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A few years ago I taught a short game programming class. Just for kicks we had a quizz where the students had to look at 10 small downloadable games and estimat
by kaib 16y ago
A few years ago I taught a short game programming class. Just for kicks we had a quizz where the students had to look at 10 small downloadable games and estimate how much effort had gone into each of them. PopCap's Bejeweled 2 stuck in my mind.
The estimates ranged from 'a weekend' to 'maybe a month'. The truth: pre-production with 3 senior people for 2 months, post-production and polish with a team of 10 for a year. There were a lot of little gem games at the time. There still is. But Bejeweled was the one that sold over 50 million units.
Polish, polish, polish.
- aresant 16y agoI've seen several interviews with the PopCap founders where they've stated that they built the original in less than a year with just the three founders. Maybe the polish came after the MSN games version? eg -> http://venturebeat.com/2008/04/21/popcap-games-executive-interview-dont-forget-about-the-fun/ http://venturebeat.com/2008/04/21/popcap-games-executive-int...
- kaib 16y agoFixed, my memory failed me. You are right, it was Bejeweled 2.
- aresant 16y agoThat makes sense, upvoted :). They've got such an intersting story especially for HN audience - bunch of taltented guys in their 20s at the time, working for the man, going out to build something new and doing their best to survive while they got traction - I think their first deal was just $1500 a month for the original online version of bejeweld