2000–2001: Early career Fan first worked as creator of
Java video games for the online
gaming portal, Prizegames.com, 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 sold 20 million copies on the 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==