Women with Initiative: Cheyenne Wall-Grimes

Today I have a profile on Cheyenne Wall-Grimes, a designer from Glittercats Fine Amusements. Cheyenne has designed some really great games, including Fool's Journey, a storytelling game that uses tarot cards to guide you, and Laser Kittens, which is currently on Kickstarter! Her answers to the questions below tell us a little about her history with Glittercats and her games. 

What led you to start designing games, and how did you found Glittercats?

I got into it totally by accident! When you hang out with other game designers, it's tough not to riff off of each other. I had been play testing games for a year or so and when you get into that kind of mindset, it's easy to fall down the rabbit hole of "Hey, does this game exist? No? Then let's make it happen!"

Glittercats already existed, actually. My partner, Stentor Danielson, had formed the company when he began working on board games. He was really one of my biggest inspirations for getting into game design. He is so good with rules and mechanics. We came up with Laser Kittens and he asked me to join on. I couldn't say no!


What is Laser Kittens all about and what was your favorite part of development?

Laser Kittens is a GMless storytelling game where you play a group of kittens in a foster home, Knoll St. School for Wayward Kittens. You learn valuable lessons about how to become and great cat and how to control your lasers. The game is terribly silly and full of chaos.

As much fun as it was to be influenced by all the amazing foster kittens we had, play testing is my favorite. It has been really amazing watching friends and strangers alike get into being tiny balls of fluff, making hilarious decisions about how they interact with the world around them.

What do you do outside of game design, and does any of it influence your choices in design?

Currently, I'm a barista by day. I've had so many jobs, my biggest being a theatrical stage manager. I'm a crazy extrovert and I absolutely love people. So, making games that bring people face to face and have them create a life and world together is really my bag.

Thanks, Cheyenne, for talking with me today!

You can reach Cheyenne via Twitter @CheyWallGrimes and @playglittercats, as well as on Facebook as PlayGlittercats. The Glittercats Fine Amusements blog has more on Cheyenne's work with Stentor.

Don't forget to check out the Laser Kittens Kickstarter - it sounds like a great time!

 

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This post was supported by the community on patreon.com/briecs.