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'Bejeweled' Creator Spills Secrets of Addictive Games

wired.com — 8 years ago, Jason Kapalka & a couple of friends devised a puzzle game they called Bejeweled. Since its debut, Bejeweled addicts have frittered away around $300M -& more than 6B hours—on the game and its sequel. We asked Kapalka for his take on some of the most addictive puzzlers ever made and why we can't quit playing them....

Who dugg this? Made popular Oct 27, 2008

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  • rac1234, on 10/27/2008, -0/+35These are "secrets"?
  • Battleman, on 10/27/2008, -0/+19I really wish that the article was as good as the title suggested... there weren't any secrets spilled... barely even valuable commentary.
  • PhilMoskowitz, on 10/27/2008, -0/+18It's like 80% of that article is missing.
  • jacobo, on 10/27/2008, -0/+10I have the addon Bejeweled for my WoW, and the scary thing is, sometimes i log on my WoW just to play bejeweled... i need help :(
  • skored, on 10/26/2008, -0/+10looks to be a mash-up of sorts of the games they mention in the article
  • Renian, on 10/27/2008, -0/+9I wonder what he would say about Dead Space. I'm interested to know what pleasure center of the brain strategic dismemberment sets off.
  • masterkenobi, on 10/27/2008, -1/+10I never really got into bejeweled, but I want to punch the guy that invented minesweeper.
  • Kumaku, on 10/27/2008, -2/+11So you mean she's not hot.
  • inactive, on 10/27/2008, -0/+8Steve Minesweeper?

    But he is a national hero.
  • Sendai129, on 10/27/2008, -0/+7Yeah, if you actually bothered to even scroll through the article you wouldn't have asked that question.
  • quomen, on 10/27/2008, -1/+8Zuma > Bejeweled
  • burbs, on 10/27/2008, -0/+7How about a game that requires some aiming skill... like PEGGLE! That games' addictive. Too bad they didn't include Peggle (or Plinko for that matter) on their little list of games.
  • ledmonkey, on 10/27/2008, -0/+7Minesweeper is the best.
  • travis6690, on 10/27/2008, -1/+7Kip? I herd you liek it.
  • wellgood, on 10/27/2008, -0/+5At least you don't log on to WoW to play WoW
  • Frozo, on 10/27/2008, -0/+5Um, where are the secrets? Nothing revealed here. Just stating he obvious about some puzzle games. Lame.
  • AzureRise, on 10/27/2008, -1/+5Bejeweled's not bad, but I like all the other games they listed and Peggle better than Bejeweled. Hm, I don't wanna reboot into Windows...someone make a Peggle clone for Linux. NOW. Eh, I'm gonna go play Frozen Bubble.
  • linksus, on 10/27/2008, -0/+4Did you even read it? It was blatantly obvious 5 seconds after the page loaded what it was.
  • WendyThomas, on 10/27/2008, -0/+4I would read the article but that would mean looking away from Bejeweled for far too long
  • Vindicoth, on 10/27/2008, -0/+3Thats only 4 hours a piece from 1/4 of the people on the planet. I'm sure that the average play time for a person playing bejeweled is more than 4 hours total. I'm also sure that 1/4 of the people on the planet have NOT played bejeweled though. I was just trying to make a point.
  • CyberStriker, on 10/27/2008, -0/+3Nothing can beat the awesomeness of Minesweeper: The Movie!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHY8NKj3RKs
  • stigma, on 10/27/2008, -0/+3that's a very bad advertisement hiding in a very bad article.
  • psevium, on 10/27/2008, -0/+3Minesweeper ROCKS
  • akako, on 10/27/2008, -0/+3Agreed. This article didn't provide any secrets. Title is misleading.
  • Zizhou, on 10/27/2008, -0/+3...or a ***** ton of people playing the game and totaling that amount.
  • Hydrohs, on 10/27/2008, -0/+3BEJEWELED. I had hoped that would be more about Bejeweled.
  • CyberSally, on 10/27/2008, -0/+3Bejeweled kicks ass.
  • fr3ddie, on 10/27/2008, -0/+3true.
  • Utopian, on 10/27/2008, -0/+2I had to delete minesweeper from my computer. I still kept on clicking my start menu to run it even though I knew it wasn't there.
  • Benno, on 10/27/2008, -0/+2Bejeweled just doesn't give me the shot of dopamine my brain craves that games like time trial mission tetris and dr. mario provide.
  • Gareth321, on 10/27/2008, -0/+2All hail A.R.C.
  • LucasVB, on 10/27/2008, -0/+2Nobody cares.
  • inactive, on 10/27/2008, -0/+2Meh, now that you mention it, I never managed to solve a Rubik's Cube.
  • BigMike, on 10/27/2008, -0/+2This article is WAY off. It's a scientific fact that people like to spin and people like to choose. If only there was a game based solely on spinning and choosing.
  • cainandpain08, on 10/27/2008, -0/+2Yeah, I wish he spent more time on A.R.C. I played all the way through Ten, WON, and Sierra. Popcap was always gay imo but I guess atleast he made some money off of something.

    SAUCEY NIPPLES for the win.
  • badtz, on 10/27/2008, -0/+2That's what I thought, until I played it on my iPhone using touch-screen
  • geodescent, on 10/27/2008, -0/+1You haven't really played Bejeweled until you've played it on a touch-screen with a stylus (popcap games' version on pocket pc)
  • levyindustry, on 10/27/2008, -1/+2They didn't create Bejeweled, they just copied Jewelbox, which was written in 1990 by Yoshihiro Satoh. See the man page for Xjewel (itself created 1992.)
  • zephc, on 10/27/2008, -0/+1I don't see him referenced, but its true that the game has existed long before these guys released Bejeweled. I had a version of this game on my TI-85 in 1996
  • Virgule, on 10/28/2008, -0/+1tl;dr= its all in your head.
  • djpray2k, on 10/27/2008, -0/+1I think the guy plays down his own game...Bewjelwed does require luck (like Solitaire) but there is also some skill needed. You have to choose which gems to burst so they set up better plays and chains. Cool game and the one that got my girlfriend playing on the 360.
  • Ryosen, on 10/28/2008, -0/+1 Reading that article *was* like looking at Bejeweled: seems interesting, looks pretty, but ultimately serves no useful purpose.
  • terrya64, on 10/27/2008, -0/+1I'd like to have all my Peggle time back.
  • poonaka, on 10/28/2008, -0/+1What a terrible article.
  • ployd, on 10/28/2008, -0/+1I'm pretty sure hexix is about fifty times better.
  • johnnyrotten, on 10/27/2008, -0/+1There seem to be several theories on the origin of the basic gameplay. I wonder what the real original is. It could easily be some old DOS game that hardly anyone has heard of.
  • AzureRise, on 10/27/2008, -1/+1Why? It's my friends favorite game? She's addicted to it. (Before anyone says she has ***** taste in games/she's not really a gamer/she's a casual gamer let me just say she can kick your ass in Counter-Strike :D)
  • inactive, on 10/28/2008, -1/+1Digging him up is enough to show that; you don't need to add a comment.
  • MeatPlow, on 10/27/2008, -1/+1What does it have to do with Bejeweled? Well that's easy. That's the picture that Digg used to go along with the story about Bejeweled.
  • garfunky, on 10/29/2008, -0/+0Yup. Buried for misleading title and bad article, why does it have so many diggs anyway?
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