An app that was once born as an April Fool's joke has now become a phenomenon worldwide. Players took their mobile phones, walked out of the room, and went to the street, vying to capture and train Pokémon, and fight against various Pokémon.
Just seven days after Pokémon Go was released in the US, Australia and New Zealand, it almost surpassed Twitter's 65 million users in the US. Being so popular, the game server couldn't bear the pressure and crashed repeatedly. Driven by curiosity, I learned more about the Pokémon Go developer and his team to see how they got to where they are today.
How long does it take to become famous overnight? For John Hanke, Pokémon Go took him 20 years, how did John Hanke make the world go so crazy overnight? He went through 10 important "upgrades" in his life to make Pokémon Go what it is today.
The first "upgrade":
In 1996, while still a student, John co-developed the first MMO (massively multiplayer online game), "Meridian 59". He later sold the game to 3DO to do something he was more interested in: mapping the world.
Second "upgrade":
In 2000, John founded "Keyhole", proposed a method of combining maps and aerial photography, and developed the first online GPS-3D aerial map of the world.
The third "upgrade":
In 2004, Google acquired Keyhole and, with John's help, turned Keyhole into what is now "Google Maps". That's when John decided to devote his full attention to developing GPS-based games.
Fourth "upgrade":
From 2004 to 2010, John was in charge of the Google Geo team (Geo Services Team), developing Google Maps and Google Street View. During this time, he assembled the team that would later develop Pokémon Go.
Fifth "upgrade":
In 2010, John established Niantic Labs, a new company invested by Google, to develop a map game social circle. Why it's called Niantic, John explained:
“Niantic是一条捕鲸船的名字。捕鲸船出现在淘金热正胜的时期，在经历了各种情况后才终于被拖上岸。其它的船也是这样。多年以来，旧金山基本上就是建立在这些船之上的。你现在可以站在船顶，但是你将无法知晓它的存在。所以，我的想法就是，世界上有的东西非常酷，但是哪怕是在互联网上，也很难知晓何时你才真正到达那里。”
第六次“升级”：
在2012年，John开发出了Niantic第一款基于地理的MMO，“Ingress”:John是这么说的：“在Ingress中，一切活动都是位于现实世界和你的手机上。在从家到谷歌来来回回上下班的途中，我总习惯幻想一些东西，我的灵感就来自于此。”
第七次“升级”：
在2014年，谷歌和Pokémon公司合作，开了一次愚人节玩笑，人们可以在谷歌地图上找到Pokémon怪物。这次尝试像病毒爆发一样大获成功。John觉得可以将这个想法转化成真正的游戏。
第八次“提升”：
John决定在Ingress玩家创建的用户原创会合点的基础上开发Pokémon Go ，Ingress中最受欢迎的部分变成了Pokémon Go中的Pokéstops和道馆：正如John所说的，“Pokéstops是由用户提供的，所以很明显Pokéstops是以人们去的场所为基础的。我们的人花了两年半的时间走遍所有的他们觉得能玩Ingress的地方，所以有的地方会非常远。在南极和北极也有门户网站，但大多数都在南北极之间。”
第九次“提升”：
从2015年12月到2016年2月，John从谷歌、Nintendo、Pokémon公司和其他一些投资方那里筹集到了2500万美元，组建了一只40多人的团队，于今年发布了Pokémon Go这款游戏。
第十次“升级”：
2016年7月6日，John和他的团队分别在美国、澳大利亚和新西兰发布了Pokémon Go这款游戏。在发布之后，Nintendo的股价就上涨了120亿美元，而且在应用购买中，app每天产生超过200万美元的效益，这使得Pokémon Go一夜之间成为热门。
Pokémon Go的一夜成名，花费了John Hanke20年的时间。这20年来，虽然他对位于世界之上的游戏层有着极大的愿景，但他也不知道会以什么样的形式发生。每一步，他只是关注于下一次的提升。
在每一个新的层次，他都拥有新的权力，新的团队成员，新的清单事项...你会不会像John一样，把你自己的创业历程看成一个大大的MMO?