EA VP and PopCap Games cofounder John Vechey, of jumping for Peggle 2 at E3 fame, went up on Reddit for an AMA on all things Popcap. We’ve handpicked his select answers on Plants Versus Zombies, George Fan, and the odd comment about Candy Crush Saga.
1st off, regarding Plants Versus Zombies: Garden Warfare ports to PC and Playstation, Vechey confirms the PC version is coming, but they have nothing to announce for Playstation yet. The PC version is up for preorder in Origin.
Vechey reiterated that the upcoming Garden Warfare DLC will be free, but won’t share more details. He did assert that PopCap designed Garden Warfare to be a fun game, not a hardcore game. It is this design philosophy that informs all their game designs.
Shifting gears momentarily, regarding Candy Crush Saga, Vechey surprisingly stands up for King.com. He dismisses the idea that it ripped off Bejeweled outright. Vechey asserts that King made their own changes, and innovated, on the match three genre.
Getting back into Plants Versus Zombies, Vechey explains why PvZ2 came to iOS before PC. While hardcore fans remember it coming to PC first, the game exploded on mobile.
Vechey also advocates a seemingly contradictory, but high level strategy for vanilla Plants Versus Zombies. Basically, he puts the plants up front and his shooters at the back. If you think about it, the flowers are fuel and shooters are offense, and you’re better off losing fuel before offense. I’m sure many of you, like me, want to see how this plays out for him though.
Now, some people bring up the touchy subject of George Fan. Fan was the designer of Plants Versus Zombies, as well as a lesser known predecessor, Insaniquarium, for PopCap. He was laid off from PopCap, along with 49 other employees, two years ago.
Without referring to Fan’s current status or the circumstances behind his exit from Popcap, Vechey only has good things to say. He does not refer to Plants Versus Zombies development after Fan leaving as harder, but different. Vechey makes it a point to credit Fan as the game’s visionary, and states that they have felt the responsibility of protecting Fan’s vision.
On the side, Vechey shed light on the game’s origins. Fan originally planned for outer space Aliens to fight the plants, but immediately decided that they would ravage the plants and made the switch.
Lastly, Vechey was asked about the chances of a Plants Versus Zombies Kart, a la Mario Kart. When a fan asked if they could keep hoping for such a game, Vechey coyly replied that he could keep hoping for it.
