhavn, a 17th-century waterfront that is one of the most picturesque I've ever seen.

The citizens of Copenhagen are renowned for their embrace of the bicycle, with as many as 75% of city dwellers biking throughout the year as a form of transportation. One of my most memorable experiences was biking across town in the middle of snow flurries to meet with Tactile's CEO, Asbjoern Soendergaard. That's the moment I truly felt like a Dane.

I hope one day to get to return to this incredibly captivating city. Until then, I'll play Lily's Garden, and remember my time at Tactile fondly.