Heidrich

Last September, Melissa Heidrich and nine of her colleagues lost their jobs at the Bellevue game company Her Interactive. But rather than letting the pain of the layoff soak in, they immediately set out on their own entrepreneurial adventure. Within 24 hours of the layoff, Passionfruit Games was born.

"It was a really sad time. Everyone was utterly depressed that we had been laid off because we were such a great team and we worked together so well," said Heidrich. "And I just wanted to get something started right away and lift everyone's mood as soon as possible."

Heidrich already had the killer idea. For some time, she wondered why romance novels were not being turned into online games. After all, the core casual game player overlaps almost perfectly with the romance novel reader, women looking for a quick escape.

"It has always been an idea that's been in the back of my head, and I've kind of mentioned it to people, saying 'you know, we should make a romance game.' But I've always been with other corporations that weren't into that kind of thing, I guess," said Heidrich, who had worked as a producer at Her Interactive on some of the Nancy Drew titles.

And when it came to converting a romance novel into a casual game, the 31-year-old had an ace in the hole. Marjorie M. Liu, The New York Times bestselling author of romance titles such as Inked and The Fire King, just happened to be a former classmate of Heidrich's at the Lakeside School in Seattle during the mid-90s.

Passionfruit is attempting to introduce a new genre of casual games based on romance novels.

Shortly after the layoff, Heidrich touched base with her friend and asked whether she'd be interested in pursuing a partnership. Liu signed on, and Passionfruit's developers and artists started working on converting one of her novels into a game.

It hasn't been an easy voyage, in part because of the structure of the business. Formed as an LLC, all 11 members (including Liu) have an equal stake. Royalties from game sales are split amongst the partners.

Heidrich pushed for that structure because in her past jobs she realized that some of the lowest paid employees often did the most work. With Passionfruit, she wanted everyone to be on the same footing no matter what title they held.

"As long as people do equal work, I think they should get equal pay," she said. But the egalitarian structure also led to some tension in the early days, in part because the roles were not clearly defined within the company.

"It has been amazingly difficult, but really rewarding at the same time," said Heidrich. "It gives a chance for every single person in the company to really take ownership of the product, and take so much more pride in what we produce than what we made at the corporation. It is our own (intellectual property). It is our own baby. It has been really, really hard, though, in terms of when you are with a corporation because everything is really structured and everyone kind of knows their place.... At your own company, the rules all change."

Tiger Eye is based on the novel by Marjorie M. Liu

Heidrich said they tried to deal with any conflict in an open and transparent way. And now eight months after forming the company, it is cruising ahead. Passionfruit just released its first title, a hidden object and puzzle game called "Tiger Eye: Curse of the Riddle Box."

The $6.99 online game is already receiving some positive reviews. The Game Hunters reviewers at USA Today earlier this month gave "Tiger Eye" a thumbs up, calling it a "fun and fantastical adventure." The romance game also got a quick mention on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

At this time, the PC-based game is only available on the Passionfruit Web site. But Heidrich and the rest of the team are now pursuing distribution agreements with some of the larger game portals.

It is still too early to say whether Passionfruit's bet on romance games will pay off. But the company's principals are pushing ahead in a capital efficient manner, incorporating bootstrapping tactics to keep costs very low.

They raised a little bit of money from family members in order to pay for new laptops and other equipment, while the team frequently meets in Heidrich's basement in order to avoid rent. No one is taking a salary at this time.

But Heidrich is optimistic about where things are headed. And she's happy that the team turned a bad situation into a good one.

"I think most people on the team would agree that getting laid off was the best thing that has happened to them," said Heidrich. "It has been an amazing experience, so we definitely turned something terrible into something amazing. I think we are all proud of that."