Plants vs.

Zombies (video game)
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Plants vs. Zombies

Developer(s) PopCap Games

Publisher(s) PopCap Games[a]

Designer(s) George Fan

Programmer(s) Tod Semple

Artist(s) Rich Werner

Writer(s) Stephen Notley[b]

Composer(s) Laura Shigihara

Series Plants vs. Zombies

 Engine PopCap Framework

 Microsoft Windows
Platform(s)
 OS X

 iOS

 Xbox 360

 PlayStation 3

 Nintendo DS

 DSiWare

 Android

 Windows Phone

 PlayStation Vita

 BlackBerry Tablet OS

 BlackBerry 10

Release show

May 5, 2009

Genre(s) Tower defense, strategy

Mode(s) Single-player, multiplayer

Plants vs. Zombies is a 2009 tower defense video game developed and published

by PopCap Games. First released for Windows and Mac OS X, the game has since
been ported to consoles, handhelds, and mobile devices. The player takes the role of a
homeowner amid a zombie apocalypse. As a horde of zombies approaches along
several parallel lanes, the player must defend the home by putting down plants, which
fire projectiles at the zombies or otherwise detrimentally affect them. The player collects
a currency called sun to buy plants. If a zombie makes it to the house on any lane, the
player loses and must restart the level.
Plants vs. Zombies was designed by George Fan, who conceptualized it as a more
defense-oriented sequel to his fish simulator game Insaniquarium (2001), then
developed it into a tower defense game featuring plants fighting against zombies. The
game took inspiration from the games: Magic: The Gathering and Warcraft  III; along
with the movie: Swiss Family Robinson. It took three and a half years to make Plants
vs. Zombies. Rich Werner was the main artist, Tod Semple programmed Plants vs.
Zombies, and Laura Shigihara composed the game's music. In order to appeal to
both casual and hardcore gamers, the tutorial was designed to be simple and spread
throughout Plants vs. Zombies.
Plants vs. Zombies was positively received by critics and was nominated for multiple
awards, including "Download Game of the Year" and "Strategy Game of the Year" as
part of Golden Joystick Awards 2010. Reviewers praised the game's humorous art style
and simplistic but engaging gameplay. Upon release in May 2009, it was the fastest-
selling video game developed by PopCap Games and quickly became their best-selling
game, surpassing Bejeweled and Peggle. By 2010, it had sold over a million copies
worldwide. In 2011, PopCap was bought by Electronic Arts (EA). The company laid off
Fan and 49 other employees, marking a change of focus to mobile and social gaming.
After the buyout, Plants vs. Zombies was followed by a series of games including two
direct sequels, three third-person shooters, and two spin-offs, most of which have
received positive reviews.

Contents

 1Gameplay

o 1.1Adventure mode

o 1.2Other game modes

 2Development

o 2.1Concept

o 2.2Design

o 2.3Characters

o 2.4Soundtrack

 3Promotion and release

o 3.1Mobile phone versions

o 3.2Console versions

 4Reception

o 4.1Sales

o 4.2Critical reviews

o 4.3Awards
  5Legacy

o 5.1George Fan's layoff and Octogeddon

o 5.2Sequels and spin-offs

o 5.3Other media

 5.3.1Cultural references

 6Notes

 7References

 8External links

Gameplay[edit]

A pool level is currently in progress. Zombies are progressing from the right in order to reach the house. The
player has to place down plants in order to defend their house from the zombies.

Plants vs. Zombies is a tower defense video game in which the player defends a house
from zombies.[5][6][7] The lawn is divided into a grid,[8] with the player's house to the left.
[9]
 The player places different types of plant on individual squares of the grid. Each plant
has a different style of defense, such as shooting, exploding, and blocking. [8][10] Different
types of zombies have their own special behaviors and their own weaknesses to
different plants.[8][9] For example, Balloon Zombie can float over the player's plants, but its
balloon can be popped by Cactus.[8][11] Other examples of zombies include Dancing
Zombie which summons Backup Dancers around himself; and the Dolphin Rider
Zombie, which rides on a dolphin to jump over a plant. [6][9]
The player can pick a limited number of types of plants through seed packets at the
beginning of each level,[12] and must pay to place them using a currency called "sun".
The player gathers sun by either clicking on the sun that randomly generate over the
lawn, or by using certain plants that generate sun, like Sunflowers and Sunshrooms. [8][9]
[10]
 Each type of plant recharges between each placement at various speeds. If the player
wants to remove a plant, they can dig it up using a shovel. [13] When a zombie reaches
the left edge of a lane, its Lawnmower kills all the zombies in that lane and is depleted
after one use;[14] if another zombie reaches the end of that lane, the player has to restart
the level.[13]
Adventure mode[edit]
There are five stages in the Adventure mode, each comprising ten levels. [13] After every
level, the player collects a new type of plant to use in subsequent levels. On the first
level of stage two (level 2-1), zombies begin to occasionally drop in-game money when
killed. After level 3-4, the player can spend the money at an in-game store called Crazy
Dave's TwiddyDinkies.[9][13] Crazy Dave offers boosts that the player uses to upgrade
already-placed plants and gardening tools for the player's Zen Garden. [8][9] It is unlocked
after level 5-4[13] and allows the player to water and maintain a group of plants, [8] which
are obtained as loot from killing zombies or purchasing them through his store; [13] in
return, the plants generate money for the player. [8] Every stage's fifth level has a mini-
game challenge, often utilizing a conveyor belt that gives various plants to the player.
[7]
 On every stage's tenth level, the player receives plants from a conveyor belt. [13] Stages
one, three, and five occur in daylight, while stages two and four take place at night. [13][11]
During the nighttime stages, the player uses the lower-cost fungi plants due to the lack
of natural sun generation at night.[7][10] Stages three and four take place in the house's
backyard, which has six lanes (unlike the usual five lanes) and features a pool taking up
the middle two lanes.[11][13] On the pool, plants are placed on top of Lily Pads which, unlike
most plants, can be placed directly on pool lanes. [7] Stage four has fog that obscures
most of the lawn.[13] Stage five takes place on the house's roof. This setting has the
player use catapult plants, instead of the standard shooting plants, to account for the
roof's upward slope.[13]
Adventure mode's last level pits the player against Dr. Zomboss, an evil scientist and
the zombies' animator. He crushes the player's plants by having his Zombot crush the
plants or throw vans at them, and can place fire and ice balls that roll across a lane. The
player subdue these balls with Jalapeños and Ice Shrooms. [15] After completing the
Adventure mode, the player can play it again, this time with plants unlocked during the
previous play-through, and with three randomly selected plants to begin each level. [16][17]
Other game modes[edit]
Three additional modes—Mini-Games, Puzzle, and Survival—become available once
Adventure mode is completed. In Mini-Games mode, the player selects from a collection
of twenty mini-games.[8] These levels pose the player with unique challenges, each using
some gimmick[18]—often variants of a conveyor belt that gives the player certain plants.
[19]
 In Puzzle mode, the player selects from two types of levels: "Vasebreaker" and "I,
Zombie".[8][20] In "Vasebreaker", the player breaks open a set of vases, each containing a
plant or a zombie. The level ends when all the vases are smashed and all the zombies
are killed.[8] In "I, Zombie", the player places zombies to get past pre-placed cardboard
cut-outs of plants, aiming to eat the brain at the end of each lane. [8][13] Survival mode
offers a selection of levels in which the player chooses plants to defeat increasingly
challenging waves of zombies.[8][21]

Development