

CEO of PopCap games: How I Did It - mjh8136
http://www.inc.com/magazine/20101001/how-i-did-it-john-vechey-founder-of-popcap.html

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acangiano
The money quote:

"Facebook didn't even exist when we started the company. The iPhone didn't
exist. We've adapted and changed and rolled with everything that's come our
way. We've constantly integrated our approach to games."

Evolution is one of the most important words in business.

~~~
s3graham
Being a game developer (though in the "old-style" console/PC part), I thought
this was the money quote:

    
    
        We don't track the resources that go into each game.
        If it's a great game, it's worth a lot of money.
        If it's a B+ game, it's essentially worth zero.
    

Troll through the average list of new releases in a week and you can clearly
see that most people/groups/publishers either don't agree, or don't get this.

~~~
theycallmemorty
Or they know when they have a B+ game and want to cut their losses and get
whatever sales they can for it.

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matthew-wegner
The story title is currently "CEO of PopCap games". Vechey isn't the CEO, but
a founder. He actually left PopCap for a few years to pursue his interest in
film (before returning to the company).

Dave Roberts is the CEO, who fits the "adult supervision" CEO stereotype
reasonably well. He's an older, business-savvy guy the three young founders
brought in: [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-
bin/blogs/techchron/detail?entry_i...](http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-
bin/blogs/techchron/detail?entry_id=62018)

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NathanKP
I really appreciated the following quote:

 _When Dave started, we were focused on creating new games instead of
supporting revenue streams from each game. Dave changed that._

Part of the reason why PopCap has been so successful is that they have
properly branched their games into new devices and areas, from Facebook games,
to iPhone, in-flight entertainment, etc.

I think that is a good lesson for hackers. If you aren't making enough money
from your app, perhaps you just haven't expanded enough horizontally. Many of
the best apps these days have iPhone/iPad/Blackberry versions so they can be
easily accessible at all times.

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ramy_d

        We're never perfect. We're always pretty good, but we're always trying to be better.
    

words i live by

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stevefink
Plants vs. Zombies is quite possibly the best game on the iPhone, hands down.

~~~
jacoblyles
I disagree. Angry Birds is the best game for any platform, ever.

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nathanlrivera
"We decided from the start to make our games incredibly fun and easy so that
they appeal to everyone."

For me, that is one of the most important lessons to take away from this. Keep
it simple, keep it fun and engaging, and the users will love it.

The rise of Minecraft has reinforced this point of view in my mind.

~~~
benologist
Fun and engaging are _ridiculously_ hard to quantify. :P

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amichail
PopCap: what do you think of my DropZap and upcoming DropZap 2 games?

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNaM22Oulwg> (DropZap 2)

<http://dropzap.com>

