The Areas, Plants and Zombies Creation Guide

This is a guide for the creation of areas, plants and zombies.
Over my time on the wiki, I have posted numerous well-received ideas for areas, plants and zombies. I have also seen many ideas - old and new - from others on the wiki and they have ranged from brilliant to frankly awful. It was the lower end of the spectrum that encouraged me to write a guide. It is my strong belief that with a little bit of coaching we all can improve our ideas and hence the quality of the wiki.
This guide does not cover how to create the layout, how to type or how to draw. It teaches you mainly one thing: how to think! This is not designed to teach you what should go where, but rather how to brainstorm that for yourself… but this is certainly not finished. I have a lot of work to do and I think now that it is published in some form, i’ll be able to work on it easier. I plan to add more information detailing what makes a good name, description and artwork (still not how to draw though). Also, with help from the community, I hope this might one day evolve into a comprehensive bible for area, plant and zombie creation, and maybe even for entire PvZ games in the future. So please get commenting away and give me ideas and criticism below.
That aside, here is a guide for how to make fanon areas, plants and zombies for a PvZ game. Enjoy!
== Areas ==
All PvZ games focus on areas to introduce plants and zombies. Most plants and zombies that you create would inevitably be created in association with a particular area. Hence, if you want to design a bunch of plants and zombies, areas might be the best way to guide your creations. Areas also allow you design a separate and unique play experience.
Think of the concept
Creating a concept for an area is relatively simple. All it takes is to brainstorm a particular time period or location you would like to be in the game and build the idea from there. Don’t get too hung up on its name and don’t make puns unless it relates to the area’s mechanic, like Dark Ages. On the note of Dark Ages, try to avoid repetition of words when naming areas, such as when using Ancient or Age in its title. Think of something brand new wherever possible. Frostbite Caves wasn’t named Ice Age for this reason.
Think of the stage element
The stage element is the first feature that must be devised. The stage element is the thing that makes your area special, such as tombstones in Ancient Egypt, water and planks in Pirate Seas, and mine carts in Wild West. It is important that you avoid unoriginal stage elements, such as simple rehashes of the tombstone. Remember your area has to be unique. Secondly, consider how the stage element will affect gameplay and consider if it is too simple (doesn’t effect gameplay significantly) or too complex (gameplay is effected detrimentally).
Think of the plants and zombies
With a world and a stage element, you can begin designing plants. Design plants and zombies to utilise the mechanics of the area. If there are more plants and zombies that utilise its mechanics, the area will feel more complete to the player and should make it much more hectic and fun. I particularly loved the design of Big Wave Beach. Say what you like about its difficulty, but the Banana Cannon and Fisherman Zombie whack-a-mole was crazily fun, the Bowling Bulb was well suited for the huge wave sizes and Low Tide attacks, and the Surfer Zombie was an awesome addition despite being a huge threat.
This also highlights another important point; make sure the plants and zombies feel as if they belong in that world, but not in the literal sense. Despite his apparent time travel, the Explorer Zombie really brought out a laugh in me way back at launch. That guy belongs in Ancient Egypt. Of course it’s ridiculous, but who cares? There was no magic really in the Dark Ages, but due to its strong association with magic in pop-culture, the Wizard Zombie was essential.
Note that, unlike simply designing a plant or a zombie, an area’s attractiveness is based off more than just the setting and elements themselves, but rather the entire collection of plants and zombies that go with it. The key to making a good area is to look further than the mechanics and look at how all of the introduced plants and zombies compliment each other and the game as a whole.
Dos and don’ts
* Don’t come up with random elements, plants and zombies: Stage elements, plants and zombies should compliment each other. This is the most common error for most people designing areas. They like an area concept, and might throw in a random stage element, some nice zombie concepts with unoriginal abilities and a bunch of plants they came up with on the spot. This is a very bad area and you should recognise it as such.
* Avoid plant and zombie punning in your area: Ideally, you should only pun in your area if it relates to the stage element. Plant puns and zombie puns are acceptable but should be avoided.
* Don’t hyphenate: Areas in PvZ or PvZ2 are never hyphenated.
* Use correct spacing and capitalisation: This is simple English. Use a space between each word and capitalise each word after a space.
== Plants ==
There is no correct process for designing a plant. Sometimes they just appear from a big tangle of random ideas and thoughts in your head. However, there are still some basic roots (excuse the pun) to the creative process for plant design that can be handy when recognised. In general, a plant is either inspired by a real-life plant or designed with a desired ability in mind, i.e. the ‘base’ and the ‘function’. Having multiple bases and functions in mind is crucial to finally amalgamating these ideas into one, hopefully awesome plant.
Think of base plants
The base refers to the real plant or fungus that the in-game ‘plant’ is based on (keep in mind that fungus is considered a plant despite belonging to its own separate kingdom). All plants in PvZ must have a base plant. For instance, the real-life sunflower is the base of the Sunflower, and the pea is the base of the Peashooter. There are sometimes very rare exceptions to this rule. For instance, the Spikerock is a rock and hence not a plant, but it is instead based on the Spikeweed, an existing plant that is based off a plant in real life.
Thinking of base plants is likely the most difficult part of the process. There are many plants in the world and it can be challenging to come up with appropriate plants that can fit your idea. It is often a small knowledge of real plants that is responsible for getting people stuck into mental ruts or producing yet another lame Sticky Peashooter or Rocky-nut. The key is to start becoming aware of other plants. For instance, if you find yourself at the shops or a flower store, take note of plants you see. You can try searching online for interesting or common plants. This might be especially helpful when looking for different types of plants, such as luminescent plants, poisonous plants and types of berries. You could even search for rhyming words to functions you’ve come up with and click on anything that sounds like a plant. You might get lucky! The more plants you know in real life, the better you will be at creating plants for PvZ.
Think of functions
The function refers to the plant’s ability or abilities. Its function could be to produce sun, fire projectiles, freeze zombies, explode, etc. A function can be considered in the scope of a zombie, an area, or the whole game. To elaborate, the plant’s ability can be designed to counter a particular zombie, to be useful in a particular area or for general use and should ideally fit at least two of these categories.
Unlikes bases, functions are quite easy to devise. However, new and useful functions start to rapidly diminish as you produce more ideas, whereas there are way too many plants in the world to exhaust. Often abilities are best devised in relation to a specific zombie, strategy or area. Introducing a fast zombie to an area might be a good reason to also create another freezing or slow-down plant to counteract the zombie’s speed. Notice how in this example the plant can also be used anywhere. The more universal the function is, the better it is.
Combine a base plant with a function
Attaching an ability to base plant can be achieved by looking at the plant and seeing what types of actions or objects might rhyme with it. From there, you can extrapolate to narrow down on the plant’s ability. On the other hand, if the function of the plant is known, look at the plant’s action, which might be ‘stops zombies’, and look at synonyms, such as ‘freezes’ or ‘stuns’ and which of these could be morphed into a suitable plant name.
When finding an appropriate function for a plant and visa versa, know that the name of plant is derived as a pun from both the plant’s base and function and often references real-life objects or actions. To illustrate, the Peashooter has a base of a pea, and its function is that it shoots peas at a normal speed that do normal damage. Hence, it is a peashooter, which is in reality a toy weapon where dried peas are blown out of a tube (look it up if you don’t believe me). Sometimes, the base and function are more obscure such as with the Guacodile in PvZ2. The name is a portmanteau of ‘guacamole’ and ‘crocodile’. Guacamole is a dip made of avocado and hence refers to the avocado as the base plant. Crocodile refers to its ability by implying the plant is amphibious like the crocodile and also bites. Observe how both segments of the Guacodile’s name refer to the base and function indirectly by first referring to an object that implies them. Similarly, the Snow Pea refers to snow, which implies chilling zombies. It doesn’t directly say Chiller Pea.
Dos and don’ts
* Don’t make a plant based on something that isn’t a plant: Present-pult is a prime example of this. If it’s not a plant, why do you think it should be in Plants vs. Zombies?
* Don’t rehash ideas: Come on, you can’t think of anything more original than those Peashooter and Wall-nut variants? Think! If you can’t think of something original, scrap the idea and think again! Would a Water-nut make any sense? No! Don’t get me wrong, variants are okay if they’re reasonable. Just don’t use them if there are better alternatives.
* Avoid hyphenation: Plants are mainly only hyphenated in PvZ for nuts, mushrooms and catapults. This is traditional and necessary as they are shortened to -nuts, -shroom and -pult respectively. Take a spiny pineapple, Spineapple, for example. S-pineapple would be plain stupid and Spine-apple would imply it’s an apple, not a pineapple, that has spines.
* Use correct spacing and capitalisation: This is simple English. Use a space between each word and capitalise each word after a space.
== Zombies ==
Zombies are by far the easiest things to create on the wiki. Designing zombies is second-nature for most people because it simply involves thinking of what the zombie is and what it does. Also there is no real need to be creative with its name, apart from the Zombot bosses. Inspiration for a zombie may be well sought from pop-culture or thinking about what people (or animals) you might expect to find in its area if it is designed for one. Then, think about what it does and if its original, inventive or interesting. If not, refine it’s ability until it becomes original, inventive and/or interesting.
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