Plants vs Zombies: The Story of George Fan
Channel: Video Game Story Time
Date: 2019-03-01

You asked for it, so here it: by popular demand, the origin of Plants vs Zombies.

Honestly, we never expected to do a PvZ video. But we asked you guys to suggest the topic for our next video, and you overwhelmingly voted in favour of covering George Fan's indie darling turned Pop Cap casual tower defense title.

This game is a weird one. There aren't many that occupy a space in the hearts of both casual players and more serious gamers.

One time, when I was talking to a kid I know (he was probably about eight) he told me with excitement that the pea shooter from Plants vs Zombies was in Wreck-it-Ralph. Turns out he meant Q-Bert. You can't deny; PvZ certainly has brand recognition!

Honestly, I've only ever played Plants vs Zombies once. It's definitely a fun game, but tower defense just isn't my jam. I'm sorry for not being more into it.

What I will say is that the There's a Zombie On Your Lawn song from Laura Shigihara is basically the greatest musical composition of all time. I love that. I used to watch the YouTube video for the song over and over and over when I was at university.

Speaking of Laura Shigihara, I have a secret for you. Most people don't read this far down the video description, so I expect that our secret is safe with you. We've actually been in contact with Laura about doing an interview. She's really, rreally lovely, and so we should have something coming in the near future where we'll talk about not just her work on Plants vs Zombies, but also her song for Deltarune, and her work on her own game, Rakuen, which was one of the most beautiful indie titles of 2017. Seriously, go check it out!

Anyway, it's late and we're tired. We've had a long week - BretonStripes was working in two different cities, and Kotor and Baby Gamer have been having adventures at home together. We're all a bit wiped.

See you next week, when we should be covering Axiom Verge.

Lots of love,
BretonStripes (http://twitter.com/bretonstriped and Kotor (http://twitter.com/kotorcomics)

Title music by Tee Lopes (http://twitter.com/teelopesmusic)

Incidental music: Concentration by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Sources for this video:
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/making-of-plants-vs-zombies/
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2010/03/george-fan-how-insaniquarium-2-became-plants-vs-zombies/
https://www.gamezebo.com/2009/05/22/interview-plants-vs-zombies-creator-george-fan/
https://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/video-games/editorials/interviews/5974-Exclusive-The-Brains-Behind-Plants-vs-Zombies