Meet Valentina Hills of Atlanta

Today we’d like to introduce you to Valentina Hills.

Valentina, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
BADFRIEND Games originally started as a class project in our sophomore year at SCAD with my friends Ayden, Jaeden, and Juan. The assignment was simple, create a concept for a tabletop game, so we prototyped an idea that would eventually become our flagship title, a tabletop strategy game built around customizing giant robots to fight in humanity’s sci-fi future- SUNRIZE : MECHANITE. Our professors loved the idea, and suggested that we keep working on it in our free time, and we did. We were confident and ambitious, but more than anything, we were excited to cut our teeth making something for ourselves, and enjoyed getting to work on something with a group of like-minded developers. Every summer we put more and more hours into SUNRIZE, expanding the game, the story, and the team.

Since graduation, we grabbed on to any opportunity we could. Showing the game off at conventions, flying out to competitions, sharing videos online- just trying to get as many eyes on the project as possible. A couple thousand hours, a few hundred playtests, and a handful of awards later- we are headed towards self-publishing our first game in 2026, with a few more lined up right behind it.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Absolutely not. Game development is iterative by nature, I think. Every omelet is preceded by a few dozen broken eggs. Some of them are to be expected for any small indie studio. Late hours, early mornings, tight deadlines.. struggle isn’t foreign to the work. But we’re are bootstrapping this company from the ground up, working on it in our off hours- that kind of commitment isn’t sustainable indefinitely. Along the way we’ve lost team members to real life obligations, and while BADFRIENDs might be the name of the company- we do miss having all of them around.

Other problems were harder to predict though. BADFRIEND Games is a young group of artists, we’re ambitious, eager, and have a lot to say, but not everyone is as excited to hear it as we are. In spite of our work, and track-record, we aren’t always taken seriously by our contemporaries. We try to push through it though.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’m the Lead Designer and Creative Director at BADFRIEND Games, though my unofficial job title reads ‘Control Freak’. I come up with the concepts for our games, design the rules, and drive the creative vision of our projects. I’d like to say I’m known for my innovative design decisions and charismatic demeanor, but the rest of the team might say I’m “detail oriented” if they’re feeling polite. But what can I say, games are art, and I have to put thought into every decision made about a piece I’m working on, and push my team to do the same.

Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out?
Don’t think, just work. When we were first starting out, we took every opportunity we could get our hands on, big or small. We made some of our most important connections at the very first events we showed up to. We showed out, made an impression, and took notes on what to improve on next. Actions outweigh plans when you’re just starting out, there’s only so much you can learn without getting your feet wet. If you keep taking steps, the path will make itself clear.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://badfriend.games/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/badfriendgames/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BADFRIENDGames/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/badfriendgames
• Twitter: https://x.com/BADFRIENDgames
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@BADFRIENDGAMES

Image Credits
Elijah Pritchett