We're pleased to announce our psychic mystery series––the Dreamslippers––is part of a sitewide mega-sale on Smashwords. It's the Summer/Winter Sale because while those of us in the Northern Hemisphere are in the midst of the summer season, our friends in the Southern Hemisphere are enjoying winter right now. 

The Dreamslippers Series, written by Brunette Games Founder Lisa Brunette, is about a family of psychics who can pick up other people's dreams and use their ability to solve crime. For this work, Brunette received three indieBRAG medallions, was a finalist for the Nancy Pearl Book Award, and was nominated for the RONE Award. The series has been praised by Kirkus Reviews, Midwest Book Review, Mystery Sequels, and others.

You can get the Dreamslippers Series on ebook at a deep discount, 25 to 75 percent off, at this link, running from July 1 to 31, 2023. No need for a coupon code or anything else; just download the book to your device to enjoy the discounted price.

About the Dreamslippers

What if you could slip into the dreams of a killer? This family of PIs can. They use their psychic dream ability to solve crimes, and that isn’t easy. Especially if you’re totally new at this.

In Cat in the Flock…
Apprentice dreamslipper Cat McCormick goes undercover inside a fundamentalist church, where she looks for the truth and finds hypocrisy amidst true redemption. Read more >

In Framed and Burning…
Cat and Granny Grace must find out whether or not fellow dreamslipper Mick Travers set the fire that killed an up-and-coming artist, or if something even darker is behind the arson. Read more >

In Bound to the Truth…
The dreamslippers don’t quite trust their client. Did Nina Howell really fall under the spell of a domineering, conservative talk show host—as her wife claims? Read more >

PLUS explore Amazing Grace’s back story in the bonus story found ONLY in this boxed set.

You can also purchase the series in paperback via Amazon.

We're excited to share ironSource LevelUp's latest podcast interview, with Brunette Games Founder Lisa Brunette. Highlights:

Different platform and audiences require different narratives

The first game I worked on was for the DS, and I worked on some other platform games. Those were for families and younger players.

So in the case of that first game for the DS, it was for teen girls. So that's a different audience than when I migrated over to mobile games. That became a new focus for me.

But that's a way different context than when you're in your living room with your Wii. So just taking that context into consideration every step of the way. You know, if you're dedicated to your PC, and this is your me-time, that's different. For mobile games, when I'm on the bus and I might get called for my stop, or I get my notifications coming in, it needs a different kind of storytelling.

Lessons for indie studios

Don’t let the story get in the way. I think especially those indies sometimes come to games with a novel in a drawer that they want to turn into a game. And that's usually a bad way to start. We instead start with the game and then craft a story that's integrated with it.

We don't want to turn anyone's novel into a game. That means that the story was written for passive entertainment, not for the interaction of games. So right off the bat, the first thing you want to do is make sure that your story is in service to the game.

How to write narratives for mobile games

We actually have distinct milestones that we follow on all of our projects with clients. We start with them at the concept stage, and we pitch three high-level story ideas. This is after a conversation with the client in which we understand what the main gameplay is, whether that's jigsaw puzzle or merge gameplay or match three. In our games, often that meta element is decorating or perhaps makeover, or sometimes both. And then we create a story that really attempts to bridge and merge those. 

The number one reason the player is there is to play the game. They're not passive. So we're really working on what is that story that is going to merge all those three things together in this beautiful way. And we carry that through that process with every milestone.

We want things to be very short and very punchy. And, in most cases, while there's drama and interesting conflict that has to occur otherwise it's not interesting, most of what we're writing is jokes and we're really pushing the humor and being kind of meta and fun and just giving players that opportunity to enjoy.

Listen to the full podcast at the ironSource LevelUp website.

We've had a long relationship with ironSource, now owned by Unity, with many of our writers authoring industry articles:

Who Goes There? The Importance of Writing Distinct Character Voices, by Sara Hardin

The top 5 mistakes mystery writers make - and how to avoid them, by Lisa Brunette - Lisa was top writer for LevelUp in 2022 for this piece

Punchline: How to use humor to bridge player connection, by Dexter Woltman

The power of storytelling in blockbuster casual games, by Lisa Brunette

Every December, the Brunette Games team gets together to celebrate the year and ring in the holidays. This year, we spent an evening at a St. Louis board game bar and café called Pieces. The writing team introduced Lisa and Anthony to Superfight, a game that allowed everyone to flex their creative muscles (and resulted in some highly-entertaining debates surrounding the efficacy of Darth Vader teaming up with Pikachu in a fight against Robin Hood).

We also held a white elephant gift exchange, the spoils of which included punctuation-inspired Christmas tree ornaments, a card deck of writing prompts, and a bag of coffee (an essential tool in any writer's arsenal).

The Bru Crew at the Brunette Games 2022 Christmas party.

Because each of our team members works from their own home office, we value any time we get to spend together in person. This year's holiday party was no exception!

From the Brunette Games Press...

It's the perfect time of year to snag copies of the Dreamslippers Series for your own collection during Smashwords' end-of-year sale. Get the first ebook in the series for free, the boxed set for 75% off, or the second and third books for 50% off, each. 

Brunette Games wishes you happy holidays and a Happy New Year! We look forward to an even more successful and exciting 2023.