By Jenna Hume

Brunette Games is proud to announce the release of the story-driven puzzle game City Escape Garden Blast Story. It has been a true team effort to create the Filburn family and their world in collaboration with client Sparkling Society. Lisa Brunette, Dexter Woltman, and I all had a hand in writing and designing this game, with Lisa providing the initial concept and Dexter and I designing the chapter narratives and task flows as well as writing all dialogue. In City Escape, the Filburn family—Melanie, David, Chloe, and Ben—flee the hustle and bustle of city life to create a home on a farm in the countryside. But do the Filburns have what it takes to run their own homestead? Their grumpy neighbor Owen certainly doesn’t think so!

Trailer

Official Description

Want to take an offline break from the city and escape to the countryside to build your dream home? Design homes, play colorful puzzles, beat challenging levels, and harvest your way through the exciting story of Melanie and her family, who try to turn an abandoned farm into a dream home. Will they be able to overcome all the drama and live happily ever after with your help?

Find out in this offline game: City Escape - Garden Blast Story! In this story-driven match-3 blast puzzle game with memorable characters, animals, and exciting quests, you move from the city and design, decorate, and restore an old farm house in the countryside. It's a great city island family adventure. Together, you'll build, restore, renovate and customize the entire farm and its buildings and garden. Far away from the escaped city, you will need to solve mysteries and puzzles, follow a story about village life, and renovate a mansion garden while having a blast!

Play addictive mini puzzle games with bubbles and fruity boosters to earn stars! Complete quests and tasks and beat challenging levels! In this village life simulator, each quest or task will unfold a piece of drama with the characters from your city family in the countryside landscape.

FEATURES
- See how the adventurous story unfolds for the lovely family
- The island is yours! Restore the area into a dream village: decorate it with numerous items, grow gardens in the various farm landscapes, take care of the animals and countryside
- Beat colorful levels and use fruity boosters
- Meet other interesting characters and watch them interact with each other
- Enjoy the beautiful landscapes: design homes, houses, gardens. Farm and build and solve puzzles at the same time!

City Escape is available to play today on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

By Dexter Woltman

Brunette Games put our best ideas forward when working with our client MicroFun to consult on their narrative content for Jellipop Match. Brunette Games analyzed the existing elements in the game and offered ways to enrich the story. With the dedicated team at MicroFun, Jellipop Match features an exciting island adventure where the young wizard Bingo is trying to restore a tropical villa! With magical themes and a colorful Match-3 gameplay system, Jellipop Match has plenty of fun to offer for fans of wizardry and puzzles alike!

Official Description

Welcome to the world of Jellipop Match! Build this fun-filled tropical island into your very own paradise, and explore a story filled with surprises while you grow alongside a cast of fun and charming characters!

Play match-3 levels and renovate your island villa. Use your wits to help the wizard Bingo solve his problems as you meet new friends and build the island paradise of your dreams!

Features

◆Unique match-3 gameplay with more than 3,000 challenging levels. Collect all sorts of delicious dishes and find cute animals!

◆Explore a fun-filled tropical island and discover its secrets.

◆Design your very own tropical island getaway, complete with private pool, open-air dining room, a luxurious wardrobe, and so much more!

◆Build your own waterpark complete with water slide - the perfect way to get away from the summer heat!

◆Befriend the sci-fi buff Robin and explore the seas to discover the secret of a mysterious pirate ship!

◆Play with your pets and explore mines for treasure!

Jellipop Match is available on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

Brunette Games Founder Lisa Brunette recently co-authored an article with popular industry analyst Om Tandon of UX Reviewer on the subject of why and how narrative fuels the rise of many blockbuster casual mobile games. "Power of storytelling in blockbuster casual games" is part of a series in which Om takes a deep dive into what makes top tier games in this space tick. In part 1, Om looked at how to crack the match-3 code, part 2 featured an interview with the Playrix team behind the Gardenscapes and Homescapes phenomenon, and here in part 3, Om interviews Lisa.

You can read the full article at GameRefinery, but here's an excerpt:

It's like the old saying goes: Trying to design a major hit game is like trying to capture lightning in a bottle. If there were one sure formula, everyone would have a hit, right? While many ingredients make a game popular with players - from a well-designed match-3 puzzle to the right blend of customization and progression pacing in the decorating element - it's our opinion at Brunette Games that a quality story is key.

With so many match-3 games on the market, and so many decorating games as well, story could be one of the key distinguishing factors you have at your disposal.