Meet Ace and Anna Ellett: Puzzle Game Creators

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ace and Anna Ellett and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ace and Anna, can you tell us about a book that has had a meaningful impact on you?

One of my favorite books is Reality is Broken by Jane McGonigal. The book discusses how studies have shown that a lot of the vegging-out activities we do, don’t provide happiness chemicals to our brains. It also presents what our brains actually want, which is, surprisingly, work! But it can’t just be any work. Our brains want to be doing “clearly defined, demanding activities that allow us to see the direct impact of our efforts.” Creating tasks and activities that provide this type of work can be accomplished in many, if not all, fields, but as a game and puzzle maker, I have the joy of being on the front lines of creating this type of fun work for people’s brains every day.

Games provide our brains many opportunities for this “satisfying work,” and have different ways of releasing happiness chemicals. Specifically, puzzle games provide opportunities to engage in invigorating tasks and conquer difficult challenges which generate intrinsic rewards. Fine-tuning a game so that it optimizes the chance of the ah-ha-I’ve-got-it moment is definitely the best part of my job. This ah-ha moment is so important because it allows the player to take themself from a state of, “I’m trying, but the jury is still out on whether I will succeed” to a state of “I did something I wasn’t sure I could do and I’m more than ready to tackle another challenge. Bring it on.”

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
My husband Ace and I love playing games. We were attending a board game playtesting conference in St. Louis when we played our first escape room and were hooked. We spent much of our free time playing escape rooms all over the country and began creating and testing at-home escape and puzzle games. We spent a few years testing and tweaking different types of methods and mechanics: timer, no timer, teams, cooperative, online components or not, material types, puzzle length and complexity, etc.

We eventually formed our company Bluefish Games, and while working on a couple local escape room consulting projects and creating a set of corporate team building puzzle sessions, we decided to Kickstart an at-home tabletop puzzle game called The Curious Elevator of Mr. Hincks. We were of course thrilled when the project funded and we were able to finish creating and fulfill this game to our backers. Being such a small company, there have been many hurdles and curveballs thrown at us. We are so grateful to be working in a community of creators, players, and reviewers that love the industry and the craft. It’s through these supportive connections that we’re able to accomplish big picture creative projects, like new puzzle projects (such as our spin-off puzzle newspaper The Hincks Gazette) and also figure out all the tiny business details and workings, like printing and shipping hurdles. We are thrilled to have the opportunity to be a part of the at-home puzzle movement.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
We would of course take them to play some amazing escape rooms! We live in Phoenix and, pre-pandemic, made regular trips to LA to meet up with friends and play the incredible games the city has to offer. We’ve played over 500 escape rooms and some of our favorite games we’ve ever played have been at Cross Roads Escape Games and Hatch Escapes in LA. And if you travel a little north to Arcane Escape Rooms, a bit south to MindTrap Escape Room, or a bit west to Breaking Point Escape Rooms, you will not be disappointed. While many of these rooms have not been open during the pandemic, we can’t wait for when we are able to travel again and go back and support these amazing companies. Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
We have to dedicate this shoutout to our playtesters! They play the worst versions of our games and still are willing to play and test more. Without their willingness to let us see how their brains work as they play the game, we would never be able to tweak and refine the puzzles as we’re able to with their help, perspective, and creativity.

Website: teambluefish.com

Instagram: @bluefishgames

Twitter: @TeamBluefish

Facebook: @BluefishGames