2008
FOUNDED
2.4B
ACTIONS PROCESSED
30+
ENTERPRISE CLIENTS
5
CONTINENTS SERVED
▸ THE ORIGIN STORY
From AAA games to playable brands.
Founded in 2008 in Vancouver as Pug Pharm Productions, the studio was born from a simple insight: the same mechanics that keep players hooked for thousands of hours — quests, progression, reward — could transform how brands engage customers.
That insight became Brand Playability™ and the Picnic™ platform — now trusted by enterprises across retail, lottery, F&B, travel and education worldwide.
2008
Studio founded
Veteran game designer Steve Bocska — formerly of Disney, EA and Vivendi — opens Pug Pharm in Vancouver to build multiplayer online social games.
2010
The pivot
Spotting a bigger opportunity, the team repositions from games to gamified engagement — solving loyalty, activation and insight for big brands.
2014
Picnic™ is born
COO Craig Dixon joins and leads R&D on the Picnic™ Customer Engagement Hub — a SaaS platform with points, badges, leaderboards and virtual goods.
SNES
A world-first metric
PUG creates Steve's Net Engagement Score — the first metric built to measure the engagement health of a customer community.
2019
Selected by Sisal
Chosen from 30+ global suppliers to power lottery engagement in Italy — one of many wins across retail, F&B and travel.
Now
Brand Playability™
Teams in Dallas, Vancouver, Valencia and Mexico run playable programs on Picnic™ that deliver 8–12× more engagement for global brands.
▸ FOUNDER
Steve Bocska
Founder & CEO
A veteran game designer whose interactive work spans Disney, Electronic Arts and Ubisoft, Steve founded PUG to bring world-class game design to the problems brands actually face. His thesis: merge native psychological motivation with game mechanics, and you get the best outcome for both the player and the business.
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