JASON-KAPALKA

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PopCap Games was founded by Jason Kapalka, Brian Fiete and John Vechey in 2000. They wanted to create games, firstly by learning from other Internet gaming sites. Their first game was Bejeweled, a huge-hit gem-swapping game, which was supported on all major platforms and awarded by Computer Gaming World Hall Of Fame in 2002.

The Sprout team subsequently moved to Seattle and helped PopCap to make a sequel to the hit game, Feeding Frenzy 2, with Gwertzman becoming the Director of Business Development at Popcap.

According to the official company website, PopCap Games has won at least 25 industry awards, including Computer Gaming World Hall of Fame status for Bejeweled.

Designing a successful casual game is a matter of balance and precision, and Bejeweled, Zuma and Bookworm creators PopCap are one of the masters of the art, with a projected $170 million in sales in 2008.

So on the heels of the game’s release, Gamasutra spoke to co-founder and chief creative officer Jason Kapalka about just what separates a “clone” from a true innovation in casual gaming, and how he balances his games to be accessible for his core audience.

Jason Kapalka, Chief Creative Officer of PopCap, founded the company in 2000 along with Brian Fiete and John Vechey.

Prior to PopCap, Jason spent 5 years at pogo.com as Senior Producer, where he created nearly two dozen of the company’s hit online titles and developed three dozen games that have been played billions of times by more than 200 million people.

Earlier, he was a columnist for Computer Gaming World, the oldest and most respected PC gaming magazine.

PopCap co-founder Jason Kapalka, one of the brains behind the Bejeweled franchise, chatted with us today about what made Bejeweled a success, the history of the game and why a casual game developer likes to spend his leisure time playing hard core games.