Blake Commagere is the mastermind behind the super viral games Vampires and Zombies on Facebook. He has already sold four companies out of the five he’s founded; his first venture was acquired by IBM in 2006. He’s held senior positions at big name companies in Silicon Valley, like Plaxo and Project Agape (makers of Facebook Causes). Blake has been called a guru and a pioneer of social gaming on social networks by creating casual games that attract millions of users across the US.

Blake is an optimistic, carefree guy who worries less and does more of what he considers fun. He reminds me of that kid in school who was always fascinated by fantasy novels and movies. He didn’t try to belong to some group or receive validation from people because he was too busy doing his own thing. Remember that kid? Yeah! That’s Blake. I speak with him here to learn more about his process of building superviral games and to understand his personal entrepreneurial perspective.

Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/commagere
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/blake.commagere
Twitter: http://twitter.com/commagere

THE INTERVIEW

Kim Ngo: Hi Blake. Thanks for being with us today. I’m interested in how you started Vampires and Zombies. Tell us a little about that.

Blake Commagere: Zombies and Vampires are lightweight social games, the first of their kind, paired with humor and horror to entertain. Most of the humor was in the content.

The copy included phrases like “biting chumps” and names for zombies like Ensign Zombie Newbie (a star trek joke) and vampire names like “I-musta-been-speeding Vampire” (which has a seductive cop as the vampire).

I started these games when Facebook had released its first platform. Flash games like Tetris already existed, but they had no social component. Games were all single player, and there was no capacity to them. It was like, “Here, maybe you would like to play Tetris too.”  Borrrrring!

I wanted to make game play part of the social component of social networks, so that’s what I did. The inspiration came from a conversation I had with a few friends who asked me if I had seen the latest Fido trailer about zombies. And for those of you who don’t know, I’m obsessed with horror films. I love them shamelessly. That’s when I knew Facebook needed some Zombies. “Yeah!”

Kim Ngo: How exactly did you know Facebook needed Zombies?

Blake Commagere: I knew simply because it was missing. It’s not like I needed market research, or anybody’s opinion; I simply saw it. It’s a really hard thing to describe. I feel like I’m trying to explain how to be creative.  For me, I just imagine things I think would be awesome and just start building.

I remember telling AJ, who was my roommate at the time, “I bet you I could make Zombies be the most viral thing on Facebook.” And, Aj said, “oooooo-k!” A lot of my friends were asking, “What are you working on? What are you doing?” And I Replied, “You’ll see. You’ll see.” A couple days later, I launched Zombies and Vampires, and my friends responded with, “Are you [expletive] kidding me? This is what you’ve been wasting your time on? You’re an idiot.” (Laughing) It didn’t really bother me because I knew it was awesome, cool, and funny.

And sure enough, two weeks later, some of those very same people who told me I was wasting my time called asking, “What the [expletive] have you done?”

Kim Ngo: It took Zombies and Vampires two weeks to get viral?

Blake Commagere: Oooo no no. It was viral from the beginning.  The first day, I bit 10 of my friends (a bite is an invitation to join the Vampires and Zombies app game but it’s also part of the social game play) as that was the limit facebook enforced. Nevertheless, by the end of the day, it had spread to 50 people. Twenty-four hours later the game had 300 users. The day after there were 1,500. And within less than 10 days, there were a million users. Two weeks later, the same group of people who thought I was an idiot called me asking, “How do you have 3 million users? This is ridiculous! This is impossible!”

Kim Ngo: What was your answer to that question?

Blake Commagere: Well, there are two things that are naturally viral: sex and humor. Let’s completely devoid any medium for transferring information and think about some of the things you talk to your friends about that drive you. Most likely, you will tell them things you thought were funny or you will tell them about a hot guy. Obviously for guys, we talk about a hot girl. Think about the emails you forward: most are, “OMG Brad Pitt!” or “OMG this is really funny!” Those subjects, those are the things you will to spread aggressively but naturally.

Kim Ngo: I tend to forward things that speak to my heart. Do you consider that to be viral?

Blake Commagere: Things that speak to the heart aren’t necessarily viral. It doesn’t have universal appeal. Don’t get me wrong, you will forward something that elicits emotion to a few people. However, you are more likely to forward something funny to many people. With Zombies, the original product had so much humor in it. The goal was to try to make people laugh as much as possible. We used every bit of content in our application to amuse and entertain users. Humor was key as well as game play. Part of the game play was to spread and expand, so your mission as a Vampire was to infect others and get them to use it. And the artwork was sexy. Traditionally, the vampire myth portrays vampires as beautiful and seductive. All the pictures were of beautiful, seductive vampires showing skin and muscles. Vampires and Zombies were both valuable in terms of game play, entertainment, and humor.  Those components were the reason why Vampires and Zombies spread like wildfire from day one.

Kim Ngo: What was your initial mission?

Blake Commagere: It was to entertain.

Kim Ngo: And by default you pioneered social gaming on social networks. Do you remember who said you pioneered this? Mark Zuckerberg?

Blake Commagere: I have no idea… the press maybe? I don’t know if Mark would consider me a pioneer. Mark probably considers me as an opportunist.

Kim Ngo: How did investors respond to your idea?

Blake Commagere: I didn’t go to investors. I just built it.  Sometimes your idea doesn’t make sense to the world, so you have to show them.

Kim Ngo: Were you confident from day one?

Blake Commagere: I was certain Vampires and Zombies was going to spread, partly because my mission was to entertain. The majority is drawn to entertainment. Don’t get me wrong, when it launched, there were some people who hated it and didn’t think it was funny at all. However, when you build something — anything, you will always have a percentage of that. The key, I believe, is recognizing if it’s something “you” should go all in on or not. You just have to make a decision that it’s going to work and give it your best. You can always tell when a product was rushed to be finished versus a product that had commitment and passion. Confidence is key because before commitment and passion you have to believe.

With Vampires and Zombies, I was willing to go all in. I was so certain it was going to work even when everyone was laughing at the idea.

Kim Ngo: Were you able to monetize Vampires and Zombies? If yes, how?

Blake Commagere: Yup – Through advertising, sponsorships and virtual goods.

Kim Ngo: Where’s Vampires & Zombies now?

Blake Commagere: Both games are now part of ohai.

Kim Ngo: Can you provide me some solid points on what I need to start my own social game on Facebook?

Blake Commagere: From a technical perspective, you need to be able to build a data driven web application. As an example, many Facebook developers use LAMP (Linux, apache, MySql, PHP) to build their apps. From an investment perspective, you need to be driven and have serious fortitude – Facebook is a constantly shifting platform, and you have to be willing to shift with it. You don’t have to have funding, but it helps to be able to advertise etc. – especially as you try to learn about viral marketing. Fortunately, you don’t even have to be creative anymore – there’s a ton of example games that you can learn from now. Most people aren’t interested in making anything new, they’re interested in building something that has succeeded in the past.

Kim Ngo: If you had to build Zombies today, would it be different? How has the Facebook platform changed?

Blake Commagere: The game would absolutely be different. The Platform is very different now. For example, there was a time when I was more interested in the experience on the profile real estate as a self-expression tool, but apps have largely been removed from the Facebook profile experience, so I wouldn’t spend time there. I would definitely balance the levels and rewards differently. Games have all evolved over their lifetime on the platform so they are already very different from the games I first released.

Kim Ngo: Did you always know you were going to be in tech? Did you always want to be a coder, a game maker?

Blake Commagere: All my life, I wanted to entertain. Software and coding didn’t become a big deal until the age of sixteen when I wrote my first battleship networked game for a class assignment. What I loved about the game was the text that communicated with the player. Depending on how well you played, the game either mocked you or praised you: “Kim you are amazing! You are totally kicking butt!” or “Kim you totally suck! You are going to lose.” That was when I realized I could entertain with technology and do fun things that made people laugh. I was sold!

I wanted to go into the gaming industry directly out of college, but it’s a grind house. You have to work your way up the ranks and be part of a studio that was willing to drop about $40 million for your vision to be a reality. It’s not rich in entrepreneurship. There’s not a whole lot of opportunity. If you don’t have $40 million and can’t hire 200 people, it will take you about 10 years to build your games.

It wasn’t until Facebook that I could build games and reach an audience without requiring a major investment or a ridiculous death cycle. It took me 11 days to build the first version of Vampires and Zombies.

Kim Ngo: What drives you?

Blake Commagere: I recognized I get obsessed about things. I don’t know if it’s part of my personality, but maybe in some capacity, it’s because I love understanding people. That’s why consumer-facing products work for me.

I’m very fascinated by people’s behavior.  For example, my sister called me yesterday to tell me she got engaged, and I was congratulating her. My next response was a little awkward, bless her heart, “Wait… when did you call me? What number? What order? Am I first, second, or third?” She responded, “Why are you asking this?” I have this need to know. I ask awkward questions to people who deal with me. But it’s only because I want to know, I want to understand. By the way, I was third.

I discovered, which was very fascinating, my mom was first, my older sister was second, and I was third. What my engaged sister did was she took her immediate family and gave a ranking in hierarchy based on age, and then she started reaching out to our cousins. Understanding human behavior fascinates me. And people do this all the time. There’s social order and structure to every group. People always rank themselves. For example, with your friends, a group of 5 people, I guarantee you every single person has ranked themselves in terms of attractiveness.  They have ranked themselves as number 1, number 3 or whatever. And there are times when you will tell yourself, “Well she’s prettier, but I’m funnier.” Everybody thinks it; they just don’t talk about it. It’s impolite. It would be such a horrible social taboo for a group of friends to come together to talk about these things.

But to answer your question, I’m driven by many things. I’m obsessed! I want to understand people. I want to change things. I want to have an impact. I also have an engineer mindset so when I see things that are broken or inefficient, I want to fix them, but I also love the thought of touching the lives of people and entertaining them.

Kim Ngo: Are you afraid of failure?

Blake Commagere: You can’t be! I have failed at plenty of things but I can’t fear it. Having some measure of fear is part of the human condition. But letting fear influence you is different from feeling it. Because everyone was telling me that Vampires and Zombies wasn’t going to work, I had a really good reason to fear that it wasn’t going to work. But I believed in it and did it anyway.

Fear can make you do irrational things, such as give up.  If everyone gave into their fears, no one would pioneer or create anything amazing. When you pioneer something — it’s scary, it’s new, and it’s different. You cannot focus your energy on fear. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. You will surely fail if you fear you are going to fail…but you’re probably going to fail even if you don’t think you are. (Laughing)

Kim Ngo: Was there ever an uphill struggle in this process?

Blake Commagere: (Thinking in silence) I think some of the things people might have considered a struggle, I don’t see them as such. You can choose to fight fights that don’t make sense or just do it. Actions speak louder than words. I could have spent all my time convincing people that horror film characters on social games were important and interesting, or I could show them.  Some people pick fights that aren’t necessary. I stand by the numbers. That’s so much more exciting.

Kim Ngo: If you had to leave a piece of advice for future entrepreneurs, what would that be? What does he or she need to know?

Blake Commagere: I think the best you could do is learn from the mistakes of others.

Yes, you are going to make mistakes! It’s human. Consistently you will hear people say, “Learn from your mistakes, and you will be ahead of the curve.” I don’t think that’s good enough. In your lifetime, in your career lifetime, you cannot make every mistake and learn from it. You have to learn from other people’s mistakes. Here’s an easy example, if you want to decrease employee morale, mess with their compensation. Tell them their paychecks are going to be a month late, a week late, or even a day late. You are insane if you do this. I guarantee you people are looking for new jobs the minute you tell them that.

Anyone who knows what they are doing will never do that. It’s astounding to me how many people do that. It has happened time after time. It blows my mind that entrepreneurs don’t learn from that mistake. Entrepreneurs forget that their employees are not taking the same risks they are; they are not willing to take the risk of being late on their bills and losing their homes.  It doesn’t have to be a paycheck. It could be cutting benefits or insurance. Once you do this, you are instantly destroying morale. And the fact that entrepreneurs make that mistake anymore is astounding to me because there have been way too many examples not to do that. If you have to go through it and learn from that mistake, shame on you. They should have learned from the millions who [expletive] up before them. They should know better, and the only way to know better is to talk to more people who have made that mistake. Ask people who know people who have done that. You have to learn from other people. You cannot make every mistake yourself. Some of those mistakes will kill an idea, an opportunity, or even a company. And that’s a shame.

Kim Ngo: Is there a perfect “How to Guide” in building a company?

Blake Commagere: I don’t think there is necessarily a perfect “How to Guide.” I think you can hear 18 don’ts or you can understand an idea like “Don’t mess with the employee compensation.” Every time you make a decision you should ask yourself, “Is this playing with compensation?” And if the answer is yes, you shouldn’t mess with it. There are a million ways to improve morale and a million ways to destroy morale. And if you understand that improving morale is good and people are productive as a result then you should focus on that and do that. Morale is key. You get the best out of people. It’s amazing. You can take a great person and get 3X the productivity out of him/her if there’s high morale. You can get so much more out of them if you can provide a better environment.

Kim Ngo: Can you share one of your mistakes with us? And how did you resolve it?

Blake Commagere: Whenever you’re in charge of something, people are always looking for instructions from you. I once told an artist who had created 4 characters for a game that I didn’t like 2 of them as much, but that I would totally pick one of the other two to play as. He didn’t hear “This is my opinion as a gamer, I prefer playing these types of characters,” what he heard was “These 2 characters are wrong/bad – fix them/make them better.” I didn’t want him to actually go back and redo the other characters – they are characters that appeal to other people that are different than me. When I realized that he was working on redoing those characters, (he’d probably wasted a couple of hours) I pulled him aside and explained and apologized for wasting his time. The takeaway here is that you have to be very careful as you express opinions to your team so that they don’t start looking for instructions/work in what you say.

Kim Ngo: Do you think entrepreneurs take a lot of risk by investing too much in his/her employees? What do you say if the mentality is, “Hey, I can instill and give this person so much but he’s going to leave.”

Blake Commagere: If you do a good job, with engineers in particular, you would be amazed how loyal engineers are. That is to say, if you build morale in the right way. Now, if some of your engineers are entrepreneurs, it’s a losing battle. You can only keep them for so long because they are going to want to create something and break free. The best you can do with those guys is build a kick-ass relationship and treat them right, such that when they do build something amazing they will figure a way to partner with you.

You cannot get rid of the desire of creating something once someone has it, but you should not be afraid of it. You should embrace it, and be like, “Holy — maybe this guy is only going to work two years for me before he creates something amazing.” That’s awesome! It’s still a gift. Maybe he creates something complimentary to something you’re building. Just because he’s not going to be under you doesn’t mean he’s not contributing or building value for you in some way.

Kim Ngo: What’s your ultimate goal/dream? Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

Blake Commagere: I don’t have the faintest idea. I’m just going to keep doing what I love.