It has an everyday metaphor, a female hero who’s a regular gal, 2d graphics, humor and even (yikes!) a job where you work a shift! Diner Dash was the first game out the door for us, and in a weird way, it was the platonic ideal of what we were shooting for in our portfolio vision – a game that had mass market appeal, but had none of the (presumed) necessary trappings of a gamer’s game (no dragons, no spaceships, no elves in bikinis). I also, of course, love Diner Dash and Diner Dash 2. That’s what gets me up in the morning – trying new things with this (relatively new) medium. To try something new not just in terms of mechanics and story but in how they would weave together. Like Diner Dash, it represented a creative risk – in both cases we set out (with the developer) to innovate. Plantasia’s a gorgeously addictive gardening game, with a sophisticated approach to story and really robust system management mechanic at its core. A real labor of love from the brilliant game designers at Gamelab. What games have you developed that you’re especially fond of? We’re all pop culture junkies over here, whether we’re deconstructing the newest chain popper, unearthing a rare German board game or discussing the latest issue of a Ed Brubaker’s Captain America. On a more serious, less vivid note, the name works because it speaks to the tone of the company we wanted to build and the kind of customer we wanted to reach – folks who believe in play, pop culture and games. He runs inside to Google it and the rest is history. OK, so John Welch (our CEO) is in his hot tub at home one night, martini in one hand, dreaming about how he’s going to start the Casual Games industry’s first full-on publishing house, when the name came to him in a moment of clarity – (cue the harp and violins). What is the story behind the name PlayFirst?
PROFESSOR FIZZWIZZLE PIRATE CODE
We talked to him recently to learn about the philosophy of PlayFirst, as well as the code that makes this Renaissance Man tick.
Painter, musician, and executive producer to a wide variety of games, including classic children’s fare (remember Carmen Sandiego, anyone?) to the Diner Dash series, Kenny is truly the Da Vinci of casual games. Two, they hired Kenny Dinkin to run this publishing arm. One, PlayFirst was the first company introduce the traditional publishing model to the burgeoning casual game space. When PlayFirst first launched in 2004, they did two things to raise the bar for casual games.
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