Hanako Games

"Anime. Fantasy. Adventure. Romance. Less action, more imagination. Hanako Games has been throwing fairy dust onto the web since 2003."

Here's the stereotype: Your typical game developer employees a bunch of 20 something white suburban American males with piercings and tats who bang out code or 3D assets, for 16 plus hours a day, while listening to heavy metal and rap. It is the domain of the semi-illiterate testosterone-driven hipeousie, with nary a girl to be seen, except maybe in marketing.

Hanako Games is so different it makes your head hurt. Headquartered in a quiet English town and founded and run by women, they make games with charmingly anime-esque graphics and modest technical ambitions that nonethless deliver compelling experiences.

Watch these people. The graphical approach may be old school, but they understand game design. And they are using that understanding to find ways to appeal to an audience that no one else consistently reaches.