IamA Cofounder of PopCap Games - My name's John Vechey - AMA!

There's a huge amount of hate for EA on Reddit. How do you feel about that?

Makes me sad sometimes, but also EA has made their share of mistakes over the years and has earned some of the frustration.

I think in the last couple of years EA has been improving, even if not quite perfect, and the internal conversations about being a consumer first organization are huge - but it is a slow ship to turn.

Hi John. I absolutely LOVE PopCap games. My question is, whatever happened to Insaniquarium? I loved that game!

Well, it's currently alive and well and living with Tupac in the Bahamas

That does not sound promising.

Unless you're Tupac.

Will PopCap ever take DogeCoins as a method of payment for games now that the currency is traded widely and already has large markets and companies for accepting direct payments?

DogeCoins rock and we're always figuring out if we should give our customers various ways of paying!

If I get the Bundle, am I missing anything by jumping into the Bejeweled series with number 3 and skipping the epic story in the previous two games?

I want to pretend there is this amazing backstory similar to Mass Effect that you'll miss. But no.

What's your favorite video game? Do you prefer the game or the business side of video game production?

Some of my favorite non-PopCap games are Counter-Strike, Fallout (OG and 2), Drop 7, and Nethack.

I like the balance of both the business and game dev side. If done right, and aligned, a great game business can help create a huge amount of innovation. Innovative games fuel a great game business. So for me, it's about aligning great games that people love with a solid business that fuels innovation.

Which role, race, gender and deity did you ascend first?

I've never ascended. It's so shameful. Probably like 500 hours and I still suck.

Ive never ascended, I started playing it in 1990. I have learned it is more about the adventure and less about the end result (or thats what I tell myself).

Thanks for making me feel better. :-)

Plants Vs. Zombies meets Nethack, go!

We've attempted a lot of roguelikes at PopCap. None of them making it to release.

No matter what I play, no matter what I do, I keep coming back to NetHack. One day my Chaotic Male Monk will ascend.

I love the monk. Love love love.

What was your biggest failure and what did you learn? How does it influence you today?

At some point in the early days I left PopCap. I was the CEO at the time, we were doing well, but I left to go "make movies" and spent about a year and a half doing short films. Ultimately we hired a CEO and he encouraged me to come back, and it was the best decision of my life.

For me the failure was not realizing that it had nothing to do with the movies or wanting to direct movies, it was that I was in over my head. I had a lot of natural leadership skills, but I didn't have the experience or emotional maturity. While I will never direct a movie, I am so grateful I came back to PopCap and will continue for many years to come.

What I learned was this: shit is hard. Really hard. And knowing why it's hard, and knowing yourself, is key. It's also key to stick with stuff when it gets hard, as the reward and benefits come after. I'll be honest, being an EA executive isn't always easy, but my past experience helps me power through the tough times, because I know EA can be great, and know that PopCap has its part in that going forward.

What a great answer

Thanks

I should've done a tl;dr. :-)

tl;dr Shits hard, don't be a puss, be self aware and stick with it

• What are you opinions on in-app purchases such as the ones EA offer in most games?

• How do you feel they affect the game and the way people play them?

• How do you react to the criticism that developers get for including in-app purchases, making some games 'pay to win'?

Thanks for the most recently Humble Bundle! Always glad to hear when 100% goes to the charities.

I love in app purchases when done right. They have to be aligned with the fun of the game, the game has to be fun to play for free, and the in app purchases have to fuel the creation of more customer value.

I think in app purchases can have a huge effect on gameplay, and so you really have to design them in the right way or it's a negative experience that doesn't create value for the consumer.

I think the pay to win goes back to the game design. League of Legends does it great in that some champions are better than others, but the real way to win is be a student of the game and know your best champions and roles.

Honestly when it comes to the micro transaction model, I don't think EA knows what they're doing, and that makes me sad.

Few have nailed it and gotten it right. Including PopCap!

He already answered a similar question, but this is better phrased.

I came in and read all the questions before I wrote mine, so by the time I had wrote it, it had been asked and answered :P

My Bad :(

Don't feel bad, yours goes into more detail and covers the topic of pay to win. I'd love to ask this man how he feels about paying for individual things which are otherwise unobtainable within games (something which I have seen as unethical unless the item is merely cosmetic).

edit: I should say that that is how I feel about items when games launch. If new content is made after release, than the company has a right to charge for it. I simply feel that content which should be in the base game should not be sectioned off prior to release. In free-to-play, if done properly, this can work. But the item should be attainable without paying, merely requiring an amount of time from the player.

It's always complicated and depends on the game design really. I don't think there are black and white rules to what is or isn't good yet, but it's how things are implemented.

It is a good, important question though. So I'm fine answering it a few times in a few ways.

When is the PvZGW PC release? (I know you don't like the question;))

It's available for preorder on Origin right now so that means it's coming!

Why did you let Jeff Green, the nicest person on the internet, leave PopCap?

It turns out Jeff Green, seemingly nicest guy on the internet... IS A BAD GUY!

Okay. Not really. Jeff is amazing, but we evolved and changed and his special skills of awesomeness didn't make sense. But we miss him every day. I actually cuddle with a Jeff Green Real Doll at home when I'm alone.

Why does peggle deluxe only run at 4:3 (800x600) on steam?

Peggle is like... old.

How much time have you spent playing Plants Vs Zombies?

What is your favourite strategy ?

I've spent a lot of time playing PvZ.

I put my sunflowers way in front and build my offense in the back.

Ever tried using only potato mines for the first 5 zombies, building 2 columns of sunflowers, then going all out double peas/machinegun, then fire?

Often. I love slow build to huge offense.

Interesting, why is that? I would think you'd want the sunflowers protected.

Because the sunflowers slow zombies down and you can keep firing. Trust me on this one.

It really makes sense. Imagine if you just had one sunflower and one peashooter - if you lost your sunflower, you lost income. If you lost your peashooter, you've lost the game. It's not as straightforward in a real game, but the same principles apply.

Exactly. yes yes yes.

My 12 yr old wants to get into game design. What advise should I give him and how do you start get started?

Make games. Make mods. Do cool stuff in minecraft. Do stuff do stuff do stuff. Lots of stuff on youtube, code.org has cool stuff but the biggest thing is encourage him to do stuff!

No question really but the Peggle 2 announcement was the highlight of that E3, game ia also very fun. Thank you <3

Very welcome. I practiced that jump so many times my knees hurt for weeks.

What's your take on the Candy Crush Saga situation?

Which aspect?

I think the idea of it being just a clone is silly, it really innovated and did great stuff to the match-3 genre.

If you're referring to the copyright kerfluffle, well, I think the copyright and trademark laws are kind of silly, that's not King's fault. Hate the game not the playa and all.

When you wipe, do you fold or crunch?

Crunch. And like a whole roll at once too.

Does crunching the toilet paper actually exist?? It's so inefficient

Feels good. Like a little paper massage

God dammit, Vechey.

Like those vibrating chairs in Sharper Image

Do you guys need a data analyst? I'd love to work with Popcap, your games are always so addicting. My girlfriend and I have spent many hours playing the two-player mode of Peggle. Also, If I apply to PopCap, can I list the referrer as 'Like those vibrating chairs in Sharper Image'? The last part is important.

Send me a PM with your email address!

You guys did a great job with Garden Warfare! The art style is so cute that it takes away the sting of being dominated 0-3 by that stupid Sunflower.

Whats something that surprised you about the game that you didn't expect before release?

That the worst review we got on metacritic complained we didn't have microtransactions. It's like: WTF internet?

The internet is never pleased. You know this.

It was seriously amazing.

Favorite cookie and toothpaste of choice?

Snickerdoodles. And snickerdoodle flavored toothepaste, natch.

When can we expect new content for Peggle 2? I know ‘Coming Soon’ is a relative term, but is it in the near future? Is there a plan to release multiple level packs, new characters, or just cosmetic stuff? Thanks, I’m a big fan of the work you guys do at Popcap!

Duel mode just came out yesterday and it's coming out on Xbox 360 on May 7th! PEGGGGGLLEEEEEEE 2!!!!!!

Is there a particular reason why you named your company PopCap? Or is it simply a random name that sounded good off the top of the head?

We were Sexy Action Cool, but thought it wasn't the most mass market brand.

We needed a name that was easy to spell and that we could buy the domain for.

Would you rather fight 1 Gargantuar-sized Bonk Choy or 100 Bonk Choy-sized Gargantuars?

You know what?

I'm going to ask the game team to make this a mode in GW so everyone can answer the question themselves!

Can we hope for a Plants vs. Zombies Kart such as Mario Kart?

You can hope for that!

Your excitement over Peggle 2 that culminated in an epic celebratory jump was my favorite part of E3 last year. Any plans on recreating the magic at this years E3?

I think you could go for a double jump (screw physics)!

If EA ever lets me on stage again, I promise I will make it spectacular.

PEGGLE 3! PEGGLE 3!

I dunno what I'd have to do for Peggle 3.

Hello John!

Thank you for doing this AMA. I have always been interested in visiting the campus but I figured now would be a good time to ask my questions.

1. How do you feel about the working conditions / quality of life at EA?

2. How did you get into this industry?

3. Finally: chicken or egg salad?

1. EA is actually a pretty good company to work for, outside of their over reliance on making executives like myself spend weeks upon weeks in powerpoints. As an old game company, EA has had periods of bad times and good times, and I think now is a pretty good time to work at EA.

2. I made a game in college with a friend, and one of the cofounders of PopCap.

3. Fuck mayonnaise.

[deleted]

Empathy. Everyone has a lot going on, their own personal stories, and it's so easy to forget that we're all human, all with insecurities and fears, and all have our struggles on the inside.

Thanks for taking the time to talk to fans John. Very appreciative of this and your work at Popcap over the years. I've got a couple questions.

1. What was the reasoning for putting PvZ2 on iOS first when PvZ1 launched on PC/Mac and was such a hit?
2. Has the acquisition by EA been the reasoning for all the exclusives lately or is this more to do with Microsoft wanting Popcap's talent for themselves and not wanting to share with others?

Thanks!

1. PvZ exploded in popularity thanks to mobile, so while the hardest core fans know PvZ from PopCap.com or Steam, the vast majority of players first played as a touch game.

2. PopCap has had exclusives when we were an independent company as well.

EU is talking about that you can't put apps with in-game purchases under the 'free' section on Google Play and App Store. That is how I understood it at least. Will that affect in app purchases at all?

Maybe. The thing is: many consumers may be frustrated with in app purchases, but they're also speaking with their wallets. Few customers buy premium games anymore outside of indie games. Regulation could effect freemium, but a new category could be created, and customers would probably flock there.

I used to play bejewled 3 on my iPhone all the time but when I switched to android I couldn't find anything other than blitz. I like to play the casual mode and all the other modes that came with bejewled 3 like butterfly.

My question is: will there ever be a bejewled 3 release (or any bejewled besides blitz) released on android?

Absolutely there will be Bejeweled games released on Android!

[deleted]

HOLLYWOOD!

Why weren't some Popcap games, such as Chuzzle and Insaniquarium Deluxe, not included in the Humble PopCap Bundle?

Chuzzle is complicated because we pay a royalty to a small developer who is kind of awesome but also somewhat crazy (and a friend).

I have no idea why for Insaniquarium isn't.

Also, I'd just like to say how awesome I think Peggle is. Me and my dad used to competitively play it together 5/6 years ago.

Peggle is the reason why I made my YouTube account! I was planning on putting up all my awesome peggle shots, turns out that I never did any awesome Peggle shots though :(

I love Peggle, and love duel mode and playing it competitively.

And never look at people's shots on the internet. It can only lower your self esteem. That's what I learned.

Haha yes, I agree. My dad tried for a VERY long time to hit the 15-20 million points that's possible in the spiral level on the Master Levels. Never managed to do it :(

Never give up.

Is there a chance we'll see Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare on PlayStation consoles?

No announcements at this point.

Which game would you like to have been a part of the development?

Great question.

Superb question.

In PopCap: Garden Warfare. I had very little to do with it outside of cheerleading the team when I could. I wish I would've done more playtesting with them and joined more internal multiplayer matches.

Out of PopCap: World of Warcraft. Just what you could learn from working on a game that big, but that well designed and crafted. So many lessons to be learned by looking at WoW and playing it, but to have been part of the dev team would've been an honor.

Or ET on Atari.

How do you become Vice President of EA?

I'm tricky like that.

Have you ever thought of putting Peggle or PvZ-themed items in Valve games? Is that possible due to your EA exclusivity?

We could do that, EA and Valve aren't enemies so nothing would prevent that, but we haven't thought about it. I'll bring your idea to the team!

As far as creating games at PopCap, why did you take the puzzle genre route? With the exception of Garden Warfare, of course.

We took the "games for everyone" approach, some of which are puzzles. Garden Warfare isn't a hard-core game, it's a fun game for all. That's always our focus.

Could you please add some type of "call your shot" mode to Peggle multiplayer (or single player for that matter)? My friends and I love the game and have often thought that would be very interesting. Just call out the first two or three pegs you have to hit on your shot. It would kind of be like Pool, where you can play bullshit or call your shots lol.

Anyways, just some food for thought. Thanks for doing the AMA.

Great idea. Super super idea. I'll talk to the team.

I just bought your bundle, even though I already own all the games in it. How many caps can I pop?

Thank you. And that's a very personal question but off the top of my head I'd say 9

Thank you for the many, many, many hours I've spent playing Bejeweled, Peggle, Zuma, PvZ and Bookworm over the years! I shall savor every individually popped cap for all my days.

Very welcome!

What's your favorite pizza topping?

Pepperoni.

Are there any plans to have a Peggle game with an EA's games theme? Think of it like what you guys did with combining Peggle and Valve's The Orange Box.

That would be awesome.

Mass Effect Peggle where the whole internet would cry out in rage at the ending!

Plants or Zombies?

Rainbows

Is there any planned DLC for PvZ Garden Warfare? And if so, can you give us any details? Amazing game btw. I am really enjoying playing it and hours seem to fly by in minutes hahahaha.

We've announced that DLC will be free, but that's about it at this point!

Are you any good at Dota and/or LoL?

I've played a LOT of LoL, and consider myself fairly good when playing a lot. Problem is it requires a lot of time.

My mains were Rammus, LeBlanc, and Udyr. Man, LeBlanc midlane was amazingly fun.

What is the game that you have found yourself utterly unable to stop playing?

What was the last game you completed?

Oh God. Drop 7. It is like the Terminator of games on my phone. I think I've escaped but I keep going back to it (only play Hardcore mode).

I'm total crap at completing games. Last game I completed was... Valkyria Chronicles maybe.

zombies and plants, how did you think to put the 2 together?

George Fan, the game designer, first had Plants vs. Aliens, but realized aliens would kick the crap out of plants.

ALCHEMY!!

Where is my remake of Alchemy!?!?!

I will give you my cat if you give me Alchemy!

Pics or I don't believe it.

Any word on more Bookworm Adventures? :)

I see what you did there. "Any word."

Can you please make Android games movable to the SD card... for some reason, you guys lock it down to a device install and some games are huge.

I'm not a programmer, so probably can't help you. I can forward this to the team though!

Hi John, what went into the choice to make PvZ Garden Warfare? I've been enjoying what I've seen, and may pick it up soon. Any chance of a Peggle racer coming next, to continue your genre bending tactics???

We're exploring a Peggle MMO with BioWare.

just a quick question, how do you stay so sexy throughout the years?

Pearl cream

Not sure if this is too late, but:

How did the transfer of ownership to EA go down? How did you feel about it at the time?

Well. I'm still working there, PopCap is still doing cool stuff!

You gave Peggle 2 a very public flying fist of furious joy just for existing. How many awards does Plants vs. Zombies have to win to gain an equal share of your affection? ;)

47

I'm way late, but I have a revolutionary gaming concept:

A tower defense game where the player is the attacker and/or

A mutli-player tower defense game where both (all?) players have defenders and attackers. (Yes, I know its rather like a traditional RTS, but I think you guys could make it fresh and interesting).

That's kind of cool. Has it been done before?

We had a multiplayer mode in PvZ on console but it was super hard to balance, and we never quite got it right, or got it super fun.

So, the whole range of Popcap rip-offs facebook has been peddling.. Bejeweled, Peggle, I've seen all my classic popcap favorites get basically reskinned and flogged as an in-house game. It feels they are only a fart and a whistle away from releasing a game called "Undead Vs. Flora"..

How are you guys feeling about that?

It's the game industry.

A huge amount of great customer innovation has come of games being relatively legal to clone. While this can be frustrating, we choose to take it as a compliment, and learn from what others have done.

Imagine this: what if Unreal was not legal to make because it was a clone of Quake? Or WoW because of Everquest.

So I guess my answer is: at peace, and overall grateful for the ecosystem of game developers learning and innovating from each other.

Any advice for anyone getting into game developement?

Make games, make mods, connect with developers. The industry is hard, but awesome.

MBA or entrepreneurship? Which is valued more in your opinion?

Entrepreneurship in my experience, but there is no one path. Just don't become a toolbag if you get an MBA. TOOLBAGS ARE NOT COOL

Thanks for creating such awesome games! I still play PvZ almost everyday.
Did PopCap have anything to do with "lawn of the dead" in World of Warcraft (which was obviously based on PvZ)?
Also, what is your favorite plant?

We didn't have anything directly to do with Lawn of the dead, but we're good friends with Blizzard.

I am a struggling artist who works in Games, previously at the popcap games office that shut down in Vancouver. I am still unemployed with decent experience. What are your thoughts on the layoffs from EA and the saturated jobs markets for little guys like me. I mean no disrespect. Popcap was the best company I have ever had the pleasure working for.

Thank you for your kind comments and I'm sorry you're having trouble, let me know if I can do anything to help.

The game industry is super super hard, especially as the smaller job markets ebb and flow pretty fast. I think organizations and business leaders owe it to their people to run more disciplined businesses, and always ask what they will do if things don't go perfectly.

What the hell happened to the magnetic word game? You know like the word magnets on your refrigerator? I loved that game!

Ha! Psychobabble was awesome!

That's it! What happened to that game? I went to play one day and it was gone.

It was a hard decision, but I was the one who made the choice to remove it. We didn't have any moderation tools and I was worried about abuse or issues since we weren't paying attention and would hate something to go bad.

When can we expect a live action Peggle movie?

Also, how do you feel about Candy Crush being a blatant rip of Bejeweled but being so widely played?

There's one in my office every day!

Candy Crush is not a rip off of Bejeweled any more than World of Warcraft is a clone of Everquest. They added and changed a lot, and did a lot of innovations on match-3.

In a world, turned black and white. In a time, when all hope was lost. One hero to save them all.

Peggle: Bjorn Rising directed by Joss Whedon, October 2021

Hey John! Thank you for doing the AMA! I was wondering what your favourite game developer was? (except PopCap of course)

Blizzard or Valve. Totally uncool safe answers but true.

What's like working in the video game industry? Was it hard to get into?

It's easy to get into if you have the passion and are willing to get your hands dirty and do stuff.

Thanks for making ARC

Woo hoo!!!!!!

You're welcome.

R.I.P. ARC

Is there any plans to add a PROPER party system into Multiplayer, Xbox's own system just sucks. You end up inviting your friends, hoping your all on the same team, you're not, back out. rinse and repeat until eventually you are all together. Also theres no easy way to see your friends in-game, could you implement the same UI features from gardens ops into the Multiplayer component of the game ? Im talking about Garden Warfare btw :P

I'll pass it on to the team!

Hello John, thanks for the AMA!

I wanted to express my gratitude for PopCap's WoW mods that allowed me to play Peggle and Bejeweled during in-game flights. Made that so much less boring, thank you so much!

I'll be trying to convince my wife to let us buy two of the Bundles when we cash our paychecks!

Awesome you enjoyed the mods. I've heard a lot of stories about people wiping their raids because they were enjoying the mods a little too much.

Firstly I would like to say I love popcap games and are for everyone! PvZ garden Warfare is genius as my 5 year to even the missus love it.

Can you see popcap taking risks and doing more "bigger" games like PvZ: Garden Warfare.

Do you believe so called casual games get a bad rap?

Absolutely. We've always tried to push the limits of what makes sense and you can see that in games like Bookworm Adventures (RPG word game), PvZ (seriously risky honestly), Garden Warfare, and Peggle.

They used to, but now a lot of gamers want more casual experiences, and history has shown the gamers who play our games are far from "casual."

Why did Ea shut down lord of Ultima?

When EA does an AMA you can ask EA!

Its great when you guys post videos on your youtube page about the games you currently have a on sale like this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3UzXOpc-Tg

You dont seem to be posting any more of these. They are really awesome and help promote the sale and inject some great humour.

Could you pass the message on to the marketing team to maybe keep doing these?

Thanks!

I'll pass it on to the team(s)!

i just want to say i love you guys, i had so many hours of fun with Bejeweled and Bejeweled 3, they even helped me get over some sad things in life. Big Cheer to you guys!, can't wait for the next Bejeweled :D

Thank you very much!

Before he died, my stepfather and I took turns playing Peggle on our old laptop while watching movies and TV.

When he died, I tool the hard drive and started playing our old file on Peggle, and it always made me smile because it made him smile.

Thanks for Peggle :)

That makes me smile and super happy to hear.

The best stories are ones where people got true joy from our games.

What is your favourite Mechanical Keyswitch?

Cherry Brown.

Favorite character to play as in peggle?

Warren the rabbit! I love Vegas!

Least favorite: JIMMY LIGHTNING. I hate that dude.

Will there be a companion app for PvZ Garden Warfare for mobile devices?

There is a companion app already but you have to use Xbox smartglass. It's awesome. One of the most fun smart glass implementations so far!

u can gift me plant vs zombie 2 ?

Yup! Free on iOS and Googleplay App stores!

Do you consider a hamburger to be a type of sandwich, or an entity of its own?

Good question.

I have been thinking about this for years to be honest. One of the first PopCap games was a hamburger builder essentially and we could not decide if we wanted to venture into sandwiches in the gameplay, as I am not a fan of mayonnaise I pushed back hard on the dev team to take that out. We pivoted to Bejeweled. So I guess to answer your question I would consider a sandwich a separate entity even though upon creation in Hamburg it was technically a sandwich.

Face it, the hamburger has evolved.

What is your favorite TV show that is currently airing?

Arrow.

I'm honestly embarrassed. I barely watch any TV, and have only seen like 12 shows in the past ten years. Sopranos, The Wire, News Radio, Downton Abbey... and Arrow. yup. I know.

I have never been so early to an AMA. I haven't really played your games though, so here is my question.

What is your best reason for me to play your games? or you could focus on one game.

fun

Thanks for doing this AMA! Might I ask, what advice do you have for somebody who'd like to get into the video game business?

Also, would you rather fight a horse sized duck or a hundred duck sized horses?

Make games! Make mods! Learn to program! It's all about doing stuff.

My handlers have told me I'm not allowed to answer that question for EA PR policy reasons.