I Can’t Sleep - Plants vs Zombies | Gentle Bedtime Reading for Sleep

Episode Date: May 15, 2019

Unwind with calm bedtime reading about Plants vs. Zombies to ease insomnia and restless nights. This soothing episode explores the popular video game where players use clever strategies and plant defenses to stop waves of quirky zombies. Benjamin’s gentle cadence turns the game’s origins, gameplay, and cultural impact into a peaceful journey of learning. With no whispering or hypnosis—just calm, fact-filled storytelling—you’ll find your mind settling, stress easing, and sleep arriving naturally. Press play, relax, and drift off while discovering the fun world of Plants vs. Zombies. Want More? Request a Topic: https://www.icantsleeppodcast.com/request-a-topic Ad-Free Episodes: https://icantsleep.supportingcast.fm/ Shop Sleep-Friendly Products: https://www.icantsleeppodcast.com/sponsors Join the Discussion on Discord: https://discord.gg/myhGhVUhn7 This content is derived from the Wikipedia article on Plants vs. Zombies, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) license. Read the full article: Wikipedia – Plants vs. Zombies. Happy sleeping! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to a Glassbox media podcast. What if I told you that most of the modern day self-help advice you've been hearing could actually make you worse? The key to a better life isn't about feel-good gimmicks that sound catchy. The Mentally Stronger Podcast gives you access to a licensed therapist who shares science-backed tools that will actually change your life. Hi, I'm Amy Morin, psychotherapist, mental strength trainer, and international best-selling author. In each episode, we cover research-back strategies, like how to stop relying on willpower and start creating habits for lasting change. And the five mental strength-building exercises you can do from your couch.

I also speak to world-class experts like Dr. Nicole Kane, who shares how to permanently heal anxiety by addressing the root cause. With over 200 episodes in our catalog, this podcast is for you if you're ready to crush self-doubt, conquer challenges, and become stronger than ever with therapist-approved strategies that can change your life. Listen to Mentally Stronger with Therapist Amy Morin, wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the I Can't Sleep podcast, where I read random articles to pour you to sleep with my soothing voice. I'm your host, Benjamin Boster. Today's episode is from a Wikipedia article titled Plants versus Zombies.

Plants versus Zombies is a Tower Defense video game developed and originally published by Pop Cap Games for Microsoft Windows and OS10. The game involves homeowners who use a variety of different plants to prevent an army of zombies from entering their houses and eating their brains. It was first released on May 5th, 2009, and made available on Steam on the same day. A version for iOS was released on February 2010 and an HD version for the iPad. An extended Xbox Live Arcade version, introducing new gameplay modes and features, was released on September 8th, 2010. Popcap released a Nintendo DS version on, on January 8, 2011, with content unique to the platform. The PlayStation 3 version was released in February 2011,

also with added new co-op and versus mode found in the Xbox 360 version. An Android version of the game was released on May 31st, 2011 on the Amazon App Store, while it was also released to the Android market, now Google Play, on December 14, 2011. On February 16, 2012, a version was released for Blackberry Playbook. Later, a Blackberry smartphone version of the game was released on January 2013, following the launch of BlackBerry 10. Furthermore, both the original Windows and Mac version of the game have been re-released

with additional content in a Game of the Year version. In January 2015, a free ad-supported version of the game was released, released for iOS. The game received a positive response from critics and was nominated for multiple interactive achievement awards alongside receiving praise for its musical score. A sequel, Plans versus Zombie 2, It's About Time, was released in 2013 for iOS and Android. Gameplay In Plants versus Zombies, players place different types of plants and fungi, each with their own unique offensive or defensive capabilities around a house in order to stop a horde of zombies from reaching their house. The playing field is divided into five to six horizontal lanes, and with

rare exceptions, a zombie will only move towards the player's house along one lane, the main exception as if it has bitten a garlic, causing it to move to another lane. Planting costs sun, which can be gathered for free, albeit slowly, during daytime levels, and by planting certain plants or fungi. Most plants can only attack or defend against zombies in the lane they are planted in. In later levels, players can purchase upgrades with different offensive and defensive abilities. The game uses several different level types and layouts. The game starts out in a front yard and progresses to nighttime levels, where the gameplay is more challenging without any replenishing sun unless specific plants are used.

Other levels feature the backyard with a pool added. The final levels are nighttime pool levels, where fog fills the right half of the screen except when specific plants are used. A lightning storm level in pitch black, except when illuminated by occasional flashes of lightning, and rooftop levels, on the final level, the player must face a huge robot operated by a mad scientist zombie

known as Dr. Zamboss. At set points throughout the game, the player is either worn through a letter by zombies or addressed by Crazy Dave to prepare for an ambush, where the game takes on a bowling style, using walnuts to bowl down zombies, or a modified version of regular levels, where random plant types come upon a small selection,

and the player can use the plants without spending sun. The player starts with a limited number of seed pack types and seed pack slots that they can use during most levels. The number of slots can be increased through purchases with in-game money. At the start of a level, the player is shown the various types of zombies to expect and given the opportunity to select which seed packs to take into the level. Several plants are nocturnal, such as mushrooms, have a lower sunlight cost, are ideal for nighttime levels. Certain plants are highly effective against specific types of zombies,

such as the magnet shroom, which can remove metallic items from a zombie, such as helmets, buckets, ladders, and pogo sticks. Plants may be placed on any available square of lawn, on lily pads floating in a pool, or in flower pods on a rooftop. These last two items may be chosen as a seed pack for their respective level types and deployed to increase the usable planting space. The zombies also come in a number of types that have different attributes, in particular, speed, damage tolerance, and abilities.

Zombies include those wearing makeshift armor, those who can jump or fly over plants, and a dancing zombie able to summon other zombies from the ground. At various points, the player will be inundated with a huge wave of zombies. If a zombie reaches the end of a lane, a lawnmower will shoot forward and destroy all the zombies in that lane. However, if a zombie reaches the end of that same lane for a second time, it will reach the player's house. When this happens, the music changes and the other plants and zombies stop moving while that zombie enters the house. Crunching sounds will be heard, accompanied by a scream and a message saying,

the zombies ate your brains. The game will then end and display the game over dialogue box, along with an option to return to the main menu at the upper right side of the screen. Game modes The primary game mode is adventure mode, in which the player can earn money to spend at an in-game store to buy new seed packets and other bonuses. There are also mini-games and puzzles.

In the Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, and Nintendo DS versions, there is also a co-op mode as well as two-player mini-games and a versus mode, but not in the Nintendo DS version. Adventure mode. The adventure mode consists of five different areas and 50 different area levels. Each area contains 10 levels. They are shown with the area number first, followed by the level number, i.e. 1-10, in the game. Each level in this mode has a certain amount of flags and one final wave.

The adventure mode is the first game mode and is also the main mode. Mini games are unlocked from here. Mini games. Mini games are unlocked during the adventure mode and are mostly for fun. Some of the mini games are inspired by earlier Pop-CAP games. Puzzles puzzles consist of 18 levels from two different modes, vase breaker, where you break vases that either contains a plant seed or a zombie,

and I-Zombie, where you create zombies to destroy cardboard cutouts of plants. On iOS and Android version, they also have a third mode called Last Stand, that's similar to the level with the same name from the mini-game mode, but with different zombies in each wave. Survival Survival is the second largest game mode in plants versus zombies It involves two difficulties as hard and normal and also has different areas Each normal round has five flags and each hard round has ten flags

It also has an endless streak level as the final level Survival is the last game mode in the game itself There is also a page of cancelled mini-games called the Limbo page, which can be accessed using the cheat engine. Zen Garden The game also features a Zen garden, where players can care for plants they previously purchased from Crazy Dave's Twittily-Dinkies. Players can also buy other Zen garden areas for different plants.

Fertilizer, water, and bug spray are necessary for a plant to grow. Plants will only grow when the game has been running for enough time. Development. Concept. Plants v. Zombies Director George Fan intended on balancing the game between a gritty game and a sickeningly cute game. Strong strategic elements were included to appeal to more experienced gamers while keeping it simple to appeal to casual gamers without needing too many tutorials. He was inspired to make it a tower defense game after both thinking of a more defense-oriented version of a previous title of his. in San Aquarium, and playing some Warcraft 3 tower defense mods. While he was looking at the towers in Warcraft 3,

he felt that plants would make good towers. He wanted to bring something new to the genre with plants versus zombies, and he found common tower defense game play elements such as mazing and juggling to be too awkward, causing him to use the five and six lane setups that were used in the final version. The game was initially going to be called weedlings, but as the tower defense concept took off and the personality of the game as a whole evolved, the title was later changed.

Originally, enemies were going to be aliens from Insan Aquarium, but while sketching concept art, fan drew a sketch of what he considered the perfect zombie, and the theming was reworked for plants to be fending off zombies. George Fan included elements from the trading card game, Magic the Gathering, which he had played with his girlfriend, Lara Shigihara. Showing her how to customize their card decks inspired him to design plants versus zombies with seed packets, rather than his original idea of using a conveyor belt that produced randomly selected plants due to the greater complexity of the seed packet method.

While the conveyor belt idea was dropped from the more common game mode, it remained as a special element in select levels. Another influence on plants versus zombies besides Warcraft 3 and Incent Aquarium was Tapper, crediting the use of five lanes to this game. Various members of Pop-Cap games contributed to the development of plants versus zombies through an internal forum where they gave feedback. Some of the characteristics that defined in San Aquarium influenced the development of plants versus zombies. Players advance in a similar pace by receiving new plants. Also, the way plants are chosen at the beginning of each level

was derived from the way pets are chosen in Insanacquiv. Other inspiration for the game's mechanics came from the film Swiss Family Robinson, especially where the family defends against pirates. This was the inspiration for the potato mine. Fans stated that it was satisfying to watch a zombie step on the mine, being defeated and covered in mashed potatoes. Design The team wanted to bring back the aliens from Insan Aquarium,

but in the end they were changed to zombies, which players could react to more easily because of how slowly they moved. George's favorite zombie was the pole-vaulting zombie, due to the hilarity involved when a player encounters it for the first time, using a specific example where a player tries to block it with the walnut, only to have the zombie jump over it. During development, it was discovered that newcomers to the genre of real-time strategy may have a hard time learning the concept behind Sun Collectors.

So the price of the income generating sunflowers was dropped from 100 to 50 to encourage players to buy them over the attacking pea-shooter. As a result, the balance between plants and zombies had to be restructured, a move that fans said was definitely worth the effort. Programmers focused on adventure mode for much of the first year of development. Upon finishing some items ahead of schedule, one of the programmers, Todd Semple, began working on ideas that would later be used for the mini-game section. Some ideas for the puzzle mode section would later be tweaked and moved into adventure mode. Facebreaker and I-Zombie, for example, came from single-level minigame concepts. During testing, Fan found that minigame and puzzle modes seemed to detract from the focus on

adventure mode, so some of the additional modes and mini-games were locked, requiring advancement with adventure mode to become unlocked. Fan stated that every game he worked on had only him designing the prototype, adding that he used to draw a lot before he made games, where he made pixel art. The final designs of the zombies and the first plants are similar to how they were initially. After searching for an artist, they discovered Rich Werner, who fans thought clicked with what he intended for the design. He attributed the intrigue of the design to its animation scheme. Todd Semple suggested that they animate it in flash and export it into the game. Fan worried that this would look like it was cut out from paper

and would resemble South Park too much, but was satisfied in the end attributing this to Simple and Werner's talents. Fan was most proud of the Tallnut, Torchwood, and Cobb Cannon Plants. He explained that the Tallnut has character, citing its determined game, and how it sheds a single tear when hurt. Lara Shigihara could not stand to see this and protected it with a protective plant called a pumpkin, which can protect plants inside it.

He felt that the torchwood, which gives pea-shooter's flaming ammunition, required players to think of how plants interacted with each other. Another favorite plant of fans was the squash, due to how its name suggested its purpose, to squash things. A plant was proposed, that is similar to the defensive item umbrella leaf, which would be planted above other plants to protect them from bungee zombies and catapult zombies.

However, it was difficult to visualize their positions. Cultural References Plants versus Zombies uses many cultural references in its names of stages and others. The gravestones' inscription, expired, ceased to exist, just resting, etc. were taken from Mondi Python's Dead Parrot Sketch. Three of the mini-games, Zombiequarium, Beguld, and Beguld Twist

take their names from two other Pop-Cap games, in San Aquarium, Bejewed, and Bejeweled Twist, respectively. Two levels in Vacebreaker puzzles, Scary Potter and Ace of Vace, took their names from Harry Potter and Ace of Base. Similarly, the iZombie, a reference to Isaac Asimov's iRobot puzzles, have levels called Dead Zeppelin, resembling Led Zeppelin, and All Your Brains Are Belonged to Us. A play on the gaming meme, All Your Base Are Belonged to Us. The name of the Torchwood plant is a reference to Doctor Who and its spin-off show Torchwood. Originally, the dancing zombie resembled Michael Jackson from the short film thriller, though the Jackson-inspired zombie was present at the game before Jackson's death. The estate of Michael Jackson objected to its inclusion more than a year after his death.

Popcap agreed to remove the Jackson-inspired zombie and replaced it with a more generic disco dancing one for all future patches and releases of the game. A disclaimer in the game's almanac states, any resemblance between dancing zombie and any person's living or dead is purely coincidental. Some Plants v. Zombies' advertisements parody controversial Evony ads, showing a drooling zombie instead of a voluptuous woman. A planned name was Lon of the Dead, a pun on the title of the George A. Romero zombie film, Don of the Dead.

For legal reasons, it was changed to Plants v. Zombies. It spent three years in development and was released for the PC on May 5th, 2009. Since it was released, it has been released for multiple platforms, including PlayStation 3's PlayStation Network, Xbox 360s Xbox Live Arcade Digital Distribution Service, Nintendo DS, Android, and iOS. Plants v. Zombies itself was referenced in the passing campaign of Valve's fellow zombie game Left for Dead 2. in which the player can stumble upon in-game graffiti attributed to the character of Crazy Dave. A five-level quest chain culminating in a quest entitled Lawn of the Dead and the massively multiplayer online game World of Warcraft Cataclysm is based on plants versus zombies, using Warcraft elements to recreate the gameplay.

Blizzard Entertainment had contacted Pop Cap about the inclusion, and Laura Shigihara was able to record some new music for the game. the Warcraft version of the game. Characters Crazy Dave David Blazing, known within the game as Crazy Dave, serves as a narrator and an instructor during adventure mode, introducing the player to certain levels

and explaining some of the mini-games and bonus levels. He is later abducted by a bungee zombie on level 5-10, right before he can tell the player Dr. Zamboss's weaknesses and reappears during Sunflower's rendition of Zombies on Your Lawn after Dr. Zomboss's defeat at the end of the game. He has a shop known as Crazy Dave's Twitty-Dinkies that he runs from the back of his car once the player finds his car keys after Level 3-4. He sells several plant upgrades, extra defenses, and Zen Garden items. Crazy Dave's notable features include a rugged beard and a pot always worn on his head,

as well as his signature babbling speech. Dr. Zombos Dr. Edgar George Zombos is the main antagonist and the leader of the zombies in Plans v. Zombies and reappears in the sequel, Plants v. Zombies 2. It's about time. He is battled on the night roof during level 5-10 as the final boss in Plants v. Zombies.

The name Zombos is a portmanteau of the words zombie and boss, meaning zombie boss. while the Zombot, the machine used by Dr. Zamboss, and the game is the portmanteau of the words zombie and robot, meaning zombie robot. His middle name, George, is after the name of the game's creator, George Fan. Soundtrack The soundtrack for Plants v. Zombies was composed by Laura Shigihara.

It borrows elements from the pop music genre as well as console chip tunes. Before the inception of Plants v. Zombies, director George Fan asked Laura if she would like to compose the music for his next title after following her for some years. She accepted owing to his creativity. Shigihara described the music as macabre yet goofy. Using the night stage as an example, she used a combination of big band and swing beats with several haunting and serious melodies. The songs Loon Boone and Brainiac Maniac were written towards the end of the production. The song Ultimate Battle also appears in the game Melaloon.

She stated that these were reactionary songs that she wrote to fit the feel of the game after having played through it twice. She tried to make the game have a Danny Elfman feel to it while mixing in melodic tunes and funky beats. She describes a song early in the game, which uses marching and percussion and swing beats. She described another one which used techno beats and organic sounds. Shigihihara also composed and performed the music video shown during the credits of the game, titled Zombies on Your Lawn. Reception

Plants v. Zombies has received a positive reception from critics, garnering an aggregate score of 87 out of 100 from Metacritic and an 88% from game rankings. IGN editor Andy J. Colossi commented that it featured a lot more content than other games in the genre, as well as praising its addictive nature. However, the DS version was criticized for its lower quality graphics and expensive price point. GameSpot editor Chris Waters praised the design of the plants and zombies, as well as the visuals and its overall value. However, he found fault in the learning curve. Oneup.com editor Alice Liang found the game enjoyable, commenting that the lawnmowers that protect the left side of the screen strikes a good balance between ease of use and in-depth gameplay. Edge's review praised pop-cap games for adding an imaginative touch to every little detail of the game.

He also credited them for taking the tower defense genre and making it their own. Lara Shigihara's music video also received praise, with Hatfield attributing his interest in the game to the video. Leang also praised the song, asking how anyone could not want Plants v. Zombies after seeing the video. To date, Plans v. Zombies is the fastest-selling video game created by Pop-Cap games. Plans v. Zombies, director George Fan, estimated that half of the game sales are from hardcore gamers. According to PopCap, the iOS release of Plants V. Zombies sold more than 300,000 copies in the first nine days it was available on the App Store, generating more than $1 million in gross sales, and considered it the top-grossing iPhone launch.

Awards Plants v. Zombies has been nominated for the casual game of the year and outstanding achievement in game design, Interactive Achievement Awards from the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences. The game received nominations in Best Game Design, Innovation, and Best Download Game for the Game Developers' Choice Awards. Plants v. Zombies was picked by Game Zebo as one of the best games of 2009. Legacy A version of the game was added in patch 4.0.3A of World of Warcraft, which used similar mechanics as an homage to the popularity of the game. A reward of a non-combat pet singing sunflower is given to those who can beat the mini-game.

The success of the game has led to the creation of plants versus zombies lottery tickets. Since the game was partially inspired by the Magic the Gathering card game, a magic card called Grave Bramble has been released in the Innestrade expansion. It is a plant with a protection from zombies ability. Zen Pinball 2 for Wii U, PlayStation 3, and PSV, Vida and Penball FX2 on Xbox 360 features a Plans versus Zombies pinball table. Sequels and spin-offs. In late 2012, Pop Cap announced that they were working on a sequel to Plants v. Zombies.

However, the game's status was in doubt shortly after the announcement when the company went through a period of layoffs, which included series creator George Fan. Plants v. Zombies 2, It's About Time, released August. August 15, 2013, has a free-to-play title and was a time-limited exclusive title for iOS systems before moving to Android later that year. In May 2013, the Facebook Game Plants v. Zombies Adventures was released by developer Pop Cap Games and publisher Electronic Arts. The gameplay is a tower defense game. Players no longer had to defend a single home in front of the zombie horde and could travel to new locations and engage.

with new characters. On July 14, 2014, it was announced that Plans v. Zombies Adventures with closed down on October 12, 2014. The Facebook game was removed by November 2014. In 2014, Plants v. Zombies Guard and Warfare, a multiplayer third-person shooter based on Plants v. Zombies, was released for Xbox 1, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 4. On May 5, 2015, it was revealed by electronic arts that a new Plants v. Zombies game would be released in Q1, 2016. EA. CEO Andrew Wilson said that the upcoming game would be a follow-up to Garden Warfare and that it would be a bigger and bolder console experience.

In June 2015, Plans v. Zombies' Garden Warfare 2 was announced at Microsoft's E3 press conference by Peter Moore. It was made available on the market on February 23, 2016. Since 2013, Dark Horse Comics published an ongoing series of official tie-in comics to the games in the Plans v. Zombies series, starring a boy named Nate and Crazy Dave's niece Patrice. The comic stories are written by Paul Tobin and drawn by various artists for some stories. The books are available in paper form and in a digital format in the Plants v. Zombies comics app, available on iOS and Android devices. On March 10, 2016, PopCab revealed Plants v. Zombies Heroes, which is a card game in the series.

It was soft released to certain countries on the same day and was fully released internationally on October 18, 2016. In early 2019, a Chinese article confirmed that a third title in the Plants v. Zombies' Garden Warfare series would be coming out as 24 playtesters were invited to EA to test the game out. In this article, 20 classes are available, 10 for each side. It was also confirmed that Xbox would support split screen, though other consoles are not confirmed to have this feature.