![]() Instead of focusing on tower-defense and humorous characters, as Fan’s team did, Lauren Jones and company focused on a unique game perspective: a mass zombie outbreak in an urban center. Ghostbird Software’s team also chose a different way to depict the living dead. We had a fun time making this game, and hopefully it shows.” “It’s nice to be able to sprinkle the humor in here and there. The zombie bobsled team became one of the more iconic (and original) characters from the game-not to mention one of the more difficult enemies to defeat. He really wanted a zombie bobsled team included in the game, first appreciating how it would be funny and then deciding how it would work gameplay-wise. But there were some exceptions to this rule. Fan’s unique vision for his game boils down to a focus on gameplay when creating the unique characters of the plants and zombies, he wanted to make things funny but also wanted to make sure that the game mechanics were sound. The zombies, when they were included, would not be faceless hordes either. Explains Fan, “I thought, no way is anyone else going to make a game that features both plants and zombies. “At the time I was also playing some tower defense mods in Warcraft III and thought ‘What if I used plants as towers? Plants are great because you can give them lots of character, and no one expects them to move.’ So out went the fish, in came the plants.” By focusing on plants, Fan was initially afraid his game would be lost among the trees of another gaming sub-genre: gardening games. After having finished Insaniquarium, he began toying around with a defense-oriented sequel to the game. George Fan actually developed his tower-defense game by focusing on the plants first. There is still originality in the zombie sub-genre. I always joke that leprechauns are going to be the next big thing, and I’m only 90 percent kidding when I say that.” Zombies weren’t the go-to antagonists at the time, but in large part due to the success of his game and other zombie-themed media, zombies became hugely popular in gaming.īut this doesn’t mean that the developers themselves have become mindless drones bent on propagating themselves. “Back when we started, people were still going on about pirates and ninjas. Despite the beneficial timing of the game’s launch, the development cycle occurred before the cultural obsession with zombies was at its highest. Zombies originally was launched on the PC in 2009. George Fan of PopCap Games was simply trying to make a game that hadn’t already been made before.įan’s Plants vs. ![]() Other Internet memes were more popular, and the iPhone was still in its infant stages. ![]() Höchsmann sees a “revival” of zombies occurring in 2009 thanks to a “slew of zombie-related movies and other entertainment hitting the shelves.” While titles like Resident Evil, Dead Space, and Dead Rising brought zombies back to the forefront of gaming villainy over the last decade, books like World War Z, How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse, and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies suggest that the cultural obsession with the living dead isn’t limited to gamers.īut in 2008, few could have predicted that zombies would be such a cultural force. ![]() Zombies Zombies invade the iPhoneīy all accounts, recently we’ve seen the rise of cultural interest in zombies. They are the perfect enemy, evil and guilt-free to kill.” “…zombies are the perfect fit because they are us, but without the guilt of killing one of your own, in fact you’re even doing them a favor by killing them. Jones sees zombies’ inclusion in gaming as not simply due to their horrifying nature, but due to their ability to be killed without remorse. Of the games we’ve looked at this past week, Ghostbird’s The Raging Dead is the only application that tackles the idea of a zombie outbreak and how quickly such a plague can spread. The prospect that your best friend can turn on you and become a zombie can become very terrifying, explains Lauren Jones of Ghostbird Software. Zombies are not only relentless, but they have a nasty habit of multiplying. Don’t expect any mercy from a zombie, for they have none to give.” Games like Doom, Resident Evil, and The House of the Dead utilized this schema in these games you’ll often confront wave after wave of fearless, shambling living dead. Should you try, you will soon see yourself (and your delicious, delicious brains) eaten. Matthias Höchsmann of Gamedoctors believes that zombies speak to a unique kind of human fear-not only are they relentless, but their task is to create more of their number. But depictions of zombies would evolve into something more genuinely frightening and become a common staple of games. ![]()
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