George Fan

George Fan (born 1978) is an American video game designer who currently works as the creative director of All Yes Good. He designed Insaniquarium, Plants vs. Zombies (2009) (which started the video game franchise of the same name), Octogeddon (2018), and Hardhat Wombat (2023). Before going into game design, Fan graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2000 with a degree in computer science. After graduating, he worked under Arcade Planet to develop games for their website, Prizegames.com. He eventually formed Flying Bear Entertainment and created Insaniquarium, which became a finalist for the 2002 Independent Games Festival. He then joined Blizzard Entertainment and worked there while simultaneously developing Insaniquarium further for PopCap Games, releasing the "Deluxe" edition in 2004.

Fan left Blizzard and started developing Plants vs. Zombies. He became a full-time employee for PopCap, who supplied Fan with a team. Upon release in 2009, it became the best-selling game developed by PopCap. EA bought PopCap Games in 2011 and Fan was laid off in 2012. Fan started developing Octogeddon and submitted it to the 2012 Ludum Dare contest. Fan formed a developing company named All Yes Good with Rich Werner and Kurt Pfeffer and developed Octogeddon further before releasing it in 2018. Fan then developed Hardhat Wombat, which was released on October 26, 2023.

Early life and education Fan was born in 1978. He grew up with his brother and lived with their father. George Fan attended the University of California, Berkeley and graduated with a degree in computer science in 2000. Fan describes the website as "an online version of Chuck E. Cheese". The first video game he designed was the puzzle game, Wrath of the Gopher, released in 2001. Flying Bear Entertainment published it on August 31, 2001, as a free Java-based online game called Insaniquarium. Insaniquarium won in the category of "Innovation in Game Design".

At the time, Fan was looking for a job at Blizzard Entertainment. Blizzard allowed Fan to work on Insaniquarium on his breaks from working with them. With PopCap Games as the publisher, Insaniquarium was released on 2004 for the PC, titled Insaniquarium: Deluxe and was met with critical and financial success. The game was downloaded 20 million times on PC by April 2006, and was released for mobile phones by Glu Mobile in the United States on April 13, 2006, and in Europe on June 29, 2006. The game was also released for Palm OS and Windows Mobile phones and personal digital assistants on August 6, 2008.

Fan worked for Blizzard for two and a half years. It was not long after Insaniquarium was released that Fan realized that he was more of a designer than a programmer. Fan tried to become a designer at Blizzard, though found it hard to persuade other employees to his ideas, leading him to conclude that he preferred to work in smaller teams. Fan thought about creating a defense-oriented version of Insaniquarium for the Nintendo DS utilizing its dual-screen. He became a full-time employee for PopCap Games after they convinced him that joining them would help him make the best game.

Plants vs. Zombies was released on May 5, 2009, for the PC and Mac OS X. The game garnered positive reception from critics, being assigned an aggregate score of 87/100 by Metacritic. It quickly became the best-selling video game developed by PopCap Games. James Gwertzman, the vice president of the Asia/Pacific division of PopCap, revealed in a presentation at GDC China 2010 that the game had sold 1.5 million copies internationally. Plants vs. Zombies has been ported to various platforms, including the iOS, Xbox 360, and Nintendo DS.

There were various other projects designed by Fan for PopCap that were either canceled or unannounced. One of them was a role-playing video game called Yeti Train, though in March 2011, David Roberts, CEO of PopCap, declined there being any plans to release new franchises. Another game in production was Full Contact Bingo.

On July 12, 2011, PopCap and its assets were bought by Electronic Arts (EA) for $750million. EA envisioned Plants vs. Zombies as a major franchise, with the sequel using a freemium model, which resulted in Fan losing interest in Plants vs. Zombies. According to Jason Schreier of Kotaku, when EA directed PopCap towards making free-to-play games with transactions, "Fan no longer fit in." Fan was laid off during this time after months of discussion from PopCap's management team. A circulating rumor that Fan was fired because of his opposition to EA's freemium model was based on a statement by Edmund McMillen, the creator of The Binding of Isaac and Super Meat Boy. Fan refused to comment publicly on the truth of this story. He later clarified in an AMA on Reddit that while he disagreed with the freemium model of Plants VS Zombies 2, he was not fired over this belief and that he preferred to develop independent games with smaller teams.

2012–present: Post-PopCap Games After leaving PopCap Games due to his lay-off on August 21, 2012, Fan created the arcade-style action video game Octogeddon for the 2012 Ludum Dare Game Jam, a type of Hackathon where developers have to create a game in a short amount of time within a specific theme. For Ludum Dare, it was 48 hours. The 2012 theme was "evolution"; Fan designed Octogeddon to fit that theme by having the octopus gain weaponized limbs over time. The game was met with positive reception in the jam, inspiring Fan to work on the game more. All Yes Good developed Octogeddon for the next four years. Jimmy Hinson provided the soundtrack. The game was met with positive reception, having a score of 82/100 on Metacritic. It was ported to the Nintendo Switch on May 16, 2019. Fan is currently listed as the creative director of All Yes Good.

Personal life Fan lives in California; he went to University of California, Berkeley, for his college education,

Works + Works Game Release Date Genre Role Developer Publisher Wrath of the Gopher 2001 Puzzle Designer Arcade Planet Arcade Planet Plants vs. Zombies May 5, 2009 Tower defense Designer PopCap Games PopCap Games Diablo IIIDespite being released in 2012, Octogeddon February 8, 2018 Action Designer All Yes Good All Yes Good Hardhat Wombat 2023 Puzzle Designer All Yes Good All Yes Good

Other credits Game Release Date Genre Developer Publisher Credit Plants vs. Zombies 2 July 9, 2013 Tower defense PopCap Games Electronic Arts Special thanksMewgenicsFebruary 10, 2026Tactical role-playing, roguelike, life simulationEdmund McMillen, Tyler GlaielEdmund McMillen, Tyler GlaielVoice acting, testing