What was the first game developed by PopCap Games?
1345535#1
PopCap Games was founded by John Vechey, Brian Fiete and Jason Kapalka in 2000. They wanted to create games, primarily by learning from other Internet gaming sites. Their first game was "Bejeweled", a gem-swapping game, which was supported on all major platforms and awarded by Computer Gaming World Hall Of Fame in 2002. The company expanded in 2005 with the acquisition of Sprout Games, a Seattle-based casual games developer company like PopCap Games, founded by James Gwertzman. Sprout Games is the creator of the game "Feeding Frenzy". The Sprout team helped PopCap to make a sequel to the game, "", with Gwertzman becoming the Director of Business Development at PopCap. In early 2006, PopCap International was opened, based in Dublin, Ireland, working on product localization, mobile games development, marketing, sales and business development.
PopCap Games
1345535#2
PopCap began another round of expansion in July 2007 by buying other casual game developers including the creators of an online consumer portal, SpinTop Games. One week prior, the company acquired the Chicago-based development house Retro64, founded by Mike Boeh, which is best known for their retro-arcade action and puzzle titles. After these acquisitions, the PopCap logo was rebranded, dropping the "Games" portion. PopCap's premium games list on their website are mixed with other games from other developers/distributors.
PopCap Games
24459803#5
The game was first thought up in 2007 during a meeting between PopCap and Square Enix, which had published several of PopCap's games in Japan. Jason Kapalka, the co-founder and chief creative officer of PopCap, claims that he "half-jokingly" proposed a game collaboration between the two companies that would combine a role-playing game with "Bejeweled"-style gameplay, calling it “Final Fantasy Bejeweled”. Kapalka was envisioning creating a similar game to "", a 2007 video game which members of the development staff of both companies were playing at the time. The idea attracted the attention of Yuichi Murasawa, designer of "Final Fantasy Tactics Advance", and the game began formal development. To differentiate the game from "Puzzle Quest", the gameplay was based around "Bejeweled Twist" rather than "Bejeweled", which Kopalka feels fit the art design of the game more. Other candidates considered were "Zuma" and "Peggle", but they were dropped as the developers felt that they did not fit in with the combat theme. PopCap developed the early prototype for the game, then allowed Square Enix to complete the bulk of the work in designing and creating the game, especially in regards to the RPG aspects. Square Enix and PopCap announced the game on September 24, 2009. It was published by Square Enix on the Xbox Live Arcade and on the Steam platform for Windows PCs on November 18, 2009. A downloadable pack of maps and a pack of items were made available for sale a week after launch on November 23, 2009 for both versions of the game.
Gyromancer
39132188#13
The whole package received a generally positive reception. Cooper called the premise of the game "absurd", though it remains a "polished shooter with heart" and he generally regarded PopCap's first attempt in the shooter genre a mildly successful one. Petit called it a refreshing game due to its playful tone, though the game's lack of content is disappointing. Albert believed that the game translated the humor and charm of the series well. Wehner wrote that the game was not "perfect", though players should give the game a chance due to its charm and playful tone. Gies praised PopCap's experiment with the shooter genre, saying that it extracts the best parts of the franchise and PopCap had successfully applied them on a new genre. Denton called it one of the most likable games released for Xbox One, and believed that PopCap had "overachieved", given that this was their first foray into the shooter genre. Reviewers praised PopCap for not fleshing out the franchise's silly premise of plants defending zombies. Marchiafava was disappointed by the title's lack of longevity and felt that the randomness of the sticker packs fundamentally hurt the game.
Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare
1345535#3
On April 5, 2011, PopCap announced the creation of a new subsidiary, 4th and Battery, started in order to create "edgier" games. Their first creation was the game "Unpleasant Horse". On July 12, 2011, Electronic Arts announced it was acquiring PopCap for $650 million with an additional $100 million stock option.
PopCap Games
9924355#6
"Peggle" was originally envisioned by PopCap's studio director, Sukhbir Sidhu, who was inspired by pachinko machines. However, he recognized that pachinko was mostly luck-based, and would not translate well into a video game. After seeing a 2D game engine created by PopCap programmer Brian Rothstein, Sidhu was able to realize his game, and worked with Rothstein for the first five months of its development before bringing in additional programmers. Initial designs focused on bringing together elements of pachinko with "Breakout". The team initially incorporated a "rapid-fire" mechanic used in pachinko, along with numerous moving targets, but they found this made the levels either too fast-paced or too demanding of the player. They found over time that a static field of pegs provided a more enjoyable experience for the player; the path of the ball would be more predictable, leading to the gameplay mechanic of requiring only a random subset of orange pegs to be cleared. Once the team had established the core mechanics of the game, they brought on character artist Walter Wilson, background artist Marcia Broderick and an additional coder, Eric Tams, to help complete "Peggle" within its two-year development period. Even with their game established, Sidhu and Rothstein faced internal challenges at PopCap to increase the level of interactivity with the game, but the two defended their vision of the game.
Peggle
39132188#7
The title was developed by PopCap Games in Vancouver, with the title's development being started in early 2012. The concept was envisioned by a team in publisher Electronic Arts, and PopCap incorporated the team into its own structure when they felt that the prototype the team had created suited their "Plants vs. Zombies" franchise. With PopCap hoping to use a new game to expand the franchise and introduce it to a broader audience, they intentionally opted not to make a 2D tower defense game and opted for a different genre. The game's original premise was to have the plants and the zombies fighting against each other, and the team came up with different gameplay possibilities such as making an open world or a single-player action game. Ultimately, the team wanted to make the title a multiplayer-focused game because they thought the randomness of multiplayer—playing with friends or strangers—make the title very fun to play. The team recruited employees who have experiences working on other shooters and action games, or those who had utilized the Frostbite engine, while also closely collaborating with EA DICE when they are iterating the game's technology.
Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare
4733487#0
AstroPop is a real-time puzzle video game developed and published by PopCap Games. The Macromedia Flash version can be played online for free at several different websites, or a deluxe version can be downloaded and unlocked for a fee. The game is available for Xbox and Xbox 360 through Xbox Live Arcade. "AstroPop" was ported over to the PlayStation 2 in 2007 alongside another PopCap game, "Bejeweled 2" which was released as a two-game compilation pack as "PopCap Hits! Volume 1". The game has also been ported to cell phones.
AstroPop
39132188#1
PopCap Games in Vancouver started the title's development in early 2012. With PopCap hoping to use a new game to expand the franchise and introduce it to a broader audience, they intentionally opted not to make a 2D tower defense game and opted for a different genre. The team was inspired by other team-based shooters with colorful visuals such as "Left 4 Dead" and "Team Fortress 2", and the team faced different challenges when designing the game's eight classes. Game engine Frostbite 3 powered the game, and the team collaborated closely with EA DICE when implementing the game's technology.
Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare
9924355#0
Peggle is a casual puzzle video game developed by PopCap Games. Initially released for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X systems in 2007, it has since had versions released for Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, the Nintendo DS (with the help of Q Entertainment), Windows Mobile, iOS, Zeebo and Android; the game has also been ported as a Java application, and an extended minigame incorporated into the massively multiplayer online game "World of Warcraft". A sequel was released in September 2008, titled "Peggle Nights". PopCap, a subsidiary of Electronic Arts, announced "Peggle 2" at E3 2013.
Peggle