"Plants vs Zombies" Developer Readme: How do we start a business

John Witch (John vechey) Lead: This is a geek dream come true story. John Witch (John Vechey) dropped out of school in 1997 and developed a computer game with Buddy Blaine Fitt (Brian fiete).　　This year, PopCap, a gaming company based in Seattle, is expected to earn 100 million of dollars. The company was founded by the two of them in 2000 with Jensen Kaboka (Jason Kapalka). PopCap currently employs more than 300 people and has offices in Shanghai, Seoul and Dublin with studios in San Francisco, Chicago and Vancouver. The company now has 35 games, the first of which has sold 50 million copies of its first game, Gem Bejeweled.　　The secret of PopCap is to build a game that everyone can play. The following is the full text of the Vicki Readme: I grew up in Wisconsin, and my father's family was a steel worker, but my parents were hippies. My father told me that it was not worth doing what I didn't like-he never worked except for some part-time jobs. For him, spending time with friends, family and women is more important than making money.　　He has a primary and secondary point. My parents divorced when I was young. I first lived with my mother and later moved to Indiana to live with my father. I have had 7 stepfather successively. I have two half brothers who were born when my father married. My father later divorced, then moved to my home in Seattle, with my 16-year-old half-brother, who played Xbox every day at my place.　　All of our games were released before he played. I used to be poor and I dated anyone who had a government remedy. I've never had extracurricular activities, but I always have a job. When I entered Purdue University, I met Blaine Fitt in a programming class. I've never had a computer, but I want to be a computer engineer. Brian is always the first in the class, and I'm always second. I propose to develop a game together and eventually develop our first game arc, which is based on the arcade version of the Egg Ball development. At that time my GPA (score of 4) was 1.67. I need to make a choice between continuing to develop games and dropping out of school.　　So I decided to devote my energy to the development of the game. By the year 1997, people began to play our games online. Then a man named Warpig entered and said, "Let's Talk." "He is Jensen Kaboka, our third co-founder.　　He was working for a gaming company and wanted to get an arc authorization. We made 45,000 dollars. At that time, I was only 19 years old and lived in Indiana. It was like millions of dollars to us. At the same time, a friend of the family and Sierra founder is a neighbour, this is a game company located in Seattle. Sierra's people called us for an interview, and then Brian and I left Indiana., to develop the game for Sierra.　　After we sold the arc to Sierra for 100,000 dollars, we left the company and used the money to start our own company with Jason. But we didn't have a well-planned plan. More often, we make a living by the bubble, and then play the game, take a step to see one step. We called the company sexy Action Cool because we thought it was fun. In addition, we originally only want to develop games for others, rather than directly sell the game. Jason and I were developing a PG-13 class called Foxy Pocker, which requires parents to give certain reminders and instructions to the content of the user, to animate strip poker. Although there is no nudity, but it is a very good game. We contacted the pornographic website Strip-poker.com and said to them: "You give us a sum of money, we authorize the game to you to sell." What do you think?　　The other party laughed and turned us down. After that, we developed the Gem bejeweled (bejeweled). This is a simple solitaire game I saw when I returned to Indiana to visit my family-no animations, no graphics, but I think it's cool. So I sent Brian and Jason an e-mail about the game. Brian developed the game in a different color circle the next day. On the third day, Jason got a lot of jewel patterns.　　On the fourth day, "Gem bejeweled"-A simple game of matching gems-was formed. We tried to sell it to the game website Pogo, but it didn't work. Yahoo is also not interested. But it was exciting to finally sign a flat rate contract with Microsoft. "Gem Bejeweled" in MSN on the success of the day, the user reached 60,000 people.　　But we only make 1500 dollars a month. By the year 2000, fans were starting to ask for a downloadable version, since everyone was using a dial-up modem to surf the internet and didn't want to occupy the phone line. So we developed a downloadable version, and improved the graphics and sound efficiency, but also charges. We have to persuade Yahoo, MSN and other websites to agree that people can still play a free version on their site and then spend 20 of dollars to download a better version.　　At the time, we had a "55-point" sales share with the hosting site, a new business model at the time. We launched the downloadable "Gem Bejeweled" in 2001, earning 35,000 dollars in the first month. Made 40,000 dollars in the second month. We're so excited! We finally made money, but it won't last. So I went to Argentina with Brian and drank a merry day, and it took 4 months.　　We didn't come back until Yahoo signed the contract with us. We knew nothing about business, so we hired a counselor. "We'll solve all your problems-just pay us 100,000 dollars and 3% of your company," said the counselor. "It makes us veryAversion-If you don't play games, don't be judgmental about how to develop games. But with their advice, we hired an auditor.　　Until then, the accounts were administered by my aunt. We decided from the outset to make the game fun and easy to use to attract everyone. We currently have 35 games. We never think of any cheats or tricks. But all the games we've developed make money. It took us 3 years to perfect the plant vs. Zombies. We don't care about the resources that each game consumes. If it is a good game, it is worth investing a lot of money.　　If it's just a good game, it's worthless. We had 15 employees in 2004 and rejected a 60 million dollar offer. We know that we should start to deal with business more seriously. So we hired David Roberts (David Roberts) as CEO. He used to work at Apple and Adobe.　　We want him to lead the business growth, but don't meddle in creative work, and he understands that. After David joined us, we focused on developing new games instead of paying attention to the revenue stream of each game. All these changes owe to David.　　More than 30% of our annual revenue comes from Gem bejeweled, which can be compatible with a variety of platforms: Pc/mac, Xbox, PlayStation, Wii, DS, PalmPilot, IPhone, ipad, and air entertainment systems. Jason and I often interact, and Jason and Brian often interact. Brian and Jason work together on the game, while Jason is also involved in the company's creative direction.　　The three of us worked very well-there was always some exchange and exchange of views. When we started our business, Facebook wasn't even born, and the iphone didn't exist. We adapt, change and overcome all that we have encountered. We continue to integrate our approach into the game. We can never be perfect, but we are always good and try to do better. (Ding Macro)