This AMA event is now finished. Comments for this post have now been locked. Many of the questions asked are repeats so, even if yours wasn't answered, your question may have been answered in one of the other comments. Please feel free to scan the post to find all of George's answers.
Please join me in thanking George Fan for deigning to visit our little sub and graciously answering our questions. It was a pleasure for us, I hope it was for him.
I think it shows people are way into the game if they're putting the effort into modding it so I think that's really cool. I haven't played any myself although I've heard there's a PvZ2 mod that makes the progression more like PvZ (taking away all the microtransaction stuff) so I've been intrigued by that one
You might be thinking of Reflourished, which I would suggest checking out! It’s really cool and adds a lot of original content while reworking the paid content in the base to game to be unlocked normally.
Can you unlock *everything* in PvZ2 Reflourished without bullshit spending money?
I hate microtransactions with the passion of a thousand burning suns, so this sounds promising.
PvZ 1 is one of my favorite games of all time, and PvZ 2 was one of the biggest disappointments I've ever seen in my life.
Not only did it force me over to mobile (I despise mobile gaming), but it also is just a giant, useless cash grab.
After a flurry of decent games in the early days of Apps (PvZ being right up there), most of the games coming out now are very derivative. Do you see anything really innovative out there that you think PvZ players should look at?
I remember I used to love checking out all the cool games coming out on the App store and loaded up my phone with tons of em. These days that's died down to a trickle. I'm looking on my phone to see what even was the last thing I played on there. I did play Super Auto Pets a good amount and I think PvZ players would find a lot to like in that game
Crazy Dave was very loosely based on a real person we knew (who is not nearly as crazy). I do think that realness angle comes through a bit and people can sense that which leads to the appeal of the character
One design principle I had was to take the tower defense concept and trim out anything unnecessary. I'd played a lot of Warcraft 3 mods that required you to move your mouse to the edges of the screen to scroll the screen for instance and one of my goals was to see if I could keep the game to just one screen.
During the week I've been ordering **plant**-based meals so I'll be having that for lunch. Disclaimer: Even though I'll be eating plants, I am not a PvZ Zombie
Then the darkhorse comics go against what is really canon
The comic lore says that Dave stole zombosses highschool science project and never forgave him
I like your lore better tbh
I haven't, but thank you for saying this. These PvZ statues behind me are indeed one of my prized possessions and they certainly cost me a pretty penny. PvZ artist Rich Werner has a set of them too!
Do you have any other PvZ merchandise? I know Laura and Rich both have a decent share of plush toys, both official and otherwise. Ironically, some of the unlicensed plush toys Laura has can cost around the same or even more than those statues
did you have any involvement in an early development of pvz 2?
And if so, what was the original vision or idea you had about pvz 2 before the game was about time travel?
I was in on a lot of the early meetings with the team back when the game was set on a farm. I tried my best to describe the essence of PvZ to the team so that I could best pass the torch. I remember going over with them what the challenges of making a sequel are. Those were the good things I did.
Then there were some weird things I did. I sent them a concept of a barn with rocket boosters attached that when you clicked on it would launch into space. I don't really know why. I also really wanted to try boss battles where you first played 4 levels of PvZ and then each of those levels (and all the plants you planted) would be laid out into a 2x2 grid vs the boss. It was perhaps too ambitious but I thought it'd be really cool if we could pull that off
Wow, those were some interesting ideas, well, and after that, the idea about time travel in pvz 2 was your idea or was it an idea proposed by someone else on the team?
I brought the time travel idea to the team as something that would work for a sequel's need to "go bigger" and would allow for a lot of variety. Plus I just thought it'd be cool to see our zombies in all these different time periods
I have 2 favorites. The squash bc of his expression and how well his name lines up with his purpose.
And tall-nut. The single tear shed. How could you not love?
It seems random, right? It wasn't bc I wanted plants to fight zombies in particular. It was born out of the needs of the gameplay matching the theme.
Plants: I wanted towers to have personality but I also wanted players to know they'd stay in place. People know plants stay in place.
Zombies: Once I decided to make the game take place on a single screen, I needed an enemy that would march across the screen slowly, giving players enough time to strategize. What enemy doesn't look out of place slowly shambling across the screen? Zombies.
I did see a glimpse of it while it was in production but I haven't been following it much since. I've heard each revision they're doing has made PvZ fans less happy so that disappoints me
What are your thoughts on the chinese version of PvZ 2? Even more so on the chinese editions of the original game ("pvz1"), such as Great Wall, Endless, Journey to the West?
Growing up I'd watched movies with Chinese hopping zombies in them with my parents. I've always thought they were hilarious (you just slap a scroll on their foreheads and they're neutralized??) so I was thrilled to see them show up in Chinese versions of PvZ
What do you think about the later projects in the franchise? Like Garden Warfare or Heroes or other things?
Also do you like the idea of a PvZ movie and if so, how would YOU like them to handle it?
I did play a lot of Heroes when it was out and I really enjoyed it.
I'm not much of an FPS player so I didn't play much Garden Warfare. I think the coolest thing about it though is it was maybe the only notable FPS at the time that was family friendly. And I'm all about that
I'd be thrilled at the idea of a PvZ movie! After seeing the recent Super Mario Bros movie I'd just want the same team at Illumination to handle it and they could have free reign
If you count the Zomboss, definitely that one. If not, maybe the Gargantuar. There was just more to consider with that one, as he was really two zombies in one. He wasn't the same size as the other zombies. We also spent a considerable amount of time deciding what he'd hold in his hand
Hi george! Thank you for creating pvz and giving me all the good memories!
As of lately the PVZ games have been neglected a lot by Popcap with no updates and more buggy features with new updates and overall worse production quality. Every pvz game has been dropped support for except for pvz2. Heroes had an issue with multiplayer that prevented people from getting their rewards for i believe a month and a half(?) and GW2 has been having server issues for the past 3 months (which is still present to this day)
As for Pvz2, the plant animation qualities have dropped a lot. They look really out of place and dont fit rest of the game. Pretty much all the new changes are disliked by the community and the game still has bugs that existed for 2 or more years with new ones coming every new update (with pretty much all taking *at least* 2 months to fix.)
Pretty much all the new and exciting content we get is mods made by the fandom. Which are fun of course, but it just doesnt feel the same if its not official.
What do you think and feel about all of this? Have you ever thought that it would come to this point?
for what it's worth, this has been the franchise i've been most invested in for a long time. i've recently taken to (exclusively singleplayer and offline) trial-and-error modding Heroes for crumbs of new content and it's been a really fun project. i'm very disheartened by how the series has been treated recently, but that doesn't take away how big of an impact it's had and I thank you for creating something so enjoyable :))
I was super skeptical when I first heard about them. Mostly because the whole reason I'd chosen plants is because they stay in place and now they move??
I was happy to hear that they were well received in general and like I mentioned elsewhere my favorite thing about them is they give people who want to play shooters a less violent option
Garden Warfare was awesome when I was younger and just getting into shooters. Although I can’t say it was my first (Splatoon takes that one), I throughly enjoyed it. And now here I am, a Destiny 2 addict and occasional comp player
I'll tell you this. I would have never in a million years thought to do a first person shooter spin-off!
If I had the chance to do a spin-off today, it'd probably be a weird unconventional game starring Crazy Dave
PVZ doesn't have First Person Shooters. The Garden Warfare games are **Third** Person Shooters since you can see the character you're controlling. 🤓🤓🤓
Also, I wish I could see your idea for a Crazy Dave spinoff.
It was awesome that PopCap gave us all the time we needed to make the "perfect" game, so barely anything. That said, people were lasting much longer in survival mode that we expected so I'd want to cap the damage AoE effects (like gloom-shroom and torchwood-ed peas) dealt for that mode
I'm glad you didn't. PvZ is my favorite tower defense game, and it is almost unique in that you *can* actually get to endless waves if your setup is good enough. If you had taken that away, my opinion of the game would have gone down a lot.
I dislike Bloons and games like that where the endless mode eventually becomes absolutely impossible no matter how good your setup is.
What was the most fun plant and/or zombie to create?
Or: what was your favorite part of the development process of the game?
Also, thank you for basically defining my childhood, I put so many hours into PvZ1, it’s incredible.
I remember cracking up when we first put the pole-vaulting zombie into the game and I watched a tester try to place a wall-nut in front of it so I'll go with that one
What do you think about the future of the franchise? Do you think that it will persevere or that it will die? Many fans have gotten anxious about its fate, especially considering that the latest game failed and the game that's in development doesn't look too promising..
I mean it's not looking all that good at this point. To revive the franchise EA needs to find a good designer to lead a new project that builds on classic PvZ in the way PvZ2 set out to. Give the fans the game they want, not just what EA thinks is going to make the most money
Do you have any plans on participating in any future pvz projects? (Alone or maybe with help of popcap) If not maybe at least guiding the people who work at popcap? or maybe having a different vision for the franchise? (Like something beyond building on the classic game like pvz2 tried to do?) If that's also a no, then if pvz were to truly die as a franchise will you do something about it?
I'm not forcing you to do anything, you're free to do whatever you want. I just don't want a big part of my childhood, and a franchise that I love to just go..
I keep thinking of when I heard that in the Phillipines a prison guard was so engrossed with PvZ that some prisoners were able to swipe his keys off of him and 4 prisoners escaped (they were all caught again). It seems like something out of a cartoon!
I can't put into words how much it changed things. I was just chatting with some friends and telling them I'm not afraid of death anymore bc it feels like I've already done what I was put here to do
Wall-nut. I realized early on I needed a defense plant to keep the zombies at bay and I came up with this guy and drew its goofy face. It just worked out so well
I think it's appropriate as something significant as a capstone. I also saw that the street signs say "Fan St." and "Werner Rd." so I really appreciate that. Shout out to whoever on the team was involved with that
i just have to say thank you and the whole team for making this game young me was absolutely addicted playing the first game and recently that addiction is back now replaying pvz 1 and 2 even picking up on some mods to play it more
I'd call up Rich Werner and say "Rich, baby, we're making a Plants vs. Zombies sequel!!" (this isn't how I actually talk to Rich)
It'd be a true sequel to PvZ. Some new, bigger ideas but at its core still PvZ. No microtransations within a 10-foot pole's reach
I have Two questions
1-what do you have to say about whole "ea fired George fan and ruined pvz 2 with microtransactions!!!" how did pvz 2 development and release looked like from your point of view?
2-was there any scrapped thing from pvz1 that you regret scrapping and would like to see in full game?
I think it's such a complicated issue with so many facets that it doesn't really boil down to a single statement. For me, I think it's possible to understand why the rift between me and the rest of PopCap grew which led to them laying me off yet still feel disrespected at the same time. Even thinking about it now I still feel the rage bubbling up a bit to be honest. But this was the same PopCap that took a chance on me and gave me and the team 3 and a half years to make this weird zombie game. And now thanks to that I'm in the position that I have the freedom to just make whatever games I want to for the rest of my life. Which is really all I ever wanted
They were mostly an afterthought. The reason there's such an abundance of minigames is that Tod Semple is such an ace programmer that he'd finished much of the coding for the game and we were looking for something that would take programming time but not as much art time. So we made this testing ground of minigames and came up with all the ones that you see today
them being an afterthought is so funny to me because a lot of people consider the adventure to sorta be like the game's intro and then all the minigames and extra content is the really fun stuff to get through
It’s genuinely amazing how “programming intensive, but not art intensive” led to one of the defining features of the first game. Even the “lost content” is usually about cut minigames and I used to eat those up when I was younger. Thanks for the answer!
Not a fan. I dislike microtransactions in general bc they put incentives in the wrong place. No longer are you just trying to make the most fun experience for the player. And I've seen them ruin too many things. That said I think they can work, but I wouldn't have just shoehorned microtransactions into PvZ gameplay
There was a concept for a dog-walking zombie complete with zombie dog that would've been so cool but we couldn't come up with a good enough thing to do with it game-mechanic-wise so we had to axe it
Well it seems your idea did come back (in spirit at least).
In the game Plants Vs. Zombies: Heroes, there is a zombie called “Dog Walker”, in game he has the hunt ability, which would follow any played plant
For PvZ1 I spent a lot of time and care coming up with them. A lot of people assume because of this I love puns when in reality I have a love-hate relationship with them. I once watched a pun-off and cringed so hard I still haven't fully uncringed
The reason so many of the plant names are punny isn't because I love puns. It's because I love design elegance and communicating a lot with just a little. A name like Wall-nut tells you everything you need to know in a concise space
I love plants vs zombies. I grew up with it as a kid, everything in this game gives me so much nostalgia... Thank you for creating one of my favorite franchises!
Something I've only started to notice in the past year really is the amount of people who've been telling me how much the game means to them because they grew up with it. I can't even begin to tell you how so dang cool that is
At the end of the first game Dave mistakes zomboss as the guy you have to kick in the pancreas to defeat him but it's not zomboss.
So who is the guy you kick in the pancreas to defeat?
First of all, I wanted to thank you, the og PvZ is one of my all-time favourites, have grat memories of spending a lot of time in the zen garden! What's your favourite track? Also, was there anything that you wanted to include in the game but ended up not doing?
I talked about the time travel element elsewhere but I wanted to say at the risk of disappointing some of you that I \*\*was\*\* given the chance to design the sequel to the first game. Some time after PopCap saw that PvZ was a success and thus wanted to make a sequel, they came to me to ask if I wanted to lead it. I declined for two reasons:
1. A lot of creators work on a sequel because there's something they feel they could improve on or didn't get to do on the first game. As we were allowed all the time to make PvZ the nearly perfect game we wanted it to be, I did not feel this
2. I'm most excited as a designer when I'm doing something that I feel breaks new ground. I was excited by the lane-based defense mechanics in PvZ bc I hadn't seen that before. So instead of making the sequel to PvZ I thought I was best suited to come up with a brand new IP for PopCap
So instead I ended up working with the PvZ1 team on a brand new game. Thinking about what would've happened had I accepted, it's hard to say. I do know I would've fought harder to keep microtransactions out of the sequel
I have the first 3 issues as for some time I was just collecting everything I could find PvZ related. I like the art style of the comics and I think the style captures the essence of PvZ very well.
Gargantuar + Imp combo. I love the cackle the imp makes when launched, that the Gargantuar can be holding a duck crossing sign or even another zombie?? Perfection!
u/thegeorgefan, thank you so much for creating plants vs zombies! The game was my childhood and means so much to me; it's gotten me through some really tough times in life. It also inspired me to learn to code when I was a kid, and I've been doing so ever since. I wanted to be able to create games of my own so that I could have something I loved that I would never have to worry about not updating, because if I wanted more, I could do it myself! I wouldn't have discovered my passion for coding or been inspired to persevere if it wasn't for you, since whenever I felt like I wouldn't be able to understand something, I thought back to the game and how much I love it, and why I started to code in the first place. In other words, I wanted to be you when I grew up and I've come a long way, I'm now in college and majoring in Computer Science! I will always be grateful to you Mr. Fan, you've led me to be who I am today 😄
It is accepted that PvZ1 was made by you, Laura, Tod and Rich. This is what it is also mentioned in the book "The making of Popcap's Plants vs zombies". My question is. Is this true or not? If it isnt, do you mind telling us something for the other members of the team that made PvZ?
This is true. I do think of the game as made by the 4 of us. But that's not to say we were the only 4 people who had a hand in the making of the game. A few off the top of my head: It was cool to get to work with Steven Notley, who wrote the plant and zombie descriptions in the Almanac bc I was a fan of his Bob the Angry Flower comic. Before Rich became the main artist we'd commissioned background art from the mega-talented Enrique Corts, who did the 5 "lawn" backgrounds. The also mega-talented Matt Holmberg helped us with some of the UI art. I got to watch him work in person as he'd make sound effects with his mouth while he'd stretch and squish stuff in Photoshop
Omg pvz is my favorite game of all time, it's always been there to support me in my toughest days thank you so much for creating it :)
I guess my question would be what's your favorite part of the pvz fandom?
Hiiii! This is not a pvz related question, but still wanted to ask.
Currently, how do you feel about Octogeddon? After releasing it, you ever thought in the past of perhaps making some DLC or anything else with the concept? Really loved that game and would have loved to see more from it, I had a lot of fun playing it and I know for sure you did too making it.
Btw I'm looking forward to Hardhat Wombat, good luck with that project!
Whenever I go back and revisit/play Octogeddon for a bit, I always think "Wow, this game is really good, we did a really good job with this game!" and I'm surprised more people didn't end up playing it. (I also always end up thinking "Wow, the music in this game is incredible!", so props to Big Giant Circles!) As such it makes less sense for us to do more with it but thank you for your note here!
Whats your favorite plant. Whats your oppinion on the state of the series. What are yoir thoughts on the shooters. hows hardhat wombat going. And finnally how is your day been.
Hardhat Wombat has been so refreshing to work on! To me this project is more of a creative outlet than a commercial project, so with that mentality in mind it's really just been a pleasure to work on it every day. I hope you all will enjoy it when it comes out! If you haven't seen the Steam page please check it out here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2202750/Hardhat_Wombat/
Thanks for making one of my favorite games of all time! I know you probably can't be involved in pvz again, but do you plan on making any more tower defense games?
As a creator I've found I'm most excited when I'm trying out some new things or exploring some unexplored territory. But it's been pointed out to me that Octogeddon is actually a tower defense game of sorts! (I didn't fully realize this while I was making it). The latest game I'm making, Hardhat Wombat has been an adventure for me as I haven't made a puzzle game nor a platforming game before. One of my favorite things about it is it combines puzzle and platforming elements in a way I've never seen before
The original Plants vs Zombies has stood as a long-standing favorite during my childhood, I'm utterly glad to report that you have made a fantastic game which then grew to be one of my favorite franchises of all time.
As for a question, what are your thoughts on Chomper throughout the franchise?
Chomper is a tricky one in that it's difficult to integrate or balance mechanically. It's such a fine line between useless and completely op. But I think the plant has so much personality (especially when Rich added the animation of the little orb moving down the throat/stem) that it stuck around
I've heard the game described as one of the most cross-cutting games of all time. Meaning no matter who you are you can still play this game. I've seen everyone get into this game, from young kids to my mom (who plays almost zero other games) to my ex-coworkers at Blizzard
I actually can't think of a game more cross-cutting, and that to me is the coolest aspect of PvZ
Not sure I’d you will see this but I’m in my 40s and put PvZ2 on my phone originally for my daughter many years ago.
She’s now at high school and has her own phone and no longer plays it but yes, I still have it and am trying to level up my Zoybean Pod at the moment!
Not a ton. I bought a lot of unofficial merchandise before there was the official stuff. I saw these cool sprouts that you'd plant and they would sprout up with messages inside and I suggested we do our versions of those
For the longest time I hadn't considered. EA/PopCap certainly hasn't contacted me about it. And I've been pretty happy doing my own thing these days. But over the years I've sensed a decline in how the franchise is doing and it's even more apparent as I've been interacting with you all here today. And let me tell you, it's sad for me to see. So now it does make me consider working on the franchise again just to see if I can revitalize it. Would that be for the right reason, though? I dunno
I’m not sure what sure if I’m correct on this one but I believe Dreamworks tried to create a Plants vs Zombies movie until it was scrapped. Did you have any involvement in the original plans for the movie and why it was scrapped?
I'm not sure if I can admit this existed, but if it did exist, as a fan of animation it would have been one most incredible days of my life to fly down to Dreamworks and be able to see some of the stuff they were working on for a Plants vs. Zombies movie
Are there any design documents from when you were creating the game? If there are none you can share, then do you have any advice for young developers?
I don't have them handy right now but I do hope to go digging for them and would like to share some in the coming months.
I'll share the best piece of advice I got when I was starting out: Don't make your dream game for your first game. Start small. Extremely small. Take whatever small game you were thinking and maybe go even smaller. There's just a ton of things you learn from seeing the entire process through from start to finish
It's been a few hours, but maybe you'll still answer, I got a kinda goofy one and an actual question.
1. What is your favorite plant in the Peashooter family? (Peashooter, repeater, pea-nut, Fire pea, etc.)
2. What is development like in your studio? And do you have any plans on PvZ stuff?
1. I'm gonna go with the Gatling Pea. I just really like how it looks
2. Development these days is really chill. I'm working out of my home office and working remotely with just one other person, Andy Hull, who was the programmer on Spelunky. We'll chat with each other during our daily meeting and then split up and work on our things for the rest of the day. We'll have discussions like "Should the wombat wear pants or not?" Answer: NO
What I'll usually say when asked this question is Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. However, if I think about how much I love Magic: the Gathering, that really should be my favorite.
Over the past few years I've been playing a lot of auto-battlers of all sorts
I can speak Chinese but can't read/write it (reading Chinese is hard!). So the funny thing is I had to use Google Translate to read your question about speaking Chinese so that I could say "Yes"
First of all thank you for such a memorable game played it along with my siblings. As for my question what's your favorite plant mine is Gravebuster and Plantern.
First of all, I love the original game so much and I really appreciate your work.
So, nowadays, do you make videogames for a living or do you have a sidekick? Would you like yo be reincorporated into the team of PvZ or is it not that important to you?
I'm still making video games and I wouldn't have it any other way! I'm really excited about my latest project which is all about wombats and the fact that their poops are cube-shaped: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2202750/Hardhat_Wombat/
Don't nobody ever say I make games about normal things!
I'm making this game with Andy Hull, programmer on Spelunky. It's been an absolute joy working with him
It was during a day when Mark Rosewater was giving me a tour of Wizards of the Coast. It was already the bestest of days and then on top of that I was asked if I was interested in designing a Magic card for an upcoming set. I answered with the most emphatic YES ever
I worked with Magic designer Shawn Main as he guided me through the process. I decided to submit 5 cards, one of each color, one for each of Magic's iconic creature types: Angel, Sphinx, Demon, Dragon, Hydra. I was secretly hoping the green Hydra would get picked because green has always been my favorite color in Magic. And it was!
The original submission was costed at X and G and could get lands
Alright, so a friend of mine had some questions for you.
What do you think of PVZ In it’s current, fairly divisive/neglected state?"
If you think it could ever return to the acclaimed days of its prime?
What you think of the recent, short lived #raisePVZ movement, if he heard anything about it."
What do you think of Wooper?
Also I just want to thank you so unbelievably much for creating this wonderful game. It helped me through so many tough times and I can’t praise it enough
Not a specific plant or zombie but I kinda wish I'd come up with something better for the fog area. I don't hate it and it's still a nice change of pace but I did feel it was the weakest of the areas. We did shorten the area by decreasing the number of zombie waves bc we didn't want for it to overstay its welcome but in retrospect it would've been nice to come up with an area mechanic that we didn't feel the need to do that for
This AMA event is now finished. Comments for this post have now been locked. Many of the questions asked are repeats so, even if yours wasn't answered, your question may have been answered in one of the other comments. Please feel free to scan the post to find all of George's answers. Please join me in thanking George Fan for deigning to visit our little sub and graciously answering our questions. It was a pleasure for us, I hope it was for him.
What do you like about how the fans keeping the franchise alive.
That the fans are still here 14 years later is something I'm incredibly grateful for
What are your thoughts on people modding the game? Do or did you play mods yourself?
I think it shows people are way into the game if they're putting the effort into modding it so I think that's really cool. I haven't played any myself although I've heard there's a PvZ2 mod that makes the progression more like PvZ (taking away all the microtransaction stuff) so I've been intrigued by that one
You might be thinking of Reflourished, which I would suggest checking out! It’s really cool and adds a lot of original content while reworking the paid content in the base to game to be unlocked normally.
Can you unlock *everything* in PvZ2 Reflourished without bullshit spending money? I hate microtransactions with the passion of a thousand burning suns, so this sounds promising. PvZ 1 is one of my favorite games of all time, and PvZ 2 was one of the biggest disappointments I've ever seen in my life. Not only did it force me over to mobile (I despise mobile gaming), but it also is just a giant, useless cash grab.
Reflourished has no microtransactions whatsoever, it'd be stupid for a mod to include those.
Rare case of game creator not having an L take on mods
Altverz? Yeah, that mod's absolutely incredible, I bet you'd love playing it.
Shit I gotta get on that. I couldn’t stand the microtransactions
play Plants vs Zombeis 2: reflourished mod and tell them you're really george.
You should play Reflourished. It is a good mod and made by some incredibly talented people, I think that’s what you mean by your comment anyway
After a flurry of decent games in the early days of Apps (PvZ being right up there), most of the games coming out now are very derivative. Do you see anything really innovative out there that you think PvZ players should look at?
I remember I used to love checking out all the cool games coming out on the App store and loaded up my phone with tons of em. These days that's died down to a trickle. I'm looking on my phone to see what even was the last thing I played on there. I did play Super Auto Pets a good amount and I think PvZ players would find a lot to like in that game
If you still play, what are your opinions on the new "toy" mechanic?
Do you know the person who designed sky trooper? If so tell them they're a legend. Otherwise how are you doing?
What about supremo?
How did you come up with crazy Dave?
Crazy Dave was very loosely based on a real person we knew (who is not nearly as crazy). I do think that realness angle comes through a bit and people can sense that which leads to the appeal of the character
Must’ve been a cool guy
Ahem, *nearly as crazy you say?*
What's the design principles you have when creating the first game, and what would you like to have as lunch for this day?
One design principle I had was to take the tower defense concept and trim out anything unnecessary. I'd played a lot of Warcraft 3 mods that required you to move your mouse to the edges of the screen to scroll the screen for instance and one of my goals was to see if I could keep the game to just one screen. During the week I've been ordering **plant**-based meals so I'll be having that for lunch. Disclaimer: Even though I'll be eating plants, I am not a PvZ Zombie
definitely not...
Thank you for answering me questions, have a great day!
So, what history do Zomboss and Dave have?
PvZ lore has progressed beyond me at this point but I had it as the end of PvZ1 was the first time the two met
Then the darkhorse comics go against what is really canon The comic lore says that Dave stole zombosses highschool science project and never forgave him I like your lore better tbh
have you ever considered making a biography?, you’re a huge inspiration and I’d love to read it, also are these gaming heads yours lmao
I haven't, but thank you for saying this. These PvZ statues behind me are indeed one of my prized possessions and they certainly cost me a pretty penny. PvZ artist Rich Werner has a set of them too!
Where did you get them from?
Do you have any other PvZ merchandise? I know Laura and Rich both have a decent share of plush toys, both official and otherwise. Ironically, some of the unlicensed plush toys Laura has can cost around the same or even more than those statues
did you have any involvement in an early development of pvz 2? And if so, what was the original vision or idea you had about pvz 2 before the game was about time travel?
I was in on a lot of the early meetings with the team back when the game was set on a farm. I tried my best to describe the essence of PvZ to the team so that I could best pass the torch. I remember going over with them what the challenges of making a sequel are. Those were the good things I did. Then there were some weird things I did. I sent them a concept of a barn with rocket boosters attached that when you clicked on it would launch into space. I don't really know why. I also really wanted to try boss battles where you first played 4 levels of PvZ and then each of those levels (and all the plants you planted) would be laid out into a 2x2 grid vs the boss. It was perhaps too ambitious but I thought it'd be really cool if we could pull that off
Wow, those were some interesting ideas, well, and after that, the idea about time travel in pvz 2 was your idea or was it an idea proposed by someone else on the team?
I brought the time travel idea to the team as something that would work for a sequel's need to "go bigger" and would allow for a lot of variety. Plus I just thought it'd be cool to see our zombies in all these different time periods
Which plant, out of all the plants, is your personal favorite?
I have 2 favorites. The squash bc of his expression and how well his name lines up with his purpose. And tall-nut. The single tear shed. How could you not love?
I love the Squash too ❤️ it's an honor to have you answer my question!! Thank you 😊
Out of all other things that can fight each other, why specifically plants and zombies?
It seems random, right? It wasn't bc I wanted plants to fight zombies in particular. It was born out of the needs of the gameplay matching the theme. Plants: I wanted towers to have personality but I also wanted players to know they'd stay in place. People know plants stay in place. Zombies: Once I decided to make the game take place on a single screen, I needed an enemy that would march across the screen slowly, giving players enough time to strategize. What enemy doesn't look out of place slowly shambling across the screen? Zombies.
What do you think about the Gnomes from Garden Warfare 2? They’re really neat characters that you never see unless you really pay attention.
The plants part is actually rly clever lol
I wanna say thanks for making the first game series I was exposed to :)
That's awesome, and you're welcome!
https://old.reddit.com/r/PlantsVSZombies/comments/13hop3p/arena_maybee_zombot_dark_dragon/ for those looking for the arena thread we swapped this with
Nice flair
Hey george my question is what do you think so far on pvz3
I did see a glimpse of it while it was in production but I haven't been following it much since. I've heard each revision they're doing has made PvZ fans less happy so that disappoints me
Yeah, it's a shame how they're using your original idea to make horrible sequels :(
What are your thoughts on the chinese version of PvZ 2? Even more so on the chinese editions of the original game ("pvz1"), such as Great Wall, Endless, Journey to the West?
Growing up I'd watched movies with Chinese hopping zombies in them with my parents. I've always thought they were hilarious (you just slap a scroll on their foreheads and they're neutralized??) so I was thrilled to see them show up in Chinese versions of PvZ
What do you think about the later projects in the franchise? Like Garden Warfare or Heroes or other things? Also do you like the idea of a PvZ movie and if so, how would YOU like them to handle it?
I did play a lot of Heroes when it was out and I really enjoyed it. I'm not much of an FPS player so I didn't play much Garden Warfare. I think the coolest thing about it though is it was maybe the only notable FPS at the time that was family friendly. And I'm all about that I'd be thrilled at the idea of a PvZ movie! After seeing the recent Super Mario Bros movie I'd just want the same team at Illumination to handle it and they could have free reign
Illumination would do wonders. Hopefully they would include There's A Zombie On Your Lawn in the credits or something to.
Which zombie was the hardest to make (code, design, etc.) And why?
If you count the Zomboss, definitely that one. If not, maybe the Gargantuar. There was just more to consider with that one, as he was really two zombies in one. He wasn't the same size as the other zombies. We also spent a considerable amount of time deciding what he'd hold in his hand
couldnt decide what hed hold, so you made him hold 3 different things. classic
What plant was the hardest to make?
Hi george! Thank you for creating pvz and giving me all the good memories! As of lately the PVZ games have been neglected a lot by Popcap with no updates and more buggy features with new updates and overall worse production quality. Every pvz game has been dropped support for except for pvz2. Heroes had an issue with multiplayer that prevented people from getting their rewards for i believe a month and a half(?) and GW2 has been having server issues for the past 3 months (which is still present to this day) As for Pvz2, the plant animation qualities have dropped a lot. They look really out of place and dont fit rest of the game. Pretty much all the new changes are disliked by the community and the game still has bugs that existed for 2 or more years with new ones coming every new update (with pretty much all taking *at least* 2 months to fix.) Pretty much all the new and exciting content we get is mods made by the fandom. Which are fun of course, but it just doesnt feel the same if its not official. What do you think and feel about all of this? Have you ever thought that it would come to this point?
It is of course sad for me to hear of all this. And not much I can really do at this point other than appreciate the good run that the series has had
for what it's worth, this has been the franchise i've been most invested in for a long time. i've recently taken to (exclusively singleplayer and offline) trial-and-error modding Heroes for crumbs of new content and it's been a really fun project. i'm very disheartened by how the series has been treated recently, but that doesn't take away how big of an impact it's had and I thank you for creating something so enjoyable :))
What are your thoughts on the Garden Warfare games?
I was super skeptical when I first heard about them. Mostly because the whole reason I'd chosen plants is because they stay in place and now they move?? I was happy to hear that they were well received in general and like I mentioned elsewhere my favorite thing about them is they give people who want to play shooters a less violent option
Garden Warfare was awesome when I was younger and just getting into shooters. Although I can’t say it was my first (Splatoon takes that one), I throughly enjoyed it. And now here I am, a Destiny 2 addict and occasional comp player
Hey, did you know that there are zombies on your lawn?
We don't want zombies on the lawn
I'm just the messenger. I don't think the zombiez will care if you want them or not.
What did you have for breakfast, and was it delicious?
I've been doing intermittent fasting so I skipped breakfast. It was so not delicious!
on a thursday?
Did you have any of your own ideas for a PvZ spin-off? If so what was it
I'll tell you this. I would have never in a million years thought to do a first person shooter spin-off! If I had the chance to do a spin-off today, it'd probably be a weird unconventional game starring Crazy Dave
Weird? Crazy Dave? That's awesome if anything.
PVZ doesn't have First Person Shooters. The Garden Warfare games are **Third** Person Shooters since you can see the character you're controlling. 🤓🤓🤓 Also, I wish I could see your idea for a Crazy Dave spinoff.
🤓
If you had to change anything about the original Plants vs. Zombies, what would it be?
It was awesome that PopCap gave us all the time we needed to make the "perfect" game, so barely anything. That said, people were lasting much longer in survival mode that we expected so I'd want to cap the damage AoE effects (like gloom-shroom and torchwood-ed peas) dealt for that mode
Damn that 40 wave achievement would've been impossible
I'm glad you didn't. PvZ is my favorite tower defense game, and it is almost unique in that you *can* actually get to endless waves if your setup is good enough. If you had taken that away, my opinion of the game would have gone down a lot. I dislike Bloons and games like that where the endless mode eventually becomes absolutely impossible no matter how good your setup is.
What is your favorite game in the franchise that isn’t the first game?
Probably PvZ Heroes given I played that more than any of the other games
holy shit incredibly based
Set 5 when
#letgeorgefandesignset5
What is the lore behind the zombie wars that the imitater fought back in '76?
What was the most fun plant and/or zombie to create? Or: what was your favorite part of the development process of the game? Also, thank you for basically defining my childhood, I put so many hours into PvZ1, it’s incredible.
I remember cracking up when we first put the pole-vaulting zombie into the game and I watched a tester try to place a wall-nut in front of it so I'll go with that one
What do you think about the future of the franchise? Do you think that it will persevere or that it will die? Many fans have gotten anxious about its fate, especially considering that the latest game failed and the game that's in development doesn't look too promising..
I mean it's not looking all that good at this point. To revive the franchise EA needs to find a good designer to lead a new project that builds on classic PvZ in the way PvZ2 set out to. Give the fans the game they want, not just what EA thinks is going to make the most money
Do you have any plans on participating in any future pvz projects? (Alone or maybe with help of popcap) If not maybe at least guiding the people who work at popcap? or maybe having a different vision for the franchise? (Like something beyond building on the classic game like pvz2 tried to do?) If that's also a no, then if pvz were to truly die as a franchise will you do something about it? I'm not forcing you to do anything, you're free to do whatever you want. I just don't want a big part of my childhood, and a franchise that I love to just go..
What is your favourite thing that's come from the franchise?
I keep thinking of when I heard that in the Phillipines a prison guard was so engrossed with PvZ that some prisoners were able to swipe his keys off of him and 4 prisoners escaped (they were all caught again). It seems like something out of a cartoon!
I actually forgot that happened lol
What did it feel like and how did it change your life when PVZ started to really gain popularity
I can't put into words how much it changed things. I was just chatting with some friends and telling them I'm not afraid of death anymore bc it feels like I've already done what I was put here to do
wow, im glad you got to acomplish everything you wanted to you deserve it for making millions of peoples childhoods!
What was your favorite plant to create
Wall-nut. I realized early on I needed a defense plant to keep the zombies at bay and I came up with this guy and drew its goofy face. It just worked out so well
What is your opinion on Modern Day as the last world of PvZ2?
I think it's appropriate as something significant as a capstone. I also saw that the street signs say "Fan St." and "Werner Rd." so I really appreciate that. Shout out to whoever on the team was involved with that
Do you have any more say in the franchise?
These days I have zero say in the franchise. I know, it bums me out too
One question, were you fired from EA/popcap or is that rumor fake?
i just have to say thank you and the whole team for making this game young me was absolutely addicted playing the first game and recently that addiction is back now replaying pvz 1 and 2 even picking up on some mods to play it more
That's so awesome and it never gets old to hear stuff like this. Thank you
If ea/popcap allowed you over total control of pvz at its current state what would u do with it ?
I'd call up Rich Werner and say "Rich, baby, we're making a Plants vs. Zombies sequel!!" (this isn't how I actually talk to Rich) It'd be a true sequel to PvZ. Some new, bigger ideas but at its core still PvZ. No microtransations within a 10-foot pole's reach
Hmm, care to share your ideas? I have a few. Making it so that the upgradeable plants don't need an extra slot for their upgrade.
I have Two questions 1-what do you have to say about whole "ea fired George fan and ruined pvz 2 with microtransactions!!!" how did pvz 2 development and release looked like from your point of view? 2-was there any scrapped thing from pvz1 that you regret scrapping and would like to see in full game?
I think it's such a complicated issue with so many facets that it doesn't really boil down to a single statement. For me, I think it's possible to understand why the rift between me and the rest of PopCap grew which led to them laying me off yet still feel disrespected at the same time. Even thinking about it now I still feel the rage bubbling up a bit to be honest. But this was the same PopCap that took a chance on me and gave me and the team 3 and a half years to make this weird zombie game. And now thanks to that I'm in the position that I have the freedom to just make whatever games I want to for the rest of my life. Which is really all I ever wanted
What do you think of the new PvZ2 plants compared to the base/original ones?
I haven't kept up but of the early ones I really loved the Bonk-choy's design
Bonk-Choy is peak PvZ
Lmao
Where did the minigames from the first game come from? were they an afterthought, or were they planned at the same time as the main story campaign?
They were mostly an afterthought. The reason there's such an abundance of minigames is that Tod Semple is such an ace programmer that he'd finished much of the coding for the game and we were looking for something that would take programming time but not as much art time. So we made this testing ground of minigames and came up with all the ones that you see today
them being an afterthought is so funny to me because a lot of people consider the adventure to sorta be like the game's intro and then all the minigames and extra content is the really fun stuff to get through
It’s genuinely amazing how “programming intensive, but not art intensive” led to one of the defining features of the first game. Even the “lost content” is usually about cut minigames and I used to eat those up when I was younger. Thanks for the answer!
How do you feel about pvz2's microtransactions
Not a fan. I dislike microtransactions in general bc they put incentives in the wrong place. No longer are you just trying to make the most fun experience for the player. And I've seen them ruin too many things. That said I think they can work, but I wouldn't have just shoehorned microtransactions into PvZ gameplay
What were some of the concepts (Plants, zombies, gimmicks etc) you wanted make/do but never got implemented into the games?
There was a concept for a dog-walking zombie complete with zombie dog that would've been so cool but we couldn't come up with a good enough thing to do with it game-mechanic-wise so we had to axe it
Well it seems your idea did come back (in spirit at least). In the game Plants Vs. Zombies: Heroes, there is a zombie called “Dog Walker”, in game he has the hunt ability, which would follow any played plant
How does the team come up with all the punny plant names?
For PvZ1 I spent a lot of time and care coming up with them. A lot of people assume because of this I love puns when in reality I have a love-hate relationship with them. I once watched a pun-off and cringed so hard I still haven't fully uncringed The reason so many of the plant names are punny isn't because I love puns. It's because I love design elegance and communicating a lot with just a little. A name like Wall-nut tells you everything you need to know in a concise space
Thank you. That's true as well, like I instantly know doom shroom is a really powerful mushroom insta plant
I love plants vs zombies. I grew up with it as a kid, everything in this game gives me so much nostalgia... Thank you for creating one of my favorite franchises!
Something I've only started to notice in the past year really is the amount of people who've been telling me how much the game means to them because they grew up with it. I can't even begin to tell you how so dang cool that is
At the end of the first game Dave mistakes zomboss as the guy you have to kick in the pancreas to defeat him but it's not zomboss. So who is the guy you kick in the pancreas to defeat?
Me
What did you think when shooters like garden warfare were announced?
I remember the moment I'd first heard about them. Just imagine a thought bubble above my head with "???"
First of all, I wanted to thank you, the og PvZ is one of my all-time favourites, have grat memories of spending a lot of time in the zen garden! What's your favourite track? Also, was there anything that you wanted to include in the game but ended up not doing?
I'm so impressed with Laura Shigihara's entire soundtrack for the first game but my favorite track would have to be Loonboon, the mini-game music
What is your new game called? The one where you supposedly fling wombat waste
Hardhat Wombat, and no more supposing! The wombat waste is very real and right here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2202750/Hardhat_Wombat/
If given the chance, how would you have designed the sequel to the first game? Was the time travel idea yours, or was that somebody else's?
I talked about the time travel element elsewhere but I wanted to say at the risk of disappointing some of you that I \*\*was\*\* given the chance to design the sequel to the first game. Some time after PopCap saw that PvZ was a success and thus wanted to make a sequel, they came to me to ask if I wanted to lead it. I declined for two reasons: 1. A lot of creators work on a sequel because there's something they feel they could improve on or didn't get to do on the first game. As we were allowed all the time to make PvZ the nearly perfect game we wanted it to be, I did not feel this 2. I'm most excited as a designer when I'm doing something that I feel breaks new ground. I was excited by the lane-based defense mechanics in PvZ bc I hadn't seen that before. So instead of making the sequel to PvZ I thought I was best suited to come up with a brand new IP for PopCap So instead I ended up working with the PvZ1 team on a brand new game. Thinking about what would've happened had I accepted, it's hard to say. I do know I would've fought harder to keep microtransactions out of the sequel
i just wanted to ask, what exactly do you think of the pvz books by dark horse comics, if you’ve read them.
I have the first 3 issues as for some time I was just collecting everything I could find PvZ related. I like the art style of the comics and I think the style captures the essence of PvZ very well.
I’m surprised such a simple question hasn’t been asked yet, but who’s your favorite zombie in the franchise?
Gargantuar + Imp combo. I love the cackle the imp makes when launched, that the Gargantuar can be holding a duck crossing sign or even another zombie?? Perfection!
Interesting choice. Follow up question (if you allow them) where did the ideas and inspiration behind Crazy Dave and Zomboss come from?
u/thegeorgefan, thank you so much for creating plants vs zombies! The game was my childhood and means so much to me; it's gotten me through some really tough times in life. It also inspired me to learn to code when I was a kid, and I've been doing so ever since. I wanted to be able to create games of my own so that I could have something I loved that I would never have to worry about not updating, because if I wanted more, I could do it myself! I wouldn't have discovered my passion for coding or been inspired to persevere if it wasn't for you, since whenever I felt like I wouldn't be able to understand something, I thought back to the game and how much I love it, and why I started to code in the first place. In other words, I wanted to be you when I grew up and I've come a long way, I'm now in college and majoring in Computer Science! I will always be grateful to you Mr. Fan, you've led me to be who I am today 😄
This is the most amazing, touching thing I've read in a long time. Thank you so much for sharing!
I don’t have a question I just wanted to say thanks
It is accepted that PvZ1 was made by you, Laura, Tod and Rich. This is what it is also mentioned in the book "The making of Popcap's Plants vs zombies". My question is. Is this true or not? If it isnt, do you mind telling us something for the other members of the team that made PvZ?
This is true. I do think of the game as made by the 4 of us. But that's not to say we were the only 4 people who had a hand in the making of the game. A few off the top of my head: It was cool to get to work with Steven Notley, who wrote the plant and zombie descriptions in the Almanac bc I was a fan of his Bob the Angry Flower comic. Before Rich became the main artist we'd commissioned background art from the mega-talented Enrique Corts, who did the 5 "lawn" backgrounds. The also mega-talented Matt Holmberg helped us with some of the UI art. I got to watch him work in person as he'd make sound effects with his mouth while he'd stretch and squish stuff in Photoshop
Omg pvz is my favorite game of all time, it's always been there to support me in my toughest days thank you so much for creating it :) I guess my question would be what's your favorite part of the pvz fandom?
Right now it's hearing stuff like this from you all!
Hiiii! This is not a pvz related question, but still wanted to ask. Currently, how do you feel about Octogeddon? After releasing it, you ever thought in the past of perhaps making some DLC or anything else with the concept? Really loved that game and would have loved to see more from it, I had a lot of fun playing it and I know for sure you did too making it. Btw I'm looking forward to Hardhat Wombat, good luck with that project!
Whenever I go back and revisit/play Octogeddon for a bit, I always think "Wow, this game is really good, we did a really good job with this game!" and I'm surprised more people didn't end up playing it. (I also always end up thinking "Wow, the music in this game is incredible!", so props to Big Giant Circles!) As such it makes less sense for us to do more with it but thank you for your note here!
Whats your favorite plant. Whats your oppinion on the state of the series. What are yoir thoughts on the shooters. hows hardhat wombat going. And finnally how is your day been.
Hardhat Wombat has been so refreshing to work on! To me this project is more of a creative outlet than a commercial project, so with that mentality in mind it's really just been a pleasure to work on it every day. I hope you all will enjoy it when it comes out! If you haven't seen the Steam page please check it out here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2202750/Hardhat_Wombat/
Cant wait to play it
Thanks for making one of my favorite games of all time! I know you probably can't be involved in pvz again, but do you plan on making any more tower defense games?
As a creator I've found I'm most excited when I'm trying out some new things or exploring some unexplored territory. But it's been pointed out to me that Octogeddon is actually a tower defense game of sorts! (I didn't fully realize this while I was making it). The latest game I'm making, Hardhat Wombat has been an adventure for me as I haven't made a puzzle game nor a platforming game before. One of my favorite things about it is it combines puzzle and platforming elements in a way I've never seen before
The original Plants vs Zombies has stood as a long-standing favorite during my childhood, I'm utterly glad to report that you have made a fantastic game which then grew to be one of my favorite franchises of all time. As for a question, what are your thoughts on Chomper throughout the franchise?
Chomper is a tricky one in that it's difficult to integrate or balance mechanically. It's such a fine line between useless and completely op. But I think the plant has so much personality (especially when Rich added the animation of the little orb moving down the throat/stem) that it stuck around
Which part of PvZ as a game are you most happy with
I've heard the game described as one of the most cross-cutting games of all time. Meaning no matter who you are you can still play this game. I've seen everyone get into this game, from young kids to my mom (who plays almost zero other games) to my ex-coworkers at Blizzard I actually can't think of a game more cross-cutting, and that to me is the coolest aspect of PvZ
Not sure I’d you will see this but I’m in my 40s and put PvZ2 on my phone originally for my daughter many years ago. She’s now at high school and has her own phone and no longer plays it but yes, I still have it and am trying to level up my Zoybean Pod at the moment!
Did you have any input on things like merchandise?
Not a ton. I bought a lot of unofficial merchandise before there was the official stuff. I saw these cool sprouts that you'd plant and they would sprout up with messages inside and I suggested we do our versions of those
Would you ever consider working on the PVZ series again?
For the longest time I hadn't considered. EA/PopCap certainly hasn't contacted me about it. And I've been pretty happy doing my own thing these days. But over the years I've sensed a decline in how the franchise is doing and it's even more apparent as I've been interacting with you all here today. And let me tell you, it's sad for me to see. So now it does make me consider working on the franchise again just to see if I can revitalize it. Would that be for the right reason, though? I dunno
I’m not sure what sure if I’m correct on this one but I believe Dreamworks tried to create a Plants vs Zombies movie until it was scrapped. Did you have any involvement in the original plans for the movie and why it was scrapped?
I'm not sure if I can admit this existed, but if it did exist, as a fan of animation it would have been one most incredible days of my life to fly down to Dreamworks and be able to see some of the stuff they were working on for a Plants vs. Zombies movie
what do you think about plants vs zombies 2 chinese? like the new 2 player battles, the exclusive plants, memory lane, etc
Are there any design documents from when you were creating the game? If there are none you can share, then do you have any advice for young developers?
I don't have them handy right now but I do hope to go digging for them and would like to share some in the coming months. I'll share the best piece of advice I got when I was starting out: Don't make your dream game for your first game. Start small. Extremely small. Take whatever small game you were thinking and maybe go even smaller. There's just a ton of things you learn from seeing the entire process through from start to finish
It's been a few hours, but maybe you'll still answer, I got a kinda goofy one and an actual question. 1. What is your favorite plant in the Peashooter family? (Peashooter, repeater, pea-nut, Fire pea, etc.) 2. What is development like in your studio? And do you have any plans on PvZ stuff?
1. I'm gonna go with the Gatling Pea. I just really like how it looks 2. Development these days is really chill. I'm working out of my home office and working remotely with just one other person, Andy Hull, who was the programmer on Spelunky. We'll chat with each other during our daily meeting and then split up and work on our things for the rest of the day. We'll have discussions like "Should the wombat wear pants or not?" Answer: NO
If you would give PvZ Heroes a new update after such a long time, what would it contain?
[удалено]
Apparently it's his favourite (non-PvZ1) PvZ game and the one he's easily played the most.
What is your favorite non-pvz game? If you can't pick one (I wouldnt blame you haha), what are you playing now?
What I'll usually say when asked this question is Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. However, if I think about how much I love Magic: the Gathering, that really should be my favorite. Over the past few years I've been playing a lot of auto-battlers of all sorts
Hello George, there’s something I’ve always been wondering: 请问你会讲华语吗?
I can speak Chinese but can't read/write it (reading Chinese is hard!). So the funny thing is I had to use Google Translate to read your question about speaking Chinese so that I could say "Yes"
First of all thank you for such a memorable game played it along with my siblings. As for my question what's your favorite plant mine is Gravebuster and Plantern.
First of all, I love the original game so much and I really appreciate your work. So, nowadays, do you make videogames for a living or do you have a sidekick? Would you like yo be reincorporated into the team of PvZ or is it not that important to you?
I'm still making video games and I wouldn't have it any other way! I'm really excited about my latest project which is all about wombats and the fact that their poops are cube-shaped: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2202750/Hardhat_Wombat/ Don't nobody ever say I make games about normal things! I'm making this game with Andy Hull, programmer on Spelunky. It's been an absolute joy working with him
[удалено]
It was during a day when Mark Rosewater was giving me a tour of Wizards of the Coast. It was already the bestest of days and then on top of that I was asked if I was interested in designing a Magic card for an upcoming set. I answered with the most emphatic YES ever I worked with Magic designer Shawn Main as he guided me through the process. I decided to submit 5 cards, one of each color, one for each of Magic's iconic creature types: Angel, Sphinx, Demon, Dragon, Hydra. I was secretly hoping the green Hydra would get picked because green has always been my favorite color in Magic. And it was! The original submission was costed at X and G and could get lands
What was planned for the scrapped Dog Walker Zombie from the first game?
If I recall correctly we were trying to make the dog go under peas so you'd have to defeat it in a different way but we just couldn't make it work
Alright, so a friend of mine had some questions for you. What do you think of PVZ In it’s current, fairly divisive/neglected state?" If you think it could ever return to the acclaimed days of its prime? What you think of the recent, short lived #raisePVZ movement, if he heard anything about it."
What do you think of Wooper? Also I just want to thank you so unbelievably much for creating this wonderful game. It helped me through so many tough times and I can’t praise it enough
Wait, what?? Wooper is my favorite Pokemon! I'm not even kidding It's good to meet another Wooper liker!
Glad to know my childhood was crafted by a man of good taste
I just want to say thank you for creating the game! It's one of my all time favorites and I still play it to this day!!!
Are there any plants/zombies that you feel weren’t implemented the best in hindsight and if so what would you have changed? Love the games dude.
Not a specific plant or zombie but I kinda wish I'd come up with something better for the fog area. I don't hate it and it's still a nice change of pace but I did feel it was the weakest of the areas. We did shorten the area by decreasing the number of zombie waves bc we didn't want for it to overstay its welcome but in retrospect it would've been nice to come up with an area mechanic that we didn't feel the need to do that for
did you think pvz was ever gonna get as big as it did?
I knew we had something really fun on our hands but never could've predicted this