Plants vs. Zombies
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| Plants vs. Zombies | |
|---|---|
The cover of the PC version of Plants vs. Zombies with an ordinary zombie. | |
| Developer(s) | PopCap Games |
| Publisher(s) | PopCap Games, Electronic Arts (Android Market) |
| Designer(s) | George Fan |
| Composer(s) | Laura Shigihara |
| Engine | PopCap Games Framework |
| Version | 1.2.0.1073[1] (July 20, 2010) |
| Platform(s) | Google Chrome (Chrome Web Store), Microsoft Windows,[2][3] Mac OS X,[2][3] iOS,[4] Xbox Live Arcade,[5] PlayStation Network, Nintendo DS, DSiWare, Bada, Android, Windows Phone 7, PlayStation Vita, BlackBerry Tablet OS[6] |
| Release date(s) | PC/Mac iOS Xbox Live Arcade Nintendo DS PlayStation Network DSiWare Android
December 14, 2011 (Android Market) Windows Phone 7
February 22, 2012[8] |
| Genre(s) | Tower defense |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
| Rating(s) |
|
| Media/distribution | Download, CD |
| System requirements → See Development section for requirements | |
Contents[hide] |
[edit] Gameplay
In Plants vs. Zombies, players place different types of plants and fungi, each with their own unique offensive or defensive capabilities, around a house in order to stop a horde of zombies from eating the brains of the residents. The playing field is divided into a number of horizontal lanes, and with rare exceptions, a zombie will only move towards the player's house along one lane (the main exception is if it has taken a bite out of a garlic). Most plants can only attack or defend against zombies in the lane they are planted in. In later levels, players can purchase upgrades so as to adapt their lawn mower to new environments like pools or rooftops.The game uses several different level types and layouts. The game starts out in a front yard, and progresses to nighttime levels, where the gameplay is more challenging, with no replenishing sun unless specific plants are used, the backyard is visited, with a pool added, and the final levels are a lighting storm level in pitch black, and rooftop levels. Sporadically through the game, the player is either warned through a letter by zombies or addressed by Crazy Dave to prepare for an ambush, where the game takes on a bowling style, using walnuts to bowl down zombies, or a modified version of regular levels, where random plant types come up on a small selection, and the player can use the plants without spending sun.
The zombies also come in a number of types that have different attributes, in particular, speed, damage tolerance, and abilities. Zombies include those wearing makeshift armour, those that are able to jump or fly over plants, and a dancing zombie which has different designs depending on the version that is able to summon other zombies from the ground. At various points the player will be inundated with a huge wave of zombies. On the final stage the player must face a huge robot operated by a zombie known as Dr. Zomboss.
[edit] Game modes
The primary game mode is a single-player, multi-player and Adventure mode in which the player can earn money to spend at an in-game store to buy new seed packets and other bonuses.The game also features extra modes that are unlocked as the player progresses through the main adventure. These include a survival game with hard or normal mode, a puzzle mode, and a selection of mini-games which include zombie-themed versions of other PopCap games like Bejeweled.[13] The game also features a Zen garden, where players can care for plants they acquire from successes in game play. The in-game store also carries items that help with the Zen Garden. The PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade version of the game includes 5 multiplayer modes, both co-operative and competitive, additional mini-games and a virtual house where players can show off their achievements to friends.[14][15]
[edit] Development
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[edit] Concept
Plants vs. Zombies director George Fan intended on balancing the game between a "gritty" game and a "sickeningly cute" game. Strong strategic elements were included to appeal to more experienced gamers, while keeping it simple to appeal to casual gamers, without many tutorials. He was inspired to make it a tower defense game after both thinking of a more defense-oriented version of a previous title of his, Insaniquarium, and playing some Warcraft III tower defense mods.[16] While he was looking at the towers in Warcraft III, he felt that plants would make good towers. He wanted to bring something new to the genre with Plants vs. Zombies, and he found common tower defense game play elements such as mazing and juggling[17] to be too awkward, causing him to use the five and six lane set-ups that were used in the final version.[18][19]Fan included elements from the trading card game Magic: The Gathering while teaching his girlfriend Laura Shigihara how to play it, showing her how to customize their decks. That inspired him to include the seed packets as opposed to using a conveyor belt that produced randomly selected plants, due to the complexity of this system. Another influence on Plants vs. Zombies besides Warcraft III and Insaniquarium was Tapper, crediting the use of five lanes to this game.[18][19] Various members of PopCap Games contributed to the development of Plants vs. Zombies through an internal forum where they gave feedback.
Plants vs. Zombies was originally much like Insaniquarium in that it involved nurturing the plants by watering them and growing grass, but the developers found it to be tedious. It was originally called Weedlings, but this concept was scrapped after the developers realized that there were too many plant-growing games on the market. One of the critical changes to the game was the lowering of the price of Sunflowers from 100 to 50 suns, as those new to the genre would spend their sun power on pea shooters and inevitably lose.[18] More inspiration for Plants vs. Zombies' mechanics came from the film Swiss Family Robinson, especially where the family defends themselves against pirates. This was the inspiration for the Potato Mine; Fan stated that it was satisfying to watch a zombie step on the mine, being defeated and covered in mashed potatoes.[20]
[edit] Design
The team wanted to bring back the aliens from Insaniquarium, but in the end were changed to zombies, which players could react to more easily because of how slowly they moved. Fan's favorite zombie was the Pole Vaulting Zombie, due to the hilarity involved when a player encounters it for the first time, using a specific example where a player tries to block it with the Wall-Nut, only to have the zombie jump over it.[21][18][19]The developers focused on the Adventure mode for the first year of development, but programmer Tod Semple finished his development tasks ahead of schedule. Afterward, he was looking for something to do, and began work on minigame ideas. The Puzzle mode had similar origins; Vasebreaker and I, Zombie came from single-level minigames, but after playing them to tweak them, he found he was addicted to them. Fan found it impressive how well-designed they were, stating that while they were using the same plants and the same zombies, they were reinventions of the game mechanics. Fan worried that the minigame and puzzle modes may distract from the main game, so to keep players focused on the Adventure mode, he required that they beat it before they could move onto these modes. However, this was changed due to comments from beta testers that they would like to try these modes out sooner. The developers allowed players to play a few of the stages from these modes in the middle of Adventure mode. Fan stated that it's a common perception amongst players that the Adventure mode is 90% of the game, while the rest of the game is merely additional content. He hoped that players would appreciate the post-game content. Another mode is the Survival mode, which included an Endless mode. After players were getting to the hundredth level in only three hours, Fan decided to make it more difficult, adding powerful zombies after the 20th level, like the Pogo Zombie.[19]
Fan stated that every game he worked on had only him designing the prototype, adding that he used to draw a lot before he made games, where he made pixel art. The final designs of the zombies and the first plants are similar to how they were initially. After searching for an artist, they discovered Rich Werner, who Fan thought clicked with what he intended for the design. He attributed the intrigue of the design to its animation scheme; Tod Semple suggested that they animate it in Flash and export it into the game. Fan worried that this would look like it was cut out from paper, and would resemble South Park too much, but was satisfied in the end, attributing this to Semple and Werner's talents.[19]
Fan was most proud of the Tall-nut, Torchwood, and Cob Cannon plants. He explained that the Tall-nut has character, citing its "determined gaze" and how it sheds a single tear when hurt. Laura Shigihara could not stand to see this, and protected it with a protective plant called a Pumpkin, which can protect plants inside it. He felt that the Torchwood required players to think of how plants interacted with each other. The Cob Cannon went through many design changes, but Fan was happy with the final design.[18][19] Another favorite plant of Fan's was the Squash, due to how well it explained its purpose, to squash things.[21] A plant was proposed that is similar to the defensive item Umbrella Leaf, which would be planted above other plants to protect them from airborne zombies. However, it was difficult to visualize their positions.[19]
[edit] Soundtrack
The soundtrack for Plants vs. Zombies was composed by Laura Shigihara. It borrows elements from the pop music genre, as well as console chiptunes. Before the inception of Plants vs. Zombies, Fan asked Laura if she would like to compose the music for his next title after following her for some years. She accepted, owing to his creativity. Shigihara described the music as "macabre, yet goofy". Using the night stage as an example, she used a combination of "Big Band" and swing beats with "several haunting and serious melodies". The songs "Loonboon" and "Brainiac Maniac" were written towards the end of production. She stated that these were reactionary songs that she wrote to fit the feel of the game after having played through it twice. She tried to make the game have a Danny Elfman feel to it, while mixing in melodic tunes and funky beats. She describes a song early in the game, which uses marching band percussion and swing beats. She described another one which used techno beats with organic sounds.[22] Shigihara also composed and performed the music video shown during the credits of the game, titled "Zombies on Your Lawn".[23][24][edit] Cultural references
Plants vs. Zombies uses many cultural references in its names of stages and others. The gravestones' inscriptions ("Expired", "Ceased to Exist", "Just Resting", etc.) were taken from Monty Python's "Dead Parrot sketch". Three of the mini-games—"Zombiquarium", "Beghouled" and "Beghouled Twist"—take their names from two other PopCap games (Insaniquarium, Bejeweled and Bejeweled Twist respectively.[19][25] Two levels in "vasebreaker" puzzles "Scary Potter" and "Ace of Vase" take their names from Harry Potter and Ace of Base and in "I, Zombie" (a reference to Isaac Asimov's "I, Robot") puzzles there is a level called "Dead Zeppelin" which resembles Led Zeppelin. Originally, the dancing zombie resembled Michael Jackson from the music video "Thriller".[26] Though the Jackson-inspired zombie was present in the game before Jackson's death, the estate of Michael Jackson objected to its inclusion more than a year after his death; PopCap agreed to remove the Jackson-inspired zombie and replaced it with a more generic disco-dancing one for all future patches and releases of the game.[27] Ironically, a "disclaimer" in the game's almanac states "Any resemblance between Dancing Zombie and any persons living or dead is purely coincidental." Some Plants vs. Zombies advertisements parody controversial Evony ads, showing a drooling zombie instead of a voluptuous woman.[28]Several PopCap games are referenced in an Easter Egg, where if the player scrolls down on a certain menu (which varies on the device playing the game, and does not even exist on the earlier PC versions) they can find various objects from such games as Peggle and Zuma's Revenge[citation needed].
A planned name was Lawn of the Dead, a pun on the title of the George A. Romero zombie film Dawn of the Dead. For legal reasons it was changed to Plants vs. Zombies.[21] It spent three years in development, and was released for the PC on 5 May 2009.[19] Since it was released, it has been announced for multiple platforms, including PlayStation 3's PlayStation Network, Xbox 360's Xbox Live Arcade digital distribution service, Nintendo DS, and iOS.[29][30]
The song "Loonboon" was inspired by composer Laura Shigihara's cat, which they named Metroid. She explained that the stage she was composing for was frantic, so she watched Metroid as he ran around the house, jumping off walls and playing with his toy mouse. "Brainiac Maniac" was inspired by older Capcom games, specifically those in the Mega Man series, describing its songs as melodic and complex. She was inspired to make the Plants vs. Zombies music video by her desire to make a theme song for the game. She specifically chose the Sunflower to be the one singing by wanting to have it communicating with the zombies. She later suggested that it be made into a funny flash video, and Rich Werner and Tod Semple, an artist and programmer, respectively, from PopCap came down and worked on it. Once it was completed after two weeks of work, the PopCap marketing team enjoyed it enough that it used it as a marketing tool.[20] Previously, there were no plans to release the soundtrack as a stand-alone item, but Shigihara stated that she wished to do it, so she thought there was a good chance of it.[22] In November 2010, Shigihara released the soundtrack through her Bandcamp page.[31] Individual tracks are sold at USD1 per track or US$10 for the full album.[32] It comes with a cover art designed by George Fan.[31]
Plants vs. Zombies itself was referenced in "The Passing" campaign of Valve's fellow zombie game Left 4 Dead 2, in which the player can stumble upon in-game graffiti attributed to the character of Crazy Dave.[33] A five-level quest chain culminating in a quest entitled "Lawn of the Dead" in the massively multiplayer online game World of Warcraft: Cataclysm is based on Plants vs. Zombies, using Warcraft elements to recreate the gameplay.[34] Blizzard Entertainment had contacted PopCap about the inclusion, and Laura Shigihara was able to record some new music for the Warcraft version of the game.[35]
Zomboni is a zombie riding a Zamboni, an ice-cleaning truck used to clean the ice surface in ice hockey. The zombie riding the Zamboni is a Canadian stereotyped zombie
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