PopCap Games is well known for its addicting puzzle titles such as Bookworm, Plants vs Zombies, and, of course, Bejeweled. Over at Joystick Division, PopCap founders Jason Kalpalka and John Vechey answer seven questions about the origins of Bejeweled (back when it was called Diamond Mine), how quickly success came to PopCap, and what sort of wacky spin-offs have come from the company's flagship title.
Brian Fiete, who co-founded the company along with Jason Kapalka and me, was our primary coder in those days (he's still our chief tech guru). Right after we made the decision to offer a 'deluxe' version of Bejeweled for $19.95, Brian devised a little 'applet' that would cause a "cha-ching!" old school cash register sound every time someone actually ponied up $20 for the game. At first it was great fun to hear it go off... on one occasion the three of us were sitting around watching the film "Clerks" and one of the characters said something like "dude, you'll never get rich sitting around on your ass all day" - and the "cha-ching" sounded and we just fell over laughing... after a couple of days that damned "cha-ching" was going off every minute or two and it was driving us nuts... but that was when we realized we might actually have a hit on our hands :)
Coincidentally enough, I was just playing Bejeweled 2 on my Sony PlayStation 3 a few days ago while killing time between an Assassin's Creed II marathon and convincing myself to go to bed. There's just something about that game that makes one think "just one more game" again and again. I can't help but wonder if the game would have met with the same success had it remained Diamond Mine.
