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George Fan

George Fan (born 1978) is an American video game designer who currently works as the creative director of All Yes Good. He designed Insaniquarium (2001), Plants vs. Zombies (2009; which started the video game franchise of the same name), Octogeddon (2018), and Hardhat Wombat (2023). Before going into game design, Fan graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2000 with a degree in computer science. After graduating, he worked under Arcade Planet to develop games for their website, Prizegames.com. He eventually formed Flying Bear Entertainment and created Insaniquarium, which became a finalist for the 2002 Independent Games Festival. He then joined Blizzard Entertainment and worked there while simultaneously developing Insaniquarium further for PopCap Games, releasing the "Deluxe" edition in 2004.

George Fan
Fan in 2018
Born1978 (age 45–46)
NationalityAmerican
EducationUniversity of California, Berkeley
Occupations
  • Video game designer
  • Creative director
Years active2000–present
Notable work

Fan left Blizzard and started developing Plants vs. Zombies. He became a full-time employee for PopCap, who supplied Fan with a team. Upon release in 2009, it became the best-selling game developed by PopCap. EA bought PopCap Games in 2011 and Fan was laid off after he insisted EA to not make "Plants vs. Zombies 2" pay-to-win in 2012. Fan started developing Octogeddon and submitted it to the 2012 Ludum Dare contest. Fan formed a developing company named All Yes Good with Rich Werner and Kurt Pfeffer and developed Octogeddon further before releasing it in 2018. Fan then developed Hardhat Wombat, which was released on October 26, 2023.

Early life and education

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Fan was born in 1978.[1] Fan grew up with his brother and lived with their father.[2][3] Fan attended the University of California, Berkeley and graduated with a degree in computer science in 2000.[1]

Career

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2000–2001: Early career

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Fan first worked as creator of Java video games for the online gaming portal, Prizegames.com,[4] created by the company Arcade Planet.[5] Fan describes the website as "an online version of Chuck E. Cheese".[4] The first video game he designed was the puzzle game, Wrath of the Gopher, released in 2001.[6][7] Fan said to Chris Carter, editor-in-chief of Destructoid, that before creating Wrath of the Gopher, he was unsure of whether or not he could be a game designer.[4]

2001–2012: PopCap Games

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While researching Java games, Fan discovered PopCap Games and took a liking to their game library.[4] In 2001, Fan and Tysen Henderson founded Flying Bear Entertainment in California to work on a virtual pets video game project named FishTank.[1] Fan wanted to create a game "that's easy to get into, yet unfolds into something much deeper."[8] Flying Bear Entertainment published it on August 31, 2001, as a free Java-based online game called Insaniquarium.[7] Fan entered the game into the 2002 Independent Games Festival, to which it became a finalist for.[4] At the finalist booth at Game Developers Conference 2002 (GDC 2002), PopCap Games offered Fan help in making Insaniquarium a downloadable game.[9] Insaniquarium won in the category of "Innovation in Game Design".[10]

At the time, Fan was looking for a job at Blizzard Entertainment. Blizzard allowed Fan to work on Insaniquarium on his breaks from working with them.[9] Because he was a freelance video game designer at the time, Fan was forced to do a majority of the programming and designing of Insaniquarium, along with composing some of the music.[11] With PopCap Games as the publisher, Insaniquarium was released on 2004 for the PC, titled Insaniquarium: Deluxe[a] and was met with critical and financial success.[13] The game sold 20 million copies on the PC by April 2006,[14] and was released for mobile phones by Glu Mobile in the United States on April 13, 2006,[15] and in Europe on June 29, 2006.[16] The game was also released for Palm OS and Windows Mobile phones and personal digital assistants on August 6, 2008.[17]

Fan worked for Blizzard for two and a half years.[9] He was tasked with programming AI and designing enemies for Diablo III during this time.[6][18] It was not long after Insaniquarium was released that Fan realized that he was more of a designer than a programmer. Fan tried to become a designer at Blizzard, though found it hard to persuade other employees to his ideas, leading him to conclude that he preferred to work in smaller teams.[9]

Fan left Blizzard to become an independent game designer for a year.[9] Fan eventually became inspired by his project Insaniquarium and Warcraft III mods to create a new game.[19] Fan thought about creating a defense-oriented version of Insaniquarium for the Nintendo DS utilizing its dual-screen.[9] However, after playing Warcraft III tower defense mods, he wondered if plants could make good defensive structures. Fan wanted to bring new concepts to the tower defense genre and found enemies ignoring the defensive structures unintuitive, which led to the use of lanes.[6][11] The enemies, though initially planned to be aliens from Insaniquarium, became zombies to make the game distinctive from other plant games.[6] The working title was Weedlings. After the enemies were changed from aliens to zombies, the game was renamed Plants vs. Zombies.[6][9]

Initially, Fan worked on Plants vs. Zombies independently.[20] He became a full-time employee for PopCap Games after they convinced him that joining them would help him make the best game.[9] PopCap set Fan up with a team consisting of Tod Semple, Rich Werner, and Laura Shigihara, who each filled the role of programmer, artist, and composer respectively; Fan would also voice the game's tutorial character, named "Crazy Dave" after David Rohrl, himself.[11] Plants vs. Zombies took three and a half years to make.[20] Aside from Insaniquarium and Warcraft III, Plants vs. Zombies was influenced by the arcade game Tapper,[11] the card game Magic: the Gathering,[6] and the film Swiss Family Robinson.[20] A critical aspect of developing was designing the game to be balanced between casual and hardcore gaming.[6][21][22]

Plants vs. Zombies was released on May 5, 2009, for the PC and Mac OS X.[23] The game garnered positive reception from critics, being assigned an aggregate score of 87/100 by Metacritic.[24] It quickly became the best-selling video game developed by PopCap Games.[25][26][27] James Gwertzman, the vice president of the Asia/Pacific division of PopCap, revealed in a presentation at GDC China 2010 that the game had sold 1.5 million copies internationally.[28] Plants vs. Zombies has been ported to various platforms, including the iOS, Xbox 360, and Nintendo DS.[29]

There were various other projects designed by Fan for PopCap that were either canceled or unannounced. One of them was a role-playing video game called Yeti Train,[4] which was rumored to become a new franchise after a trademark for the title was filed by PopCap in 2009,[30] though in March 2011, David Roberts, CEO of PopCap, declined there being any plans to release new franchises.[31] Another game in production was Full Contact Bingo.[32]

On July 12, 2011, PopCap and its assets were bought by Electronic Arts (EA) for $750 million.[33] EA envisioned Plants vs. Zombies as a major franchise, with the sequel using a freemium model, which resulted in Fan losing interest in Plants vs. Zombies. According to Jason Schreier of Kotaku, when EA directed PopCap towards making free-to-play games with transactions, "Fan no longer fit in."[32] In August 21, 2012, 50 employees either left or were laid off from PopCap's Seattle studio, with studios in Dublin; Shanghai; and San Mateo, California — where Fan worked at the time — closing.[32][34] Fan was fired during this time after months of discussion from PopCap's management team. A circulating rumor that Fan was fired because of his opposition to EA's freemium model was based on a statement by Edmund McMillen, the creator of The Binding of Isaac and Super Meat Boy. George Fan refused to comment publicly on the truth of this story.[32][35]

2012–present: Post-PopCap Games

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After leaving PopCap Games due to his lay-off on August 21, 2012, Fan created the arcade-style action video game Octogeddon for the 2012 Ludum Dare Game Jam,[36][37] a type of Hackathon where developers have to create a game in a short amount of time within a specific theme. For Ludum Dare, it was 48 hours. The 2012 theme was "evolution"; Fan designed Octogeddon to fit that theme by having the octopus gain weaponized limbs over time.[38] The game was met with positive reception in the jam, inspiring Fan to work on the game more.[37] He formed the indie video game company, All Yes Good, along with Werner — the artist for Plants vs. Zombies — and Kert Pfeffer — the programmer of the Xbox 360 port of Plants vs. Zombies.[39] All Yes Good developed Octogeddon for the next four years.[37]

Fan served as the designer, Werner served as the artist, and Pfeffer served as the programmer for Octogeddon.[40] Jimmy Hinson provided the soundtrack.[4] Octogeddon was released on February 8, 2018, for the video game digital distribution service, Steam.[41] The game was met with positive reception, having a score of 82/100 on Metacritic.[42] It was ported to the Nintendo Switch on May 16, 2019.[43] Fan is currently listed as the creative director of All Yes Good.[44]

Personal life

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Fan lives in California; he went to University of California, Berkeley, for his college education,[1][8] was based in San Francisco during the development of Plants vs. Zombies,[2][9] worked in the San Mateo, California studio of PopCap Games by the time he was fired on August 21, 2012,[32] and All Yes Good is currently based in Redwood Shores, California.[44] His girlfriend is Shigihara, the composer for Plants vs. Zombies.[6] Fan's hobbies include playing Magic: The Gathering and Lego building.[2] He designed the card Genesis Hydra for the Magic: The Gathering core set Magic 2015.[45][46]

Works

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Works
Game Release Date Genre Role Developer Publisher Ref.
Wrath of the Gopher 2001 Puzzle Designer Arcade Planet Arcade Planet [4][6][7]
Insaniquarium August 31, 2001[b] Virtual pets Designer, programmer, composer Flying Bear Entertainment PopCap Games[c] [7][12][47]
Plants vs. Zombies May 5, 2009 Tower defense Designer PopCap Games PopCap Games [48][49]
Diablo III May 15, 2012[d] Role-playing AI programmer, enemy designer Blizzard Entertainment Blizzard Entertainment [6][50]
Octogeddon February 8, 2018 Action Designer All Yes Good All Yes Good [37][51]
Hardhat Wombat 2023 Puzzle Designer All Yes Good All Yes Good [52][53]

Other credits

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Game Release Date Genre Developer Publisher Credit
Plants vs. Zombies 2 July 9, 2013 Tower defense PopCap Games Electronic Arts Special thanks

Notes

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  1. ^ The manual for Insaniquarium puts the released date at September 1, 2004.[12] However, the official website of Flying Bear Entertainment announced the release of Insaniquarium for the Microsoft Windows on August 30, 2004, and for Mac OS X on October 16, 2004.[7]
  2. ^ The "Deluxe" edition was released in 2004.[7][12]
  3. ^ Flying Bear Entertainment was the publisher before the involvement of PopCap Games following GDC 2002.[9]
  4. ^ Despite being released in 2012,[50] Fan only worked at Blizzard from 2002 to 2004.[9]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d "Who are we?". Flying Bear Entertainment. Fresh Pulp. Archived from the original on June 2, 2021. Retrieved May 29, 2021.
  2. ^ a b c Carter, Chris (May 4, 2019). "It's the 10th anniversary of Plants vs. Zombies: We talked to the creator about the past, present, and future of the series". Destructoid. Archived from the original on August 20, 2021. Retrieved August 20, 2021.
  3. ^ Fan, George (March 9, 2012). How I Got My Mom to Play Through Plants vs. Zombies. Game Developers Conference Vault. Archived from the original on August 20, 2021. Retrieved August 20, 2021.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Carter, Chris (February 1, 2018). "Plants vs. Zombies creator George Fan on past success, future risks, and drafts with Edmund McMillen". Destructoid. Archived from the original on March 8, 2021. Retrieved May 29, 2021.
  5. ^ "Arcade Planet Launches Affiliate Program For Exciting, New Games Web Site; PrizeGames.com Makes Debut at Internet World Chicago" (Press release). Arcade Planet. July 12, 2000. Archived from the original on August 20, 2021. Retrieved August 19, 2021 – via Business Wire.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Fan, George (May 5, 2009). "Flower Defence". Edge (Interview). Archived from the original on August 21, 2010. Retrieved May 30, 2021.
  7. ^ a b c d e f "Flying Bear Entertainment News". Flying Bear Entertainment. Fresh Pulp. Archived from the original on May 15, 2021. Retrieved August 4, 2021.
  8. ^ a b Fan, George; Henderson, Tysen (March 2002). "Interview with Flying Bear Entertainment". Gamedev.net (Interview). Interviewed by Drew Sikora. Archived from the original on June 2, 2021. Retrieved August 4, 2021.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Fan, George (November 2, 2010). "George Fan and his cat on the making of Plants vs. Zombies". PC Gamer (Interview). Interviewed by Graham Smith. Archived from the original on June 2, 2021. Retrieved May 30, 2021.
  10. ^ "Winners: 2002 IGF Competition". Independent Games Festival. Archived from the original on July 18, 2006. Retrieved May 30, 2021.
  11. ^ a b c d Fan, George (May 22, 2009). "Interview with Plants vs. Zombies creator George Fan". Gamezebo (Interview). Interviewed by Erin Bell. Archived from the original on June 2, 2021. Retrieved May 30, 2021.
  12. ^ a b c "Insaniquarium Deluxe Readme". PopCap Games. Archived from the original on June 12, 2011. Retrieved August 4, 2021.
  13. ^ "Glu Mobile Launches Insaniquarium Deluxe in Europe". GamesIndustry.biz. June 29, 2006. Archived from the original on June 7, 2021. Retrieved June 7, 2021.
  14. ^ Bennallack, Owain (April 14, 2006). "Insaniquarium splashes onto mobile". Pocket Gamer. Archived from the original on June 8, 2021. Retrieved August 16, 2021.
  15. ^ "Glu Announces the Launch of Insaniquarium Deluxe for Mobile Phones, PopCap's Addictive Aquarium-themed Hit". GamesIndustry.biz. April 13, 2006. Archived from the original on June 3, 2021. Retrieved August 16, 2021.
  16. ^ "Glu Mobile Launches Insaniquarium Deluxe in Europe". GamesIndustry.biz. August 16, 2021. Archived from the original on June 7, 2021. Retrieved August 6, 2021.
  17. ^ "Palm OS and Windows Mobile version of PopCap's fishy challenge". GamesIndustry.biz. August 6, 2008. Archived from the original on June 16, 2021. Retrieved August 16, 2021.
  18. ^ Funk, John (August 24, 2009). "Is There a Zombie on Blizzard's Lawn?". The Escapist. Archived from the original on June 2, 2021. Retrieved August 4, 2021.
  19. ^ Thomson, Michael (March 19, 2010). "Aliens in the garden: the secret origin of Plants vs. Zombies". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on April 30, 2012. Retrieved August 4, 2021.
  20. ^ a b c Fan, George (May 10, 2019). "How George Fan created the wacky Plants vs. Zombies a decade ago". VentureBeat (Interview). Interviewed by Dean Takahashi. Archived from the original on January 11, 2021. Retrieved August 16, 2021.
  21. ^ Fan, George (June 5, 2009). "GameArena Interviews George Fan, Plants vs. Zombies Man". GameArena (Interview). Interviewed by Joaby. Archived from the original on October 1, 2011. Retrieved August 16, 2021.
  22. ^ Curtis, Tom (March 9, 2012). "GDC 2012: 10 tutorial tips from Plants vs. Zombies creator George Fan". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on December 5, 2020. Retrieved August 16, 2021.
  23. ^ "PopCap Launches Plants vs. Zombies Game for PC and Mac". IGN. May 5, 2009. Archived from the original on September 13, 2018. Retrieved August 16, 2021.
  24. ^ "Plants vs. Zombies". Metacritic. Fandom, Inc. Retrieved August 16, 2021.
  25. ^ Sliwinski, Alexander (May 20, 2009). "Plants vs. Zombies is PopCap's fastest-selling game". Joystiq. Archived from the original on May 28, 2009. Retrieved August 16, 2021.
  26. ^ Funk, John (May 20, 2009). "PopCap Wins Big With Plants vs. Zombies". The Escapist. Archived from the original on May 25, 2021. Retrieved August 16, 2021.
  27. ^ Graft, Kris (May 20, 2009). "Analysis: The Universal (Brain-Eating) Appeal Of Plants Vs. Zombies". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on August 17, 2021. Retrieved August 16, 2021.
  28. ^ Gwertzman, James (August 1, 2010). "The Making of PopCap's Plants vs. Zombies". Archived from the original on November 8, 2020. Retrieved August 16, 2021 – via SlideShare.
  29. ^ Miller, Greg (February 25, 2012). "Plants vs. Zombies Vita Review". IGN. Archived from the original on May 16, 2021. Retrieved August 16, 2021.
  30. ^ Meer, Alec (March 8, 2011). "PopCap drops more IPO, acquisition hints". GamesIndustry.biz. Archived from the original on August 18, 2021. Retrieved August 17, 2021.
  31. ^ Morris, Chris (March 6, 2011). "Bejeweled Publisher Ponders IPO". CNBC. Archived from the original on August 18, 2021. Retrieved August 17, 2021.
  32. ^ a b c d e Schreier, Jason (November 21, 2017). "Widespread Rumor About EA Firing Plants vs. Zombies Creator Isn't Quite True". Kotaku. Archived from the original on November 27, 2020. Retrieved August 17, 2021.
  33. ^ Takahashi, Dean; Lynley, Matthew (July 12, 2011). "Electronic Arts buys PopCap for $750M". VentureBeat. Archived from the original on November 4, 2020. Retrieved August 17, 2021.
  34. ^ Goldfarb, Andrew (August 21, 2012). "Report: Layoffs Hit PopCap, International Studios Shuttered". IGN. Archived from the original on November 16, 2018. Retrieved August 17, 2021.
  35. ^ O'Brien, Lucy (November 20, 2017). "Update: Plants vs. Zombies Creator's EA Departure Clarified". IGN. Archived from the original on November 9, 2020. Retrieved August 17, 2021.
  36. ^ North, Dale (August 28, 2012). "Plants vs. Zombies creator's new game: Octogeddon". Destructoid. Retrieved August 20, 2021.[permanent dead link‍]
  37. ^ a b c d Fan, George (February 7, 2018). "Octogeddon: How Plants vs. Zombies creator spent four years on zany octopus game". VentureBeat (Interview). Interviewed by Dean Takahashi. Archived from the original on January 14, 2021. Retrieved August 20, 2021.
  38. ^ Bradley, Alan (October 10, 2016). "Plants vs. Zombies designer turns his game jam concept into Octogeddon". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on November 8, 2020. Retrieved August 20, 2021.
  39. ^ Fan, George (October 6, 2016). "Plants Vs. Zombies Creator Has His Hands Full With Octogeddon". Game Informer (Interview). Interviewed by Jeff Cork. Archived from the original on August 29, 2019. Retrieved August 20, 2021.
  40. ^ Cork, Jeff (February 8, 2018). "New Gameplay Today – Octogeddon". Game Informer. Archived from the original on August 3, 2020. Retrieved August 20, 2021.
  41. ^ Takahashi, Dean (February 8, 2018). "Octogeddon review — who knew that fighting as a giant octopus could be this fun?". VentureBeat. Archived from the original on February 3, 2021. Retrieved August 20, 2021.
  42. ^ "Octogeddon". Metacritic. Fandom, Inc. Retrieved August 20, 2021.
  43. ^ Craddock, Ryan (May 1, 2019). "Destroy Everything As An Angry Mutant Octopus When Octogeddon Smashes Onto Switch". Nintendo Life. Archived from the original on November 7, 2020. Retrieved August 20, 2021.
  44. ^ a b "All Yes Good". Octogeddon. Archived from the original on June 18, 2021. Retrieved August 20, 2021.
  45. ^ Miozzi, CJ (April 16, 2014). "Magic 2015 Designer Cards Include PvZ Creator, Notch". The Escapist. Archived from the original on June 3, 2021. Retrieved August 22, 2021.
  46. ^ Tach, Dave (April 21, 2014). "Minecraft, Plants vs. Zombies, Street Fighter vets and more designing Magic 2015 cards". Polygon. Archived from the original on October 20, 2021. Retrieved August 22, 2021.
  47. ^ Buchanan, Levi (March 9, 2006). "Insaniquarium". IGN. Archived from the original on August 18, 2021. Retrieved August 18, 2021.
  48. ^ "Plants vs. Zombies Readme". PopCap Games. Archived from the original on January 6, 2012. Retrieved August 18, 2021.
  49. ^ Watters, Chris (May 11, 2009). "Plants vs. Zombies Review". GameSpot. Archived from the original on February 25, 2021. Retrieved August 18, 2021.
  50. ^ a b Newman, Jared (May 14, 2012). "Diablo III Launches at Midnight: What You Need to Know". PC World. Archived from the original on August 7, 2020. Retrieved August 18, 2021.
  51. ^ "Octogeddon". Octogeddon. Archived from the original on June 18, 2021. Retrieved August 20, 2021.
  52. ^ "Plants Vs Zombies creator's new game is about stacking wombat poo". Rock Paper Shotgun. Archived from the original on May 19, 2023. Retrieved May 19, 2023.
  53. ^ "Hardhat Wombat". Hardhat Wombat. Archived from the original on May 19, 2023. Retrieved May 19, 2023.
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