concept artists/illustrators who create characters #5

George Fan is the mastermind behind PopCap's Plants vs. Zombies, a game that's often been described as "crazy." (Crazy good, crazy addictive... or just plain crazy. It's all accurate.) We spoke to George about Plants vs. Zombies, his previous PopCap project Insaniquarium, and what kind of hidden object game he would make if he could.

Zombies are unofficially considered “taboo” in casual games (along with ninjas and robots!), but Plants vs. Zombies has gotten a great response from both the hardcore and the casual crowd

What were some of the games that influenced Plants vs. Zombies?

The 3 biggest game influences were:

Warcraft III Tower Defense - inspired the whole idea stationary turrets gunning down hordes of enemies

Insaniquarium - the resource system is lifted straight from this game. Also, the new plants are drip-fed to you at the same pace as Insaniquarium's pets, and you choose plants in a similar fashion to how you choose your pets at the beginning of each level of Insaniquarium.

Tapper - the idea of multi-tasking five different lanes of your lawn is similar to the gameplay of this old arcade game

Tapper - this old arcade game helped to inspire Plants vs. Zombies.

The team must have had a blast coming up with all the characters. What zombies and plant types are you most proud of?

I like that the torchwood (the fiery tree-stump that ignites peas) makes you think about how your plants interact with each other. The cob cannon took a long time to design due to us coming up with so many variations in the search for the ultimate version. I think we landed somewhere good with that, though.

And the tall-nut just has so much character, standing there with his determined gaze, just shedding a single tear when hurt. My girlfriend can't bear to see that, so she immediately protects one with a pumpkin always. Keeping those pumpkins around the tall-nuts seems more important to her than passing the level sometimes.

As for zombies, the pole-vaulting zombie is awesome for the sheer hilarity that takes place when I'm watching someone play for the first time. They always wonder "What is that guy going to do with his stick?" as they place a wall-nut down in hopes of blocking him, only to have the wall-nut promptly vaulted over.

I like this kinda research because it's an app. It's different to a game. This shows how he's got from one research to another and created this game that EVERYOne plays. They really do... I like the fact that its a simple complex, something you could do or play for hours, characters you could look at and think damn, thats cute, or damn thats cool. Characters you want to see and play with.