Official ‘Jigsaw Puzzle Villa’ artwork

By Dexter Woltman

Who doesn’t love snuggling on the couch with their favorite furry (or not-so-furry) friend? Pets play an important role in our lives, and most of the team at Brunette Games find ourselves fortunate enough to own one. Whether our pets are scratching at a toy, napping beside their owner, or—in my case—trying to crawl on my shoulder while I write, pets are a source of comfort and levity. When we’re designing ways to engage audiences with our games, we often translate that familiar sense of animal companionship into the stories we see onscreen.

Across Brunette Games’ 35 released titles and counting, we’ve featured a wide range of lovable pets. Some of our titles include a more traditional choice when it comes to our characters’ animal friends, such as Tiffany’s endearing-yet-sassy cat in Magic Tavern’s Machington Mansion. But whether it’s a cat, dog, or goat, each takes a unique role in their owner’s life.

When Justine travels to Spain in ZiMAD’s Jigsaw Puzzle Villa, she’s surprised to find the owner of the villa she’s staying in hasn’t given her cat a set name. Much like in Machington Mansion, this allows players the opportunity to name the cat themselves, building a deeper connection between the player and the animal.

Jigsaw Puzzle Villa also brings pets into the forefront of its gameplay by allowing players to solve animal-themed jigsaw puzzles. These adorable puzzles feature dogs, birds, horses, cats, and more!

Traveling beyond Spain, Justine isn’t the only woman in our games who meets animal friends abroad. Even acclaimed actor Jane Seymour sets out on a quest to rescue exotic animals with her loyal pet companions in “Into the Islands,” a time-limited event in Playtika’s Solitaire Grand Harvest.

Sometimes, the roles of pets in our games is even more involved. In Jam City’s Family Guy: The Quest for Stuff, the family dog Brian is the (literal) voice of reason. When he’s not busy ranting about politics or his superiority complex, he’s steering the dysfunctional family out of harm’s way.

Speaking of the “voice of reason,” when handyman Emilio’s feeling down in Jigsaw Puzzle Villa, his goat offers him valuable advice like “Bleat!” and “Bleaty! Bleat! Bleat!” Did we mention the goat is also nameable?

But the fun doesn’t stop there. While the goat in Jigsaw Puzzle Villa helps Emilio find himself, the dog in Sparkling Society’s City Escape helps the family in the game find… their rival? City Escape follows the Filburns' move to the countryside, where the parents quickly enter into a feud with their neighbor, Owen Timmons. When the Filburn kids—Ben and Chloe—find a lost dog, they’re surprised to discover he belongs to Owen. They return the dog to his home, marking the first step in healing the relationship between the Filburns and their disgruntled neighbor.

But not every dog who wanders feels lost. In Uken Games’ Ava’s Manor, the lead character is a mystery-seeker whose loyal dog Marlowe joins her on adventures. Marlowe’s larger-than-life presence is felt throughout the game as he points Ava in the direction of clues. Marlowe’s even voiced by our very own Andy Mack, who brings life to the dog’s many yips and barks.

Pets bring out the best in the characters we write. In a way, they’re humanizing and allow our characters to see themselves through the animals’ eyes. Whether you’re a longtime pet owner or admire animals from a distance, our games have four-legged companions for anyone to fall in love with—and these pets don’t require vacuuming loose hair! Be sure to check our Brunette Games’ expanding catalog of titles, where we continually find new animals to add to our growing roster of beloved pets.

In a Pocket Gamer post about ZiMAD's new release, Jigsaw Puzzle Villa, CEO Dmitry Bobrov speaks about tying the puzzle gameplay with the narrative crafted by the team at Brunette Games.

Puzzle Villa is the first project of ours where a simple puzzle-solving mechanic was paired with quite a deep narrative and characters and a large amount of high-quality content accompanying the player during the course of the game. A new take on the genre was warmly welcomed by the players from different countries and of various age categories.

Read the complete post here, and download the game on the Google Play Store!

By Sara Hardin

Television history was made in 1994 when Rachel Green entered the Central Perk in her sopping wet wedding dress on the pilot episode of Friends. “The One Where Monica Gets a Roommate” turned the expectations for portraying a wedding on its head—instead of the glitz, glam, and giddiness typically associated with the Big Day, Rachel left her fiancé at the altar after realizing she didn’t truly love him. Thus, Rachel is thrown into the ragtag group of friends the world quickly grew to love.

Weddings and romance—happy endings or otherwise—are an excellent way to develop characters in any narrative, and casual game stories are no exception. Multiple developers—most notably, our own client Metacore—have even capitalized on the failed-wedding trope for themselves as part of their marketing, and there’s little doubt as to why; the idea of a love turned sour is compelling. If we’re immediately asking, “Why? What went wrong?” then the content has already hooked us.

Grandma Ursula comforts Maddie in this ad for Merge Mansion.

While there’s plenty of room for gossip and drama in casual game narrative—in fact, it’s something we at Brunette Games are constantly encouraging our clients to explore—the same can be said for happy and healthy relationships. Watching a romance grow from nothing to a-lot-more-than-something is hugely rewarding for audiences. A great example of this type of relationship development is seen in The Office between Jim and Pam. By the time they shared their first kiss, viewers who had been around since the beginning were crying happy tears (and maybe I’m projecting since that was definitely my experience… but I don’t think I’m too far off). Their friendship turned forbidden-crush turned passionate-romance is a hugely successful representation of the art of the slow burn. The payoff continues as we watch them get engaged and eventually married, and their relationship arc remains one of the most enjoyable parts of every rewatch for longtime fans.

“I thought they'd be good together, like PB&J. Pam Beasley... and Jim. What a waste. What. A. Waste.”

Even if a game’s narrative leans more “playful comedy” than “mysterious drama,” the potential for exploring budding romance remains. In Redemption Games’ Sweet Escapes, the diva poodle Cherry and cantankerous hyena Buzz are an adorable representation of when opposites attract. They even get engaged and married, a development that was warmly received by long-term players. This kind of relationship growth has huge payoff for games with hours upon hours of gameplay: If the audience is dying to see if a romance is going to go somewhere exciting, they’re eager to continue playing to find out more.

Sweet Escapes fans root for the unlikely romance between Cherry and Buzz.

In addition to romance in general, we think mature romance deserves more time in the spotlight. In ZiMAD’s Jigsaw Puzzle Villa, side character Emilio starts the game having silently pined after Valentina for years. Valentina, heart shattered by a disastrous marriage to an unfaithful man, takes some time to come around to Emilio’s affections—but when she does, she’s ready to embrace the quality of love she’s always deserved.

Twenty-somethings aren’t the only people falling in love, and they certainly aren’t the only ones playing mobile games—all the more reason to make space for this type of romance in our narratives. This is an area of representation that often gets overlooked. We occasionally find a sense of reluctance to explore the dynamics of existing marriages and long-term relationships in our stories, which feels like a missed opportunity; these situations lend themselves to drama just as often—if not more—than a new, blossoming romance. The conflict in these instances is often more nuanced, less petty, and complicated by years of intimate connection. The interest in these storylines doesn’t have to taper after the wedding bells have rung.

All this to say, we hope to see more opportunities for weddings and multi-faceted relationships in our future. The appeal, charm, and heartstring-pulling potential can’t be overstated—happy ending, or otherwise.