It's all about computer games for women

What: PassionFruit Games, based in Seattle.

Who: Melissa Heidrich, 31, studio director.

Mission: Develop games written by, designed by and created for women.

Employees: 11.

Financials: The privately held company was founded in September 2009 and just released its first product: "Tiger Eye, Part 1: Curse of the Riddle Box," a computer game. The company does not discuss revenues.

Layoff born: Ten of the 11 owner-employees worked at Her Interactive in Bellevue. Even though the team's most recently designed game at Her Interactive — a Nancy Drew mystery — won awards, the economy went south. "All of us got laid off at the same time," Heidrich said. "We were such a good team. We thought that since we work so well together why not start a new company?"

Growing market: Computer games for women, said Heidrich, is a "booming industry."

Delivering the romance: Despite the growing popularity of games for women, said Heidrich, "no one had so far taken the bold step of making a romance game, even though romance novels are immensely popular. So I've always thought, why hasn't anyone made a romance game?" She and her partners joined forces with one of Heidrich's former high-school classmates, best-selling novelist Marjorie Liu, and turned her first novel into a game.

Challenge No. 1: The new company doesn't have a deep-pocket investor. "We've had some help from relatives," said Heidrich. "But we've had to plow through. A couple of people have lost their homes."

Challenge No. 2: A company of 11 partners can be difficult to organize. "Since we're all equal partners it was kind of tough at first because we didn't really have defined roles," said Heidrich. "We had to work out our pecking order."

— Patrick Marshall