PlayFirst Grapevine
I'd like to thank the Academy...
2008
by SunPath
JUN
16
As Nemone announced in the Diner Dash Lounge recently, Diner Dash: Hometown Hero (or DD:HH, as it's known in the halls of PlayFirst) has been nominated for two People's Choice Zeeby Awards (Best Time Management Game of 2007 and Best Casual Game of 2007)!
Nemone asked cazcreator and I for some thoughts on what it has been like working on this exciting and innovative internally-developed PlayFirst game.
First of all, we'd like to take the opportunity to thank all of the loyal players who have been playing the game (and the downloadable content)! These nominations are especially exciting for us, because we've seen the DD:HH community grow, and because every single person here at PlayFirst truly contributed to this project. In addition to the DD:HH game team, the PlayFirst site team pitched in by creating new destinations to celebrate all things Flo--DinerDash.com and Diner Dash Boutique--and supporting new multiplayer features, user-created content, and customizable avatars. Our games QA team put in tons of time and hard-work, and the entire company's feedback was requested during numerous multiplayer feature tests.
I was a DD:HH game producer from just after the game's green light (official approval to begin producing) in November 2006 until the game's initial launch in late September 2007. In the final months we had a small team of leads from across the company meeting every morning (at 8:30 am, no less!) to make sure the schedule was running smoothly.
My favorite DD:HH launch moment was the first time we played online multiplayer with you guys. Our late night dinner had been ordered; the game and site were ready to go. Everyone was so excited to be finally launching the game, and to be online playing with our users. I played with Heather89 first. I'm pretty sure she beat me because I was so busy chatting with actual PF users – the internal tests were over!
As a blast from the past, here's the DinerDash.com post where sorbet announced the DD:HH initial launch on September 24, 2007.
Cazcreator is the producer working with the current Diner Dash team on all of the downloadable content, including restaurants like the newest Buccaneer Bistro. Although I'm working on a different project now, I still get to see (and hear!) the new restaurants in progress since cazcreator and I sit near each other. We even upgraded to a great view in our new office.
I asked cazcreator for his thoughts about working on the downloadable restaurants and other content. Here's what he said:
“We are immeasurably thankful for the support of the downloadable restaurants. Our hope is that we can continue to be creative and deliver fresh content for our loyal Diner Dash: Hometown Hero fans to enjoy. The restaurants give us the opportunity to send Flo, our fans, and our development team on boundless adventures to faraway places in our imagination.”
We're all very excited to be nominated for the Zeebys--both Chocolatier and Dream Chronicles are up for awards, too--and hope you get a chance to vote.
Moving Day
2008
by karynj
JUN
3
Ah, moving. Everyone loves that optimistic feeling of a new space with new possibilities and new stuff. Everyone also dreads packing up years of accumulated treasures, tossing out things that you don’t even recognize anymore, and the possibility of neighbors who don’t understand the concept of inside voices. PlayFirst is moving to a bigger, better and 118% more awesome office later this week, and we couldn’t be happier. As we pack up our current digs (and I find an old Dreamcast abandoned in a dusty box along with action figures, Diner Dash 1 boxes, mugs with super old logos, and more) it seems like a good time to fill you all in on what’s up with us.
We decided to move a few months ago when we realized that our current space just wouldn’t be able to hold everyone in the near future. We are now busting at the seams and since I started here less than a year ago, we have gone from about 65 to 90 employees. That is a huge change of 38%! We had been trying to figure out if there is such a thing as “bunk desks,” but because I don’t believe we have any acrobats that could sit with another PlayFirst buddy on their shoulders, that idea was quickly abandoned. The new office will allow everyone to have some room again. Teams can sit together and collaborate more effectively in the open workspace layout that we are going to have. Cody can once again play tennis ball fetch in the halls without fear of grievous bodily harm. We’ll have lots of room for all the fun stuff like yoga, our old ping pong table, rock band, and chair massage. And, most importantly, we’ll have the room to grow both physically and creatively to enable us to make more great games. There are some super exciting things in the works that will surely get a boost once we move and there are more resources for all.
Moving is hard work, and a few people here have been coordinating ours for some time now. We also made a lot of the decisions via committee, so that it is truly an office that our company had some input in creating. I went over to check out the new location just yesterday and came back absolutely ecstatic. It’s funny, but it’s the little things like hanging up our new sign (which looks amazing) or seeing the layout and the views which really make me the most excited to move in on Monday. I also can’t wait to have enough conference rooms so that rock paper scissors and thumb wars will not be the deciding factor in who gets a room & who has to talk in our reception area. As for our devoted fans; there won’t be any interruption in your ability to access our site or download any of our games.
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PlayFirst is the creator of Diner Dash, Chocolatier, Dream Chronicles and other award-winning casual games.
