I recently had a chance to speak with Cathy Orr at PopCap after they hauled in a pile of investment capital ($22.5M). I wanted to see how they make successful games all the time and some of the secrets behind their development.

[GDN] How does PopCap determine if a game idea is good enough to warrant development?

[CO] PopCap starts from the standpoint of "do WE like playing this game? Is it adversely affecting productivity because everyone in the office is playing it all the time? Good - that’s an excellent sign!" In the early days, PopCap’s founders used a ’mum test’ to gauge a game’s potential. They would sit their moms down in front of a game in Alpha or early Beta stage, and leave them there. If the moms were still playing 30 minutes later, the company co-founders knew they were headed in the right
direction.

[GDN] Have there been any ideas that sounded really great but some time into the development process the game simply didn’t work?

[CO] Absolutely - there are quite a few games that were all but complete, only to be shelved at the last minute because they just didn’t hit the PopCap quality bar. In fact, Peggle spent years as an idea - and then another two and a half years from prototyping to release - before it was deemed worthy of the PopCap stamp. We knew we wanted to do a 2D game using bouncing ball physics, inspired by games like pachinko, pinball, and breakout but there were obviously a lot of directions it could have
gone, so the challenge was narrowing it down to a simple, compelling and fun mechanic. It was on and off the shelf a few times before it eventually came together.

[GDN] Generally where do ideas for new titles come from? Are you building on what you see in the market, sitting in marathon brainstorming sessions, getting ideas injected into the company from external sources?

[CO] The truth is that ideas can come from anywhere. Then, in addition to our formal Beta testing, games are guided by the feedback of 240 PopCap employees. Before a game is released, everyone in the company - from Accounts to Business Development to Marketing and back to the Studio - has a say on a developing game. The reason for this is quite simple: PopCap games are made for an audience of everyone so the more diverse feedback we can get at development stage, the better.

[GDN] How many games has PopCap now developed?

[CO] PopCap has developed in excess of 30 titles for myriad platforms - Web, desktop computers, myriad mobile devices (mobile phones, smartphones, PDAs, Pocket PCs, iPod, iPhone and more), popular game consoles (such as DS, PSN and Xbox), and even in-flight entertainment systems. Top titles include the Bejeweled, Bookworm, Peggle, and Zuma franchises. Not forgetting, Plants vs. Zombies, which is new to PopCap’s stable of hits in 2009.