Chapter 40 (1/2)

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.

3Second, 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.