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.

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.