We've been deep in development on a few subscription-based game projects, and one of those just released via Apple Arcade: Kingdoms: Merge & Build.

Having worked with awesome client Cherrypick Games since 2017, we were thrilled to support this terrific game as well, bringing our years of narrative prowess to the table on the character concepts, narrative design, and all in-game dialogue and messaging. Our voice actors also chimed in with recordings for the intro cutscene and marketing video. Shout-out to Andy Mack and Nicole Perez for their talented help!

What we love most about this game is the quirky humor: Prince Edward is a... complicated hero. He blames others for his misdeeds, seems to care more about his golden bathtub than the welfare of his people, and keeps forgetting the name of his kingdom. But will he rise to the occasion and save his father's empire from ruin? Play the game to find out!

You can play the game for free if you're a member of Apple Arcade. Here's the official app-store description:

Enjoy a soothing merge-2 experience blended with kingdom-building gameplay in this story-rich adventure exclusive to Apple Arcade!

The kingdom needs your help! During the king's absence, a mysterious magical power destroyed the kingdom. Now it's up to Prince Edward, Desmond, Megan, and other friends to rebuild the land and restore it to its former glory. Embark on this magical adventure and unfold its mystery.

* Merge hundreds of unique items, discover new resources, use boosters, and complete tasks!

* Complete quests to progress through chapters and unlock new buildings, kingdom improvements, characters, and landmarks!

* Renovate the fallen kingdom from the old harbor and pier to the glorious castle!

* Follow the story, make new friends, and uncover the mystery!

* Participate in events, work with other players towards global goals, and get special rewards!

WWW: kingdomsarcade.com

Discord: https://discord.gg/H6RbCjQUjn

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/arcade.kingdoms

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/arcade.kingdoms

X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/arcade_kingdoms

And here's the promo video, voiced by our very own Nicole Perez:

This fall, Brunette Games reached an exciting milestone of 35 released games featuring our narrative work. Read on for insights from all five of our full-time employees and two of our contract voice-over actors on what accomplishments stand out to them and how story can make a difference in mobile games!

First, let’s check in with Lisa Brunette, owner and chief creative officer.

What key differences have you noticed in the mobile game space since the inception of Brunette Games in 2016? 

Lisa Brunette: It’s a radically different landscape here in 2022 compared to six years ago! My first project as an indie back then was Matchington Mansion, and the folks at Magic Tavern and I were basically teaching puzzle players how to enjoy a story along with their gameplay. What I brought to that project––a strong storyline, a relatable lead character, a diverse character cast overall, and puzzle pieces thematically tied to the storyline––these elements are commonplace now, but they were huge innovations in 2016, innovations that paid off.

How have these affected the way you and your team approach your work?

Lisa Brunette: We evolve as the industry evolves, and that’s the key to our success. While we carved out a niche for ourselves with story-driven games in the match-3/decorating genre, our expertise also encompasses interactive novels, idle battle games, city builders, jigsaw, solitaire, merge, of course, and more. Right now we’re deep into NFT/blockchain, web3, and the subscription model.

If you could give mobile game developers one piece of advice, what would it be?

Lisa Brunette: Taking a cue from the success of my own studio, I would say innovation and change are two things to always embrace. We’re constantly approached by studios who see a new hit on the scene and want to copy it. But that hit didn’t become a hit by copying something else! It’s a hit due to its own innovation, the change of pace it gave players.

And now, a word from our VP:

What would you like to see more of in mobile games?

Anthony Valterra: Lately I’ve been enjoying quieter games. I think the frenetic pace of many games has become tiring. I am enjoying the relaxed pace of Jigsaw Puzzle Villa and would like to see more games with that sort of tone.

What’s a stand-out moment in your time spent as part of Brunette Games?

Anthony Valterra: One moment I will always remember was getting to insert a cartoon version of my grandfather in a game. His odd accent and speech mannerisms were hilarious and perfect for a quirky side character.

Let’s see what our Writer | Designer team has to say:

What do you enjoy most about writing for games? 

Dexter Woltman: I enjoy creating original characters. Whether they’re the relatable heroine, scheming villain, or comedic best friend, it’s always fun to craft a new personality from the ground up. Between writing their backstories, deciding their relationships, and giving them a unique voice, there’s a lot of ways to make each character feel special.

Jenna Hume:  Integrating story and gameplay. This is always a challenge, but one that’s fun to take on. From creating tutorials to consulting on artwork, it’s exciting to see the story and gameplay come together in ways that are unique to each game.

Sara Hardin: I like the challenge of crafting an impactful story within a mobile game’s limited space for text. I often find myself thinking from the players’ perspective when I’m drafting a game script, considering what would be the most satisfying development for players who are invested in the game’s narrative. Maybe I’m biased, because I’m a gamer who’s a sucker for a game with a good story!

What do you enjoy most as a player?

Dexter Woltman: Is winning too basic of an answer? I enjoy achieving my gameplay goals and reaching the end of a level or game. When I see “level cleared” flash across the screen, it fills me with pride and excitement. I’m also very structured and organized in my own life, so crossing a finished game off my list—or crossing a task off a literal in-game list—is always satisfying.

Jenna Hume: I’ve always loved puzzles, so my favorite games are those that make me think just a little bit. Recently, I’ve enjoyed merge games a lot. Trying to figure out which items to merge to get the items you need is always a fun, rewarding challenge.

Sara Hardin: Aside from story, I live for the unique satisfaction of winning something I’ve been working toward for countless hours. Whether it’s a particularly difficult level in a mobile game or the final boss in my favorite rougelike (Supergiant’s Hades, by the way), nothing beats the euphoria of chipping away at a goal until I’m finally victorious. I named my betta fish Zagreus after the PC in Hades, if that’s any indication.

And last but not least, some insight from two of our über-talented voice-over actors:

Imagine you've been cast to record voice-over for your dream role in a mobile game. Who's the character?

Andy Mack: If I could record for a "dream" mobile game, it would probably be for either something like Disney Mirrorverse/Sorcerer's Arena or Marvel Strike Force. Having family ties to Disney and being a former cast member, the brand and characters are near and dear to me. The Mad Hatter is my favorite character and I've been lucky enough to do him for the DL Weekly (Disneyland podcast) promos, but it would be awesome to do it in an actual game format. As for MSF, that is my long-running mobile addiction, so it would be great to be a part of that cast and pretend I have superpowers or muscles, ha, ha.

Nicole Perez: My dream role in a mobile game is a hammy, witchy villain! A role I can really sink my teeth into—perhaps a villain with a “soft side,” someone that we eventually sympathize with, who never felt quite “understood.” This villain cackles, hollers, and has a sarcastic flair. 

Can you share a fond memory you have of recording VO for Brunette Games?

Andy Mack: I've had many fond memories over the years with doing VO for Brunette Games. The one that makes me laugh the most was doing the dog, Marlowe, for Ava's Manor. It was a challenge trying to convey various types of emotions nonverbally while trying to remain lovable/sympathetic for players. However, I knew I was on the right track when my own dog started barking at what I was recording. If I could fool him, I was doing something right!

Nicole Perez: I loved recording Lucy Hill [from an in-development game by Uken Games] because she is this over-the-top, ooey-gooey-sweet neighborly woman with this peculiar country charm and sweet Southern drawl. The process is to record three takes per line. I enjoyed this process because it allowed me to explore the character deeply; I made three distinctly different possible acting choices for how this character would come alive. 

It's been a wild, wicked, and sometimes, a bit of a wacky road, but this spring, we hit the five-year mark at Brunette Games. Here's a look back at our rise to become the industry's leading casual game storytelling studio.

2021

Brunette Games celebrates its fifth anniversary now as a team of 11, with six full-time employees and five voice actors on contract. We have written and designed 21 released titles for our clients to date, including top-performing games Sweet Escapes (Redemption Games), Lily's Garden (Tactile), and Matchington Mansion (Magic Tavern), with many more unannounced titles currently in development. Our latest release title credit is Uken Games' Ava's Manor: A Solitaire Story.

This year we've also created new content for the Fox IP Family Guy: The Quest for Stuff and Family Guy: Another Freakin' Mobile Game (both Jam City), as well as the high-profile Disney Frozen Adventures (also Jam City). Included in the list is work on Homicide Squad: New York Stories and Crime Mysteries: Find Objects for G5 Entertainment, our oldest client.

And we added Writer|Designers Sara Hardin and Jenna Faulkner to our team in 2021, too. Sara's our latest hire, joining us just this week and bringing five years' experience in publishing and journalism to bear on our clients' projects. Jenna joined us at the first of the year and has already put her MFA in Creative Writing to good use on several unannounced projects. 

2020

Just as we began making plans to attend the Game Developer Conference in San Francisco, COVID-19 hit our shores, putting a halt to all in-personal knowledge sharing. But along with the rest of the resilient casual games industry, we persevered, growing at a healthy rate despite all the difficulties. We even managed to squeak in a local rendition of our GDC talk before the lockdowns went into force. 

In 2020 we created new content for a few of our clients' ongoing games, such as Sweet Escapes, Family Guy: The Quest for Stuff, Homicide Squad: New York Stories, and Disney Frozen Adventures. We also saw the release of new titles Jane Austen Solitaire (Super Gaming), Solitaire Tripeaks: Farm & Family (Tuyoo), and Crime Mysteries: Find Objects. And we added Writer|Editor Amanda VanNierop to our team very early in the year. As our only part-time employee, Amanda regularly amazes us all by committing her considerable brain power to our projects half-time while attending university full-time. During the summer, she gives us her full-time attention, too!

Notably in 2020, company founder Lisa Brunette was named a 'game industry influencer' by UserWise, and she also co-authored a piece with industry analyst Om Tandon that generated a lot of buzz, "The power of storytelling in blockbuster casual games."

Last but not least in 2020's epic growth: We added three more voice actors to round out our roster of offerings: Ernest White II, star of his own PBS travel docu-series, Marqui Maresca, AKA the voice of Silver in Angry Birds Evolution, and popular Chicago actress/comedian Nicole Perez.

2019

Over a period of two years, we had the CEOs and creative heads of several mobile game publishers flying in to St. Louis to court our interest, and the last of those happened in the summer of 2019. The upshot for us was a few experiments that didn't work out but many that did, and our company grew a lot as a result. 

This year saw the shift from contract status to full-time for both Anthony Valterra, serving in capacity as both business director and lead writer|designer, and Dexter Woltman, writer|designer and employee No. 3. Dexter had joined the team while still a student and was more than ready to step into a tailor-made writing job after earning his BA in Scriptwriting from Webster University, where he met Lisa when attending her classes in Narrative Design. Dexter brought us a signature sense of humor and uncanny ability to channel his mom and sisters when writing for the female audience. Anthony, who's also Lisa's husband in real life, brought 30 years' experience to the table, including brand management for high-profile IP such as Dungeons & Dragons and Avalon Hill.

After fielding numerous client requests for voice-over services, we added two contract actors to our roster: Long-time game industry voice artist Andy Mack and the multi-talented actor, singer, and voice artist Cammie Middleton. Andy and Cammie can both be heard in Wild Things: Animal Adventures, Andy gives voice to dog Marlowe in Ava's Manor, and Cammie recorded the opening sequence for Jane Austen Solitaire.

In spring 2019, Lisa and Anthony flew to Helsinki, Finland, to work onsite with Kuuhubb on an interactive novel project, and in late fall that year, the two flew to L.A. to meet with Jam City's teams on various projects.

This year saw the release of Sweet Escapes, which we helped launch for our client Redemption Games, and we consulted on Jam City's released title Vineyard Valley. We continued to create new content for ongoing games Survivors: The Quest and Homicide Squad: New York Stories (both G5 Entertainment). But the biggest title credit for us this year was for the work Lisa did on a game called Lily's Garden. 

2018

Tactile flew Lisa out to Copenhagen in spring 2018, and she continued to consult on the project until opportunity took her into building out the Brunette Games team over the option of remaining exclusively tied to one studio. The Tactile trip happened during Lisa's spring break from Webster University; she served as a visiting professor in Game Design from the fall of 2017 until spring 2018. She had every intention of staying on with the university, and they invited her to do so, but due to the commercial success of a number of games she'd had a hand in bringing to market, and the opportunity that presented, she made the choice to give up teaching to focus on building Brunette Games instead.

This year our client Cherrypick Games released My Spa Resort, Dexter's first title for us (see what we mean about channeling his mom and sisters?), and Anthony and Lisa continued to create content for G5's Survivors: The Quest and Homicide Squad: New York Stories.

While Lisa had previously done business as Sky Harbor LLC, a company she and Anthony formed together back in 2014, the name was already taken in Missouri, which prohibits two companies with the same name. After casting around for a moniker, she settled on Brunette Games, for the double entendre (and the inherent girl-power it invokes!). This time, she formed the company as its single owner.

2017

For whatever deep-seated, fantastical reasons, games seem to continuously find Lisa, as happened in early 2017, with three projects that would forge a huge new path in her career. G5 Entertainment reached out with a request to write and design for their long-running, successful title Survivors: The Quest. Marianna Shilina-Vallejo, the head of Daily Magic, a former colleague of Lisa's through their Big Fish association, invited her to collaborate on a chat fiction app. And most notably, Lisa was approached by a game designer in stealth mode to help design and write a new little title that became... Matchington Mansion. 

Lisa's work on Matchington Mansion was pivotal to its success. Like a lot of the developers she'd encountered previously, the team's first inclinations toward character art and stories that would appeal to the female 35+ audience was pretty far off the mark. But together, they created a strong cast of characters and a good story that is well-integrated with the puzzle and play. She also helped them establish a number of match-3/narrative hybrid techniques that have since been endlessly copied across the breadth of casual games on the market today. And the name "Matchington Mansion"? It was a placeholder for the team, but Lisa convinced them it should be the game's actual title.

Another writing assignment Lisa secured that year was to write Pixelberry's first mystery novel for the Choices app. This became Veil of Secrets, which is widely regarded as a fan favorite.

At this point, Lisa had an invitation to take a one-year visiting professorship in Game Design at Webster University in St. Louis, Missouri, her hometown. She accepted it, and she and Anthony moved their home and business to the Midwest. 

2016

In early 2016, Lisa left Big Fish Games, where she'd developed and led a team of narrative designers. Her aim was to pursue independent projects, and at first she focused on a series of mystery novels that she and Anthony had begun to publish back in late 2014 under the Sky Harbor Press imprint they created as co-owners of Sky Harbor LLC. She also authored the piece "Evolving Storytelling in Hidden-Object Games" for the Society for the Promotion of Adventure Games (SPAG) magazine, worked on a game for WG Cells, and made independent study of interactive fiction, which prepared her very well for all that would come next.

It's worth noting that back in 2013 or so, Lisa was sitting at a bar with a bunch of her Big Fish colleagues, and a writer from another company asked her if she'd ever thought about striking out on her own with a boutique game-writing studio. "I'd work for you in a heartbeat," the writer said. The idea stuck!

Thanks to all our clients for your continued faith in our ability to tell your game's stories, and to all the players out there who appreciate every word we write. You're sitting on our shoulders all the time, telling us what you want to hear.