Mark B. – Studio Artist, Plants vs. Zombies

I had a total blast but oh my gosh did it wipe me out. Between what seemed like hundreds of boxes of swag to get out, running the “Test Your Strength” machine, keeping the booth tidy, and trying to contain Wall-nut hat mania, it was hard to find time just to get a bite to eat. Saturday afternoon, in the chaos, my lunch order didn’t come through. It was 2 or 2:30, and I was STARVING! Jeff saw the situation and came over, “Hey man, you can have half my sandwich.” Then, Philip came in and shared his lunch as well. I had a lot of fun being on panels, seeing all the amazing cos-players, and mingling with people who love PopCap games. But a small act of kindness when you need it the most, it stays with you. Thanks for having my back guys. It was awesome to have the opportunity to be at PAX East with ya.

Dana S. – Customer Service Content Manager

First of all, I sustained some major hits on this trip. I came back with a touch of con crud, and I got so dehydrated throughout the weekend that my hands cracked and bled, and then my nose started bleeding as well. On the way back to Seattle, I broke a tooth on airport food, and when I picked up my suitcase at baggage claim, it looked like this:

American Airlines customer support is awesome though, so I got a new bag. However, my Batman belt was lost along the way. Circle of life.

So, all that said, it really says something that I am so completely happy with my PAX East experience! I loved every minute of it (in retrospect, I guess — I mean, in the moment, I do remember never wanting to hear that hammer strike/bell ding sound combination again). I made some awesome new friends, saw a couple of cool panels, brought home a pile of card games to start playing, and best of all, hung out with the coolest group of friends I could have hoped for.

I also especially dug getting to talk to Peggle fans, as ever. Between the Peggle Master plushies we were giving out and the free Peggle download offer, that game was on everyone’s mind, and I love that. Extreme Fever forever!

Tara T. – Community Manager, Core Franchise

Couldn’t agree more with Mark. You were all so fun, amazing, and wonderful to work with. Even in the frustrating, starving, tired moments.

My favorite memories of the booth were the kiddos for sure. Each lil’ smile just from a simple plushy was worth every effort! The magic show was a highlight for me too. He brought a nice crowd and was super engaging. The strong man never-ending line was the biggest surprise for me. The popularity of that activity was crazy cool! The worst part of the whole event were the greedy folks who took 10 of everything without thinking twice. Seeing the inflation on ebay today is just slightly annoying. I’m still exhausted and sore, but all in all I can’t wait for the next event and can only hope we have a group as great as this one was! Thanks so much, everyone!

The gang's mostly all here!

Philip S. (hey, that’s me!) – Copywriter

Quick impressions: super noisy and I can’t believe how popular our decidedly analog High Striker hammer game was. Beyond that, I didn’t get out of our own booth too much (except to escort our zombie to and from his Kissing Booth) so I missed most of what I’m sure was a lot of great stuff on the floor. But what I took away from the whole event was that there are tons of great people in this business. From the groovy cats on my own team who worked hard and stayed loose the whole weekend, to the thousands of fans who stopped by to grab some swag or just to say ‘hey’ and ‘thanks,’ plus the two indie developers I ran into repeatedly in the break room (what up Ackk Studios and ClutchPlay Games?), and the dynamite crew of Enforcers including our most-awesome “XA” (Exhibitor Assistant) Laura, who was traffic cop, civil engineer, valet and den mother, and who we all agreed should come home with us. I spend a lot of time online where some days it seems like endless negativity. It was great to be face-to-face with so many fans and colleagues and to see how much passion and enthusiasm still exists in our industry. Oh, and the back-room swag deals with other developers was fun and sort of hilarious.

We killed it good.

Stephanie B. – Community Manager, Plants vs. Zombies

This was sent to me via the PvZ page yesterday:

Dear PopCap,

I just wanted to thank you for being the coolest booth at PAX East. I visited your booth often over the weekend but I had the best experience on Friday. I noticed people lining up to ring a bell with a mallet; I’m not sure if that game has an actual name. I’ve personally never tried those types of games before due to not having a lot of upper body strength. I normally wouldn’t attempt hitting anything with a mallet but I saw you were giving out Disco Zombie Figures and I knew I had to have one. I saw many girls fail to push their upper body strength to hit the bell and they were walking away with an energy drink. I really didn’t want an energy drink so I knew I had to give it my all for the figure! After waiting in line I got up to the green mat… and failed miserably. After three attempts I handed in my mallet. It was sad; I was sad. The guy said “Nice try” and I sighed. I was almost angry because I felt this game was really unfair for the average girl unless she had the extra muscle or had a hulky boyfriend. I didn’t have either of those things. However, after I walked away one of the the PopCap guys ran after me to give me a figure. I thanked him and I was really happy, even though I was still sad on the outside. So please thank whoever was giving out the prizes that Friday afternoon for running after the girl who was incredibly unhappy she failed at ringing the bell.     –Jennifer

Everyone did such a fantastic job. Seriously. Awesome. I heart all of you for the hard work at the event and PAX always reminds me of why I love my job and our fans. You all should feel super proud you pulled off a fantastic show! Everyone loved our booth and my favorite part was all of us working together and becoming better friends because of it.

Jeff G. – Nobody Really Knows What He Does Around Here

Other than our own booth, which we are contractually obliged to say was the best thing ever, I had a few other favorite moments at PAX East, including: Learning how to play Cards Against Humanity, being relieved that my daughter wasn’t with me while playing, attending the always hilarious Giant Bomb panel, and not breathing one molecule of clean air for three days. No, wait. That last one was awful. But overall the show was awesome, as it always is! By far my favorite gaming show, every time. And hanging out with PopCap friends outside of the office? Priceless.

Monsterpedia 2 is at times monstrous, at times adorable! This story by Sarah Dicken proves that there is nothing more endearing than a bunny you could ride.

Although, she gives her bunny some adorable competition with this puppy of a unicorn!

Many of the original Monsterpedia contributors have returned for this second volume, as well as some new faces. I am immensely proud to have written a story for it myself, and prouder still that it is illustrated by the amazing Dev Madan.

Dev and I go all Twilight Zone on a poor comic book creator. It's kind of my favorite thing ever that Dev Madan's pencils brought my characters into the world.

Erin Middendorf will be on hand with more of her gorgeous pottery.

I look at this and squee, "Corgi! Kitty!" And so forth.

I defy you to look at her animal art without trying to reach into the art and pet the adorable creatures. It just can’t be done. Don’t believe me? Have you played Solitaire Blitz? There are puppies who are soaked through, and you just know they smell like wet dog, but of course you would hold them and cuddle them anyway.

Readers of the first Monsterpedia will be excited to know that Karin Madan is back for Volume 2 with another story about the tragic and endearing Lil’ Dusa.

Don't worry -- this is just the title page, not the final panel. Lil' Dusa will be fine... probably....

So if you’re attending the con this weekend, be sure to stop by booth 506 and visit! The full complement of Monsterpedia artists and writers will be around, so pick up a copy of Volume 2 for thrills, chills and beautiful bunnies that you could totally ride if only you were tiny enough. And who knows? It’s Comicon. Probably someone there is selling reproductions of Alice in Wonderland cakes, and you can’t be sure they won’t shrink you unless you try.

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.

This is what people did for fun in the 1930s.

This past weekend, as part of the exhibit, we set up four PCs to let folks play Peggle and compete in informal tournaments all day. Most of the folks who sat down had never actually played Peggle before (we didn’t know such people existed!), but we’re happy to report that the game was a big hit all day long, with many people happily walking away with free download codes.

We could show you a few more photos of people staring at Peggle screens, but, hey, we’d prefer you just stare at your own Peggle screen. Instead, here are a few more photos from the Pacific Pinball Museum itself, an incredibly cool place that we highly recommend you visit. And, hey, you don’t have to put quarters in the machines to play!

Captain Fantastic! One of the great pinball machines from the 1970s.

It's a love affair for all ages at the Pacific Pinball Museum.

A topical machine for this week!

We're not sure what's going on here. And we don't think we want to know.

As is typical of corporate offsites, ours always begin with some kind of warmup exercise, or “icebreaker” type thing to get us to mix it up with our fellow employees before getting to the 7 hours or so of motivating PowerPoint slides. Last year, for example, we had do things like stretching exercises in a big circle, and say what animal we would be (oddly, almost everyone simultaneously said “ferret”). This year, we decided to scrap the new-agey stuff and do something closer to our core strengths: we played a game. Specifically, we were split into teams for a PopCap trivia contest, in which we were given a series of questions about our own company. Stakes were high. The winning team would be allowed to keep their jobs, while everyone else would be given their final paycheck and a link to the Craigslist jobs board. Not really. It was mostly just for fun.

Today, we’re giving you the same contest. Like us, you pretty much get nothing for playing or answering correctly. Actually take out “pretty much” in the last sentence. You get nothing. Still, what the heck else are you gonna do now? Look at more cat videos? Take our test instead, and justify it to yourself as “educational.” We’ll post the answers—eventually!

Okay, ready?  Here we go:

1.  In what year was PopCap officially founded?

2.  What did the PopCap founders originally want to call the company?

3.  The peashooter is the first plant players get in PvZ.  The sunflower is the second.  What is the third?

4.  Which PopCap game puts you in the role of a figure from Greek mythology? (Two possible correct answers here!)

5.  What game is this music from?
CLICK ME!

6.  In what cities do PopCap employees work? (There are 9 possible correct answers: 1 pt. for each correct answer!)

7.  Which magazine named PopCap one of “America’s Hottest Brands” in 2010?

• a) Consumer Reports
• b) Ad Age
• c) Forbes
• d) Edge

8.  What are the names of the following PopCap characters? (1 pt. for each)

a

b

  c

Good luck! Hope you do well! Though if you do, that means you probably know more about us than we did ourselves, which is a little scary!  We still love you, though!

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:

The building got a new coat of paint, light fixtures, countertops, chairs, and ceiling tiles, plus a spiffy new mural from some cool cats — artsy and otherwise — at PopCap. (Please note the nice lady at the 1:07 mark in the video. She designed the mural and will probably be mad at me for calling her out like this but she deserves credit and it’s not like I said your name, Lorie!)

Many thanks to BNBuilders, Washington Commercial Painters, Sherwin Williams, Precision Electric, Auburn Mechanical, Contour Countertops, Ducky’s Furniture and GK Knutson for their generous donations of time and resources for the project.

Crazy Dave & Zombie Carmen Miranda go Wabby Wabbo at Pride!

In the riot of color, you may recognize the orange of road cone headgear!

Our humble truck was dressed to the nines!

PopCap is proud to have been a part of this joyous celebration! And as a PopCapper myself, I am proud to work for a company that shows such Pride! It was a beautiful day in Seattle.

PopCap is a wonderland teeming with artists of all stripes. And any artist can tell you that the only way to stay strong is to never stop playing. Writers write, musicians jam, artists sketch. Often you have an assignment, but in between, you can’t just wait for inspiration to hit… so you play little games to jump-start the artistic impulse. One thing we do around here is called the Re-Masterpiece Project.

A 3D Ben Franklin became a perfect little zombie!

Once a year, PopCap employees rescue forgotten art from thrift stores. We each choose a piece at random and take it home, then do what we can to add to it, improve on it (perhaps), put a new spin on it at the very least. Check out some of the amazing results, some of which are by professional artists, some by programmers, testers, support techs… proof we’ve all got a little artist in us.

This kitty has been pumping serious iron. Watch out, Odie, the grudge match is on!

An angelic little girl is now a spacefaring adventurer!

Many PopCap artists are famous for their adorable animals, and they really brought the cute in this exercise:

A handsome rooster strutting through an empty painting is now surrounded by animated admirers!

This little girl won't be crying long with so many furry friends in flight to cheer her up!

This old-timey photo is much improved by kittens! What in life isn't, really?

Another very popular theme in Re-Masterpiecing is the insertion of monsters, friendly or ominous:

Aliens are the best way to liven up a simple landscape, I always say!

You have to love a beasty who keeps nice and clean!

I wouldn't like to run into this guy on a sand dune... though to be fair, he's probably just misunderstood.

Now go play! Write a haiku, practice your clarinet, doodle in the margin of your notebook… and call your mother.

Seven sample-sized servings of spicy saucy stew to stimulate the senses.

As a recent vegetarian, I couldn’t take part in the tastings, so I watched, listened, and only slightly envied those indulging in the meaty feast. Two chilis emerged as the clear front-runners, and it became a debate between judges which to vote for as they tasted them over and over.

Ed Miller, whose own chili was referred to as “the spicy one,” tells me about Chris Sampson’s winning recipe, “As soon as I tasted it, all that went through my mind was the line from Devil Went Down To Georgia that summed up my immediate reaction: ‘The devil bowed his head because he knew that he’d been beat…’.”

The winning chili's signage let the tasters know they were about to experience something special. That's why fancy restaurants use words you don't know on the menu. Anticipation is key.

I did beg Chris for his winning recipe so that I could share it with you, faithful BlogRiders, but you know chefs and their secrets! He was willing to at least share some of his philosophy and offer valuable tips:

1. Taste your chili as you’re making it. That way you can adjust it before you serve it and have it be exactly what you want it to be. I can’t stress this point enough. My chili takes 2-3 days to make with hours simmering on the stove each day. If it doesn’t taste how I want it to, I adjust it by adding a little more of this or that until it does.

2. Chili should be simple, but that doesn’t mean it can’t have complex flavor. When you find a recipe you like, play with it. Try new things, like combining different cuts or types of meat, or different chili powders. Different “grind” sizes for ground meat. Make your chili your own.

3. Chili is almost always thought of as “hearty,” and in my opinion, should be.

4. If you’re making chili for a competition, don’t be afraid to make exactly what you want to make. Bear in mind though, it’s not a bad idea to tailor it to appeal to judges as well. Not every judge will like chili that sets their mouth on fire, as an example. (What I made for the cook-off today wasn’t as hot as I generally make for myself at home. I tend to make it hot enough that my forehead perspires a bit and delivers a bit of pepper euphoria.)

Chris won a snazzy trophy for his desk and more importantly, the bragging rights as the newly crowned champion of chili.  Everyone else got a full belly and tingling tongue. Happy PopCappers all around.

He's so proud, the PopCap on his chest is glowing!