blog.popcap.com » A Day in the Life

Not All Benefits Are In the HR Handbook

Philip — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 17:07:11 +0000

It’s been a wild couple of weeks out here in Blog Ride HQ. We are working feverishly on all manner of projects that we can only speak about in the vaguest of terms. That is partly because we are sworn to secrecy and partly because we can’t remember what we are doing half the time (author’s note: that might just be me).

So it was a dee-diddly-ightful surprise when our new favorite Girl Scout, Grace (daughter of Senior Art Director and Cat Wrangler, Jesse) stopped by last week with a crate of cookies to deliver. Not only did she bring some much-needed sugary sustenance but she also delivered hand-made cards in the Plants vs. Zombies style to the fine folks who ordered cookies from her.

As for us deadbeats who didn’t order any cookies, well we are still eating more than our share. Thanks, Grace! If there is a badge for awesome, you’ve earned it.

Comicon Is Over; Time to Hibernate.

Dana — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 17:12:12 +0000

Once again, Emerald City Comicon has come to an end, and those who attended or worked it are somewhere on the spectrum of pleasantly exhausted to don’t-expect-me-to-stand-up-anytime-soon.

For those who missed it, I made sure to snap pictures of our PopCap crew manning their table and making art the whole livelong day!

I saw Sarah Dicken painting this, and now it is mine. Yes, in this case, the Finders Keepers rule applied to art acquisition. I'd've arm-wrestled for it if anyone got in my way.

David Ryan Paul and Rich Werner never stopped sketching, and the Zombie watched over them.

Jordan Kotzebue happily hawked Hominids while modelling the finest in Solitaire Blitz couture.

Hominids is a webcomic that comes out weekly online and then is collected regularly in print format. I hear that is the future of the comics industry. Go check it out! (Hominids is not an all-ages comic. You are warned.)

Note: In this image, Sarah Dicken was busy painting the bunnies. And they are mine.

How adorable are these?! If I had kids, these are the blocks I’d want them playing with. Mix-n-Match Creatures by Sarah Dicken (aka One Dill Pickle), coming soon to an Etsy near you.

Karin Madan giggles behind her display copies of Monsterpedia, volumes 1 & 2.

Visit Karin online and check out her Etsy store for handmade jewelry!

When I saw Erin working on this kitty sketch, I was instantly jealous of whoever had commissioned it.

If you were there, send us pictures of you reading Hominids or Monsterpedia, wearing a Karin Madan necklace, drinking out of an Erin Middendorf mug… we’d love to see! If you weren’t there, you can still visit the artists’ sites and online shops, and you can even get a copy of Monsterpedia volume 2! It’s the easiest way to get your hands on some lovely bunnies by Sarah Dicken, among other things.

Something to Warm You Up

curtis — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 19:11:34 +0000

As you crawled out of bed this morning, still full from Thanksgiving, you may have realized: “Oh no, the holidays are coming!” It’s time for an all-out-mad-dash-scramble from parties to shopping malls to airports to parties to shopping malls! And it’s cold outside, too.

Well, here’s a fun little picture to add some holiday cheer. We hope it’ll remind you that, as we all plow through this nutty time of year, it’s good to take time out to relax and have fun with family and friends. Or, at least, stay warm!

Happy Thanksgiving*

curtis — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 19:01:17 +0000

And now: a few Thanksgiving words of wisdom, from us to you.

*Offer for a Happy Thanksgiving valid only in the U.S., just in case those in other countries are offended by our thankfulness and/or gluttony.

All Hallows’ Eve… Eve

Dana — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 21:46:56 +0000

It’s not Halloween quite yet, sure, but for holidays the federal government has not seen fit to convert to a standardized day of the week, we learn to make compromises. If party holidays fail to fall on a Friday or Saturday, we party a little early. PopCap threw its Halloween bash last week, and as usual, we had some rockin’ costumes. For those who need last-minute inspiration, or just to rev up your own party mood for tomorrow, enjoy the images of a very pop-cultural PopCap costume party after the break. But first, check out a couple more fan costume submissions we received!

And now for the PopCap party people:

A fun-loving Joker gleefully menaces a broody Batman.

This duo was a walking reminder to all of the profound importance of partying on.

Winner of Scariest Costume...the girl from the Ring. Not in fact a brunette Cousin Itt.

While both these couples clearly coordinated their costumes, they did not actually coordinate with each other! This is a cosmic cosplay confluence of Nickelodeon devotion.

Winner of Best PopCap Costume: our beloved attack dog, Noni, caught in the act of foraging for food around the office. The one flaw in the execution is that Noni never actually looks sheepish when she gets caught.

Thing 1 and Thing 2 win for best costume to wear for crashing parties on Halloween--seriously, how do you know who's in there?

Another gorgeously crafted costume from Katie, who brought us last year's Medusa. How does she do it? What might she charge to make something for me....

The grand prize winners were a trio. Everyone seemed very excited about their costume. Something to do with "L'Homme de la Famille," I think.

Disco Zombie Hops the Pond to London

Dana — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 17:31:12 +0000

Last week, I was overjoyed to visit London, the greatest city on Earth. How do I know it’s the greatest city on Earth? Two things: 1. Everything costs double there what it does at home, so it must be twice as good. (That is how that works, right? Otherwise I want to cry at how much I paid for a couple of pieces of sushi one evening.) 2. I saw the Beatles.

And as usual, I had a stowaway in my luggage, so now I present to you London, from the Zombie point of view.

Zombie was intrigued by the possibilities, as phone booths don't exist in the US, and they look like they'd make excellent traps. Unfortunately, even an undead nose could tell how bad this little enclosure smelled, which made it unlikely anyone with active olfactory connections in their brainz would come along.

Zombie also pondered the potential of the turnabout... but this kind of traffic arrangement only stuns and disorients Americans. The locals get around just fine.

With a sign conveniently instructing people to run this way, Zombie thought his luck had turned. But eventually he noticed he was in violation of the other half of the sign and moved along.

Zombie graciously volunteers to eat brainz of West End sign makers, as they are clearly not in use.

And finally, Disco Zombie would just like to share with you a wall of bas-relief horses, for no other reason than that he finds them remarkably groovy.

Disco Zombie Does New Mexico

Dana — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 17:04:24 +0000

You may have noticed that no one on the BlogRide team can take a trip for business or pleasure without finding a stowaway in their bags. I just returned from my favorite place in the world, the beautiful state of New Mexico, and this little guy was with me the whole way.

Zombie has never been more comfortable in the presence of plants. Stuffing them with cheese, deep-frying them, and submerging them in sauce renders them immobile, helpless and oh-so-delicious.*

The vasty vista makes even Disco Zombie contemplative. The desert is beautiful... and has far fewer plants than Seattle.

Zombie wanted desperately to get up to that bus that's stuck in the wall — it's just Zombie's size and would make a way cool tour bus for disco revival. Sadly, out of reach.**

Zombie has never seen a human as creepy as the one in this picture. Zombie is very very okay with that. Some brainz not worth eating.

This ladder leads up to a little walkway all around the house just below ceiling level, for the cat's enjoyment and exercise. Zombie thought it was cool to get way above and enjoy the brainz-eye view of the household.***

* This is the chile relleno platter at Bea’s 2 in Albuquerque. If I were super-rich, I would fly down to NM regularly just to eat at this restaurant. The food is so good, I wouldn’t even feel guilty about my carbon footprint. It’s at Wyoming and Zuni, just off Route 66. Go.

** This rad mural wall is at the comic book store Astro-Zombies, on Central in Albuquerque. The wall is so much cooler when you can see all of it… I briefly envied those with that new phone that does panoramic pictures.

*** Yes, my mom’s house is that cool. A cat walkway.

The Future of Gaming*

A.J. — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 16:55:03 +0000

Recently, the PopCap group in which the blog overlord and all her minions work (the minions are us that write the nice stuff here, but not the Zombie) had what office workers like to call an “offsite.” Basically, we went away from the office into a magical land and talked about serious things. Things like who would win, The Hulk or Thor, in an underwater knife fight? And what’s tastier, Doritos topped with Sriracha or apples dipped in peanut-butter? But the big question of the day revolved around the future of gaming. So, we broke into groups, stayed up until dawn and then a few hours past dawn, drank lots of warm mint and ginger tea, went through 16 reams of over-sized scratch paper and 16 boxes of colored pencils, chewed our nails to nubs, and figured it all out. Please don’t tell any other video game companies what I’m about to reveal.

The future of gaming, way, way in the future, will be awesome. Here’s how it’ll work: first, you’ll get chips implanted in your wrist and forehead (and maybe the nose, though that’s still being decided). Then, you’ll buy a certain amount of playing time and ingest it—either 1 hour, 1-1/2 hours, or 2 hours, depending on the size of ingestible purchased. Once time is ingested, the implanted chips are activated, letting you control the gaming and game pieces with your body. Think about that: total gaming immersion. Amazing. The below video demonstrates (cause we live in the future, sort of) how it will work. First, you’ll see the ingestible gaming time balls. Then, after our gamers ingest the time, they start to control the game pieces. Watch closely to see the fine control that you’ll have over your gaming. Again: amazing! After you see a number of individual gamers and their gaming, though, the fun really starts. In the last video frame, you’ll see that you can also go into multi-player mode. The future of gaming, as shown, will be a marvelous–perhaps strange, but still marvelous–time.

*This whole post in no way has anything to do with anything that PopCap might actually be doing in the future or thinks about the future as it relates to gaming or to the ingesting of time. You probably knew that, though. But just in case, I thought I’d be clear.

The Least Productive Day in PopCap History

Dana — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 18:44:45 +0000

Otherwise known as Doggie Day! As you may know, our office is home to one proud canine, the lovely dachshund Noni, and typically she has the place to herself. Last Friday, however, was a rare treat for all of us who either have or simply love dogs, because everyone was free to bring their doggie to work! I don’t know if you’ve ever heard the collective “Aww”-ing of an entire building as tons of little fur-faces parade through, but it’s something special. And what we lose in office productivity, we make up in morale. Check out some of the adorableness that wrecked our concentration last week!

Why yes, that is a Chuzzle in that little angel's mouth! And she never let go of it!

If this little guy looks especially familiar to you, maybe you've been playing with the deck called "Charlie" in Solitaire Blitz!

I have rarely hated a door in the way I hated this door. Look at that cute little doggie face! I wanted to barge right into that meeting and pet him.

This dog knows big and important truths. It pains him that we can't comprehend his language, because he has solved physics for us.

And this doggie wants to travel with us to new worlds and lead our army against the pod people.

And this little doggie just wants to be petted and loved. Nothing wrong with that!

While most of our doggies were small to medium-sized...

...we did have some big cheerful beauties like this Keeshond...

...Molly the friendly lab, ready to love all people no matter how tired she got!...

...and the chillest Boxer who ever chilled.

Dogs are hard to photograph, as they're usually wagging either their tail...

...or their face!

And because I don’t know if I’ve ever seen anything cuter, I leave you with another shot of the doggie with the Chuzzle:

Disco Zombie Goes to Comic Con International

Dana — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 20:51:31 +0000

San Diego Comic Con is a magical misty mountain funland where all your dreams come true. At least, that’s always been my experience, and so this year, when I found I had a stowaway, I let him accompany me around the con floor and enjoy the sights you can only see at Comic Con!

Confused by his more robust counterpart, the limited edition Comic Con Disco Zombie from Funko.

But this explains how a Comic Con Zombie could have grown so burly! Buffets like this are a rare find. They really know how to treat the undead in San Diego.

On the other hand, they also put up displays like this one of plants taking over the world... showing Zombie his worst nightmare come to life.

And an entire booth about "Killer Pumpkins." Disco Zombie is not amused.

Zombie ponders the Peashooter resistance quotient of the Stormtrooper helmet.

A rare sighting of the elusive female zombie.

"Illustrated man's brainz very flavorful," Disco Zombie reported back.

That's right... salute the General... which is totally Zombie and not at all the much bigger guy behind him.