John Vechey, Jason Kapalka, and Brian Fiete founded PopCap Games in 2000 and have concentrated the company’s efforts on casual gaming titles for platforms such as Xbox, PlayStation3, Nintendo DS, mobile phones, the iPad, and Facebook. In July of 2011, Electronic Arts purchased PopCap Games.
- Bejeweled
- Zuma
- Peggle
- Bookworm
- Alchemy
- Plants vs. Zombies
PopCap Games is the maker of some of the most-played games available online. More than one billion people have interacted with a PopCap product, and a copy of Bejeweled is purchased as often as every 4.3 seconds. There are more than 50 titles on the studio’s roster, including Feeding Frenzy, Chuzzle, and the Mystery P.I. series. 4th and Battery is the experimental ward of PopCap Games, where game developers are sent to work in solitude underground (literally) to pursue some of the most fringe concepts of PopCap. This collective recently launched the inaugural title: Unpleasant Horses at the Apple App Store.
Headquartered in Seattle, PopCap operates additional offices in San Francisco, Chicago, Vancouver, Dublin, Seoul, Shanghai, and Tokyo. Inside the company’s primary offices, which occupy multiple floors of a high-rise office building, the newly renovated space is designed for fun, creativity, and expression. The bare, white walls on the third floor seem stark at first glance, but a closer look reveals that most are covered in a dry-erase paint. Game designs, artists, and programmers pull out their ideas and map concepts all over the office’s canvas. Multiple design rooms are in constant use for group brainstorming and planning, and each floor has a kitchen stocked with snacks and fun rooms where employees can chill out and play games for Xbox, PlayStation3, and Wii. The official office dog, a dachshund named Noni, roams freely with built-in doggie doors.
As a whole, the company employs more than 400 people in the area of game development, as well as finance, public relations, marketing, customer services, web development, and software engineering. Internships and officer opportunities are available for college students studying art, computer science, animation, and other related areas. Those interested in careers with PopCap should hold at least a bachelor’s degree in their area of expertise. For all positions, familiarity with PopCap titles is necessary, but a wide range of gaming experience is beneficial. Mid-level careers will require at least three years of professional game development, and at least one shipped title. Senior developers should have a minimum of five years of relevant employment and two completed games with supervisory experience.
