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.

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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.