The Lake Highlands friends behind PeopleFun’s Wordscapes are still gaming after all these years

Teenage friends John Boog-Scott and Tony Goodman made waves in the game industry by embracing the message of their newest company name, PeopleFun.

Now in its 10th year, the Richardson-based mobile game developer is best known for its hit Wordscapes, a free crossword-like Apple and Android app that has over 120 million downloads.

CEO Tony Goodman and Chief Operating Officer John Boog-Scott met while attending Lake Highlands Junior High School in Dallas and have been friends and business partners ever since. In 2011 they founded PeopleFun – the third gaming company they founded together.

In high school, they worked together, both in the computer club and mowing the lawn. They attended the University of Texas at Austin, although Goodman left the university before graduating, while Boog-Scott stayed and got a degree in business administration. The two began their careers in IT consulting and program testing before deciding to combine their profession with their passion for games.

“My heart has always been playing because it looks less like a real job and more like a dream,” said Goodman, 56.

In 1995 Boog-Scott, 55, and Goodman founded Ensemble Studios, the company that launched the Age of Empires franchise. The series – in which players use strategies to build and expand an empire that focuses on real historical time periods and events – sold more than 25 million copies.

They sold the studio to Microsoft in 2001, which finally closed the design house in 2009. It was reported at the time that it was worth $ 500 million.

Gary Brubaker, director of Guildhall, Southern Methodist University’s graduate program for video game developers, said Age of Empires was largely successful because of its dedicated core audience. He compared it to the film industry, where many genres are very popular but largely unknown to those outside of the fan base.

“People who know about them and love them are engaging and vocal,” said Brubaker. “But if that’s not your thing, you may never have seen it.”

When Microsoft pulled the plug, Goodman founded Plano-based Robot Entertainment. Robot Entertainment has the award-winning fantasy fighting game series Orcs Must Die!

The Chinese gaming powerhouse Tencent Holdings bought a minority stake in Robot Entertainment in 2015.

When Boog-Scott and Goodman co-founded PeopleFun with longtime colleague Angelo Laudon in 2011, it reflected their evolving relationship with gaming. Between careers and starting a family, both agreed that they had less and less time to devote to console or PC games, and mobile games were more accommodating.

“Mobile really suits your lifestyle a lot better,” said Goodman. “You can play games in five-minute blocks instead of staying up all morning hours.”

The 84-person company has developed several other mobile word games in addition to Wordscapes, including Word Chums and Word Stacks. Goodman and Boog-Scott say they love making these games because they’re accessible and fun.

“I’ve always enjoyed that. It’s a game; it also stimulates your mind a bit, ”said Boog-Scott. “We tried to make the experience very joyful, a bit of a Zen-like experience is our goal.”

The advent of mobile games that came with smartphones has also greatly expanded the demographics of the people who are considered gamers. Many casual mobile game gamers do not consider themselves gamers and may even be averse to the label.

“Most people think of a man in his early 20s, in his parents’ basement with an Xbox or PlayStation,” Brubaker said.

But that is not the case. If you look at a gamer as anyone who plays a video game for 10 hours a week or more, Brubaker said, “All of a sudden you include a large chunk of people who would deny that they are gamers or even like video games.”

The PeopleFun office in Richardson.(Lynda M. González / photographer)

A 2016 study by the Electronic Software Association found that the average gamer is around 30 years old today and are equally likely to be male or female. The rise of casual games like Wordscapes, the study found, has also increased the interest of older groups in video games.

PeopleFun’s popularity with older adults becomes apparent when Goodman speaks to people outside of the industry, he said.

“When we were younger, making games like Age of Empires, we would tell someone we make video games and they would say, ‘Oh, my son would like to meet you!’ And now we say we’re making wordscapes and they say, ‘Oh, my dad would like to meet you!’ “Said Gutmann.

Wordscapes has spearheaded both the Google Play and Apple app stores, and according to PeopleFun, the game has 4.5 million daily and 14.8 million monthly active users.

PeopleFun says it attracts 29 million monthly users in nearly 240 countries across all of its games.

The area of ​​casual and mobile gaming differs significantly from conventional console and PC games. Games on consoles typically require a one-time purchase, and in some cases optional benefits can also be acquired. Mobile games, including PeopleFuns, are free to download, but offer perks or extras to purchase and promotions.

PeopleFun is also part of a deeply ingrained and growing game development market in Dallas. North Texas has a solid history in the game industry, dating back to early games like Doom, a groundbreaking first-person shooter game from 1993, and Duke Nukem, a series that began in 1991.

Brubaker said he viewed Boog-Scott and Goodman as “the pillars of the game development community in Dallas.”

In Texas, the video game industry is said to have an annual economic output of $ 4.15 billion in 2020, according to a report by the Electronic Software Association. The industry provides 25,000 jobs in the state, directly and through subcontracting or other supported jobs.

Texas only follows California and Washington in terms of the economic impact of video games, the report said.

PeopleFun’s staff consists of a wide variety of specialists, from software engineers, artists, and data scientists to analysts, product managers, and producers. Boog-Scott and Goodman said their ideal employees are people with entrepreneurial personalities because they bring new ideas and enthusiasm.

“These people are very motivated and yes, they sometimes go and do their own thing and you can help them, but we think these are the top performers,” said Goodman.

As the company celebrates its 10th anniversary and 4 years of its flagship game, Boog-Scott said it was an important way to celebrate the success of PeopleFun. The company had sales of approximately $ 350 million in 2020.

“We’re always pretty predictive of what’s next, but try to make sure we take some time to acknowledge some of the things we’ve achieved,” said Boog-Scott.

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