We celebrate our seventh anniversary as a studio this month, and we've enjoyed a bit of fanfare around the milestone. Here's a roundup of Brunette Games in the news as we reflect on how far we've come.

Cover This

Our team landed on the cover of the Community News, a newspaper that itself has been in business more than a hundred years. As reporter Wendy Todd points out in her lede, while women make up 46 percent of video-game players, they represent only 16 percent of executives in the industry. So our founder's place in the industry was not without its hard-won aspects, though Lisa Brunette herself cites Brunette Games' status as a small business as her number one challenge: "Increasingly, the world is built to work against us, with rules and regulations often favoring large corporations at the expense of mom-and-pop shops like Brunette Games."

Fun Fact: Community News is Brunette Games team member Sara Hardin's former employer; she penned stories on beekeepers and veterans for this well-loved paper before joining us as a writer/designer.

In the Pocket

Our story was picked up by PocketGamer.biz, which highlighted Brunette Games' status as a niche storytelling studio, a key aspect of our success: 

For a diverse, female-led studio like Brunette Games, this anniversary will not only be an achievement in itself but also symbolic of how a specialist studio can maintain its place in the mobile gaming industry. While many may think that a studio has to be all things at once, being able to focus on providing critical narrative support has helped their games consistently chart across top 20s.

We couldn't agree more.

Stairs to the Top

CEO Lisa Brunette was a guest on the GameDevStairs Podcast, a free philanthropic community whose mission is to help people start their careers in game development. They outreach especially to those affected by the current war in Ukraine, connecting 2000+ subscribers in their Telegram channel from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and elsewhere. Here's the hourlong interview with Sergey Gres of GameDevStairs:

It was an honor for us to help out GameDevStairs, which offers such an important service to the game community.

The 7-Year Itch

It's said in US culture that a relationship can suffer from the "seven-year itch," as the couple might feel tempted to stray from their mission together when they cross that milestone. As  for us, we're fully committed to our focus on great game storytelling. We added voice acting to our suite of offerings back in 2019, and we're exploring some new services you might see on our menu in the year ahead. We're very proud of our accomplishments, which include:

• We have credits for the narrative in 36 games, many of them top-performing, genre-defining hits, including Merge Mansion, Lily's Garden, and Matchington Mansion. Our clients' games consistently rank in the top 20 in the app store charts and are played by billions.
• Our expertise spans casual mobile genres: hidden object, match-3, slots, merge, jigsaw, and others. We also have extensive experience on deep interactive novels with branching dialogue, including the first mystery novel published in the Choices app. We've recently expanded into subscription-based games as well, with Netflix and Apple projects currently underway, and we've worked on some mid-core projects, including one NFT/blockchain title.
• Our clients include large, well-established studios such as Jam City and Metacore, as well as talented up-and-comers like Trollgames and ZiMAD. We've worked on some of the best IPs in the world: M&M'S, Family Guy, Disney Frozen.

We've weathered incredible change over our seven years in business, and we've witnessed great creativity and innovation in our clients' projects as well. We look forward to what lies ahead. Here's to another seven years!

Jenna and her husband, Kyle, on their wedding day.

This Employee Spotlight is all about the bright and talented team member Jenna Hume. Read on for her thoughts on work, play, and Discovery Channel's Shark Week.

What's your favorite thing about working for Brunette Games?

The team! Not to sound sappy, but your coworkers can make or break your experience at a job, and my coworkers at BG have made this job an amazing experience. We all collaborate on projects well, cheer each other on, and respect everyone's creative voice—I couldn't ask for a better group of people to work with.

What's your favorite thing about being a game writer?

Coming up with fresh concepts! I love thinking outside the box and giving our clients new ideas players will hopefully love.

What do you like to see in games as a player?

Main characters with personality—there aren't enough of them out there. I get that we as writers and designers want our games to be relatable, but you can do that while still having interesting characters. A great example is our work on M&M'S Adventure, where the characters have plenty of personality.

What's your favorite movie or TV show? Why?

MTV's Teen Wolf will always hold a special place in my heart. Is every season good? No—Season 4 was horrible. But the good seasons are amazing, and the show is overlooked as a whole due to the MTV label and a mediocre first season. The best season by far is Season 3b (don't ask me to explain how the seasons work—no one knows, especially Jeff Davis), and Dylan O'Brien deserves way more credit for his acting this season than he received.

What's a surprising/interesting fact about you?

I'm absolutely obsessed with Discovery Channel's Shark Week. It's a problem. I've watched annually since 2005, and my family knows not to text or call me while new specials are airing. My favorite shark is the bull shark, because they're problematic and can swim in both fresh and saltwater. Don't ask me my opinion on the celebrities featured in Shark Week; I could and will rant for hours.

How do you like to spend your personal time?

Currently most of my personal time is spent trying to get caught up on Critical Role, which seems like an impossible task and one I almost regret. The internet is scary and full of spoilers.

Official M&M’S Adventure Artwork

By Dexter Woltman

Brunette Games can always go for a good snack! Anthony Valterra, Jenna Hume, and I have worked alongside the talented team at Gear Inc. to bring Mars’ beloved M&M’S characters to the small, interactive screen in Tilting Point’s new game, M&M’S Adventure! If you’re not craving chocolate now, you will be soon. Players travel through exciting locations alongside their favorite M&M’S characters. Whether it’s Blue’s cool, suave nature, or Orange’s nervous-yet-lovable approach, there’s an M&M for everyone! With iconic characters, stylized cutscenes, and unique, candy-blasting fun, this is one adventure you won’t want to miss.

Check out the trailer below to see for yourself!

Official Store Description

Play with your favorite M&M’S characters in the first and only M&M’S mobile game: Explore the M&M’S universe and enjoy the adventure with your favorite M&M’S characters! Participate in time-limited events, and collect and unlock unique M&M’S accessories in these casual matching puzzles. The fun world of M&M’S has thousands of adventures waiting to be played!

• Play fun and challenging puzzle games
• Choose your favorite colors and characters
• Collect amazing M&M’S accessories
• Seasonal events every month
• Travel around the world with M&M’S

M&M’S Adventure is available on the App Store and Google Play Store.