Bejeweled 3 creator tells us why this isn't just another sequel [Exclusive Interview]

Updated
popcap's jason kapalka
popcap's jason kapalka



PopCap co-founder and Chief Creative Director Jason Kapalka gives Games.com the inside scoop on Bejeweled 3's new features, and confesses that his mother's approval is the ultimate measure of success for this new version of the classic gem-swapping game. Aw, isn't that sweet.

bejeweled 3 from popcap
bejeweled 3 from popcap

OK, so let's talk about some of Bejeweled 3's new features. There's a Quest mode. Would you say that's one of the big new features for the game?



Yes, that's definitely one of the big ones. We're not trying to make a full-blown role-playing game or anything like that. It's kind of more of a structure for a series of challenges and variances for the game. There's a whole bunch of crazy Bejeweled variances we were playing around with, and we put in the quest mode as a framework to put them in there. So the structure is that we're trying to restore some various artifacts and to do so you have to play these different kinds of Bejeweled variants, that in some cases they are only minor variants on the Bejeweled rules, like you only have 10 moves or something like that to release a jewel.

What are some examples of the Bejeweled 'variants' in the new Quest mode?

There's a balance mode where you have a pendulum that goes back and forth depending on which color of gems you are clearing, if you tilt it too far one way or the other you lose, so you have to decide which gems to match to keep the thing balanced. There's Ice Storm, where you have these rising colors of ice that are going up and you have to knock them by making matches before they get to the top. There's Diamond Mine which is kind of the one where you're digging, and you're clearing dirt by clearing gems and the more you do you dig down further and further and find treasures and so forth. There's Butterflies -- which is a pretty interesting one -- where you have these jeweled butterflies that are moving up from the bottom towards the top where there's a big spider, and you're trying to clear them off the board to freedom or before they get to the top where the spider will eat them.

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