Plants vs. Zombies: The Little Game That Did - “My Initial Mission in Coming to PopCap was to Make the Best Games I Could”

plants vs. zombies - popcap games

plants vs. zombies - popcap games

The Lawn of the Dead

Plants vs. Zombies (PvZ) is a strategy and tower defense game developed and published by PopCap Games. PvZ released on PC in 2009 before making its way onto mobile devices and consoles. It started out as a little game developed by a handful of people and became a multi-media franchise. Two direct sequels have been made along with spin-offs, including a digital card game and a third-person shooter.

Plants vs. Zombies (PvZ) is a strategy and tower defense game developed and published by PopCap Games. PvZ released on PC in 2009 before making its way onto ...

The Development of Plants Vs. Zombies

The development of PvZ began when series creator George Fan started coming up with ideas for a sequel to his previous game, Insaniquarium, a fish-tank simulator. Fan essentially wanted to make a gardening game — where players could pick seeds, plant them to sell for money, and buy other plants to defend from oncoming waves of aliens. However, he felt that there was a mismatch between some of the ideas, such as defending while having to water and nurture the garden.

Fan continued to develop his ideas by making it more like a traditional tower defense game. He removed the gardening aspect as he found it to be too tedious, but kept the plants and aliens. The sequel ideas became a whole new game when Fan hand scribbled an outline on a piece of paper.