Almighty Video Game Designer - Chapter 40

Chapter 40: Chapter 39: Plants vs Zombies Version Plans
Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales

Translated by Coldtaco
Edited by Aelryinth
Chen Mo decided to wait until night time before checking the applications. He decided to focus on planning the next update for Plants vs Zombies.
In his previous life, Plants vs Zombies had a sequel. Although it made a decent amount of money, the player reviews left a lot to be desired compared to the first game.
That was why Chen Mo didn’t want to make Plants vs Zombies 2. If he wanted to make money and get hated on by fans, why not make some Pay to Win game? Just so the name of Plants vs Zombies wouldn’t be tarnished.
This upcoming update will probably be the first and last update for the game, therefore Chen Mo wanted to please the fans, allowing the players to invent their own playstyles, which would allow fans to play the game well into the future.
As Chen Mo was about to start developing a new game, he didn’t have the time or energy to maintain the game in the future.
After giving it some thought, Chen Mo narrowed it down to a couple features.
First, in terms of content, add developer tools. Anyone could use the developer tools to test out anything in the game.
They could make adjustments to the plants, zombies, the environment, and the maps. They could also upload resources to make new types of plants and zombies, and they could use the existing artwork to make new maps, levels, and playstyles.
These mods could be released, browsed, and installed by players. The players could rate and review the mods. There would be an algorithm to rank the mods according to downloads, rating and playtime, recommending mods to players periodically. 5
Second, add networking and social capabilities to allow players to communicate better within the game.
Plants vs Zombies had simple connectivity and leaderboard functions when it was released, but this was only enough to satisfy the bragging needs of the players, leaving behind the deeper social interactions.
Through the new social capabilities, players could add each other as friends or join communities. Friends or players belonging to the same community could watch other players, upload their own playthroughs, and recommend mods.
Third, make a multiplayer mode.
In theory, with the developer tools, multiplayer was only a matter of time. Chen Mo was just trying to accelerate it.
Chen Mo only had two simple game modes in his plan for now.
First was multiplayer co-op, each player controlling three to five lanes, supporting two to five players at a time. This meant that there would be twenty-five lanes, and the player would be able to scroll up and check the status of other players.
Every player would have their individual suns, and they could help other players plant and defend against zombies together.
Under multiplayer mode, when a player died they could be revived by other players using a special plant, and players could coordinate and plant some special plants together.
The second mode would be versus mode, it could be 1v1, 2v2, or 3v3. Every player could get suns or moons; suns for plants, moons for zombies.
Zombies had to be generated slightly faster than plants.
Players would have to defend their own lawns or use zombies to attack the other play’s lawn. Whenever a player lost, they wouldn’t be able to revive.
The reason for having two different resources, suns and moons, was to prevent certain players from dragging the game out by only making plants.
If one controlled plants and the other controlled zombies, it would be very difficult to balance, which is why Chen Mo didn’t do so.
Chen Mo wasn’t sure if multiplayer modes like these would be successful, but he was optimistic. Because the game followed the original playstyle, any changes he made would be beneficial, so it wouldn’t be detrimental to the main game.
Of course, it wouldn’t matter if it didn’t work out, as there would be mods made by the community.
Chen Mo estimated it would take two weeks. This was a generous estimate, as the main game only took one month.
——
By the time night fell, Chen Mo had basically finished the design document.
After closing the doors, Chen Mo went back to the second floor, checked his inbox, and went through the applications.
Most of the applications were for the assistant position, only four were for the front desk.
Chen Mo wasn’t too happy when he looked through the applications for the front desk. One of them had barely any knowledge of games, another had no experience with Plants vs Zombies, and the other two didn’t put much effort into the thoughts on the game.
Of course, the main issue was their looks, which Chen Mo didn’t find too attractive.
Chen Mo wasn’t part of the good looks club, nor did he have any ulterior motives when hiring for the front desk. But after all, it was a well-paid job, so Chen Mo had many choices and didn’t need to compromise.
He was only thinking about the players. A sweet receptionist would improve the mood of the players who came to the store, so it would be better if he chose someone good looking. 6
Or at least someone cute…. 5
Chen Mo continued looking through the applications for the assistant role.
There were many resumes, and Chen Mo only needed one assistant at this point. Therefore whenever he found someone that didn’t match his requirements, he would delete them.
He wasn’t considering older people at this moment.
Older people tended to be more conservative, weren’t active enough, weren’t as creative, and didn’t have as much potential. Moreover, it would be awkward if his assistant was older than he was. 4
He wasn’t considering employment experience, either.
The ones that had worked at other companies would have had certain ideas imprinted into their design process and thinking. As Chen Mo’s ideas were completely different from other companies, trying to convert them to the same wavelength would take time and effort. 3
He didn’t consider those who played games all day and had nothing better to do, either.
Playing and designing games were completely different things. Playing games required reaction time, controls, and game knowledge, whereas designing games required logical thinking, attention to detail, a solid working ethic, and some inspiration.
It was difficult for someone who was just a gamer to get a job in game design.
—
After that, he started looking at the thoughts on games that had been submitted.
The thoughts reflected the knowledge one had of games. Chen Mo couldn’t hire someone who contradicted his philosophy on games.
For the thoughts on Plants vs Zombies, Chen Mo just wanted to know how much the applicant understood about the game. As long as they mentioned two to three points about creativity, playstyle, system, levels, or code, they would be considered passing.
As for the thoughts on other games, Chen Mo wanted to see what types of games they liked. They’d be considered to pass if they picked a game that was relatively successful and went over why the game was good.
The thoughts on the future of video games was a supplementary question. He wasn’t going to consider them if their judgement was too far off, as those people would be too dense to absorb anything.