Square Enix and PopCap's Gyromancer started out as a joke

In a recent interview with Wired, PopCap co-founder and chief creative officer Jason Kapalka claimed that he jokingly brought up the idea of a Final Fantasy and Bejeweled hybrid during a meeting with Square Enix (who publishes many of PopCap's games in Japan). Squeenix's Yuichi Murasawa, designer of Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, loved the idea, and set out to create such a title. Last week, Gyromancer, the fruit of these two parties' labor, was announced during the Tokyo Game Show.

Other interesting tidbits came out of the interview -- namely, the sections dealing with the similarities and differences between Squeenix and PopCap's collaboration and 2007's Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords. However, we think the real takeaway info from the interview is the fact that this game, which will likely cater to our lust for tile-swapping and role-playing, enrapturing our attention and eviscerating our social lives, started out as a joke.