I was a little concerned about being sidetracked or letting things take longer than they should, procrastinating at times when I don’t feel inspiration. There was at least a year where I was totally independent and working on what ended up being Plants vs. Zombies. So I ended up leaving Blizzard to go independent for a while. I think I have a good design sense, but sometimes it’s pretty tough for me to communicate design ideas. My wrists got really, really messed up that year, so I’m glad I’ve made it through and released Insaniquarium, but I don’t think anyone should do it that way. I was ecstatic, as I had been a Blizzard fan my whole life, and I got offers from both Blizzard and PopCap.
Games made by George Fan
I was thinking that it would be, instead of a one fish tank game, it would be twice the fish tank. It was a tough decision for me because there was a big part of me that wanted to stay independent and work on games that way. I really liked the idea of doing the same thing I did for Insaniquarium, which was an independent company making a game.
At the time I was working at an online games company, and as part of my job I felt I had to do research on competing companies. Prior to joining PopCap Games, Fan had a prototype for a Java game about a fish tank where aliens attack it. Because he was a freelance video game designer at the time, Fan was forced to do a majority of the programming and designing of Insaniquarium, along with composing some of the music.
At the time, Fan was looking for a job at Blizzard Entertainment. At the finalist booth at Game Developers Conference 2002 (GDC 2002), PopCap Games offered Fan help in making Insaniquarium a downloadable game. Fan entered the game into the 2002 Independent Games Festival, to which it became a finalist for. Fan wanted to create a game «that’s easy to get into, yet unfolds into something much deeper.» Flying Bear Entertainment published it on August 31, 2001, as a free Java-based online game called Insaniquarium.
But at that point I was like, «Okay, we’re safe now,» because no one is going to make a plant game with zombies in it. The second step was born of me not wanting to make a game that blended in with everything else. One really big mod was tower defence, back when tower defence wasn’t as ubiquitous as it is now. The bottom tank was going to be more like Insaniquarium 1; it was going to be the resource generator tank. I’m not the type who just wants to do the same game again, so for Insaniquarium 2 I was thinking about the dual screens. I think it’s really useful because everyone in the company can play and-
They were aliens because they were the same aliens that were originally from Insaniquarium, but they decided instead that they wanted to eat veggies instead of fish. I felt like my game wouldn’t stand out enough, so that’s when my adversary changed from aliens to zombies. I started working on this plant defence game, and then all these games started coming out in the casual games space about gardening, planting plants and greenhouses. I was playing WarCraft 3 and really getting into all the custom games that were coming out. The top fish tank was going to be more focused on having defensive fish and depth charges and whatnot, and was basically going to be a defence tank. They would come in hordes and would attack your top fish tank and if they broke through that, they would get to your bottom fish tank.
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The concept was that these fish tanks were going to stack on top of each other. When you’re independent, you’re your only motivator a lot of the time. I found that working in a smaller team was a better fit for me, and had all these games inside of me that I wanted to make and I don’t think Blizzard was the place to do that. Insaniquarium was released in 2004 and it wasn’t that long after I’d finished, when I was only allowed to work at Blizzard, that I discovered that I was more of a designer than a programmer. So I sent an email telling them, «Hey, great job on those games.» I think John Vechey rang me back. I stumbled upon PopCap and thought, “These games are all really good.” I think back then they had Bejeweled, Money Maze and Seven Seas.
George Fan and his cat on the making of Plants vs. Zombies
- He designed Insaniquarium (2001), Plants vs. Zombies (2009; which started the video game franchise of the same name), Octogeddon (2018), and Hardhat Wombat (2023).
- They were aliens because they were the same aliens that were originally from Insaniquarium, but they decided instead that they wanted to eat veggies instead of fish.
- The first video game he designed was the puzzle game, Wrath of the Gopher, released in 2001.
- Because he was a freelance video game designer at the time, Fan was forced to do a majority of the programming and designing of Insaniquarium, along with composing some of the music.
- After the enemies were changed from aliens to zombies, the game was renamed Plants vs. Zombies.
PopCap set Fan up with a team consisting of Tod Semple, Rich Werner, and Laura Shigihara, who each filled the role of programmer, artist, and composer respectively; Fan would also voice the game’s tutorial character, named «Crazy Dave» after David Rohrl, himself. Fan wanted to bring new concepts to the tower defense genre and found enemies ignoring the defensive structures unintuitive, which led to the use of lanes. However, after playing Warcraft III tower defense mods, he wondered if plants could make good defensive structures. Fan eventually became inspired by his project Insaniquarium and Warcraft III mods to create a new game. Fan tried to become a designer at Blizzard, though found it hard to persuade other employees to his ideas, leading him to conclude that he preferred to work in smaller teams. He was tasked with programming AI and designing enemies for Diablo III during this time.
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He designed Insaniquarium (2001), Plants vs. Zombies (2009; which started the video game franchise of the same name), Octogeddon (2018), and Hardhat Wombat (2023). In 1987, the Air Max 1 debuted with visible Air technology in its heel, allowing fans more than just the feel of Air cushioning—suddenly they could see it. For regulated payment services, Frasers Group Financial Services Limited is a payment agent of Transact Payments Limited, a company authorised and regulated by the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission as an electronic money institution.
At the time, I was looking for a job and I also got an offer from Blizzard. We met up there and found that we have similar ideals, and they offered to help me make Insaniquarium as a downloadable game. Today I’m speaking to George Fan, the designer of Plants vs. Zombies. George Fan’s latest work is Plants vs. Zombies Adventures which was released 12 years ago. All Yes Good is the indie game studio from George Fan, the creator of Plants vs Zombies.
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The game was also released for Palm OS and Windows Mobile phones and personal digital assistants on August 6, 2008. The game sold 20 million copies on the PC by April 2006, and was released for mobile phones by Glu Mobile in the United States on April 13, 2006, and in Europe on June 29, 2006. In 2001, Fan and Tysen Henderson founded Flying Bear Entertainment in California to work on a virtual pets video game project named FishTank. While researching Java games, Fan discovered PopCap Games and took a liking to their game library. Fan said to Chris Carter, editor-in-chief of Destructoid, that before creating Wrath of the Gopher, he was unsure of whether or not he could be a game designer. After graduating, he worked under Arcade Planet to develop games for their website, Prizegames.com.
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The first video game he designed was the puzzle game, Wrath of the Gopher, released in 2001. George Fan (born 1978) is an American video game designer who currently works as the creative director of All Yes Good. Fan’s first published game was Insaniquarium released in 2001. I think that’s the best way to make games, creating the art and gameplay together. It was never meant to be a tower defence game, it was meant to be Plants vs Zombies.
After a warm reception at a game jam, George and Andy decided to put their minds together to bring you Hardhat Wombat! All Yes Good is the indie game studio started by George Fan, the creator of Plants vs. Zombies. Fan did not help develop Plants vs. Zombies 2 and had only affected the game on a conceptual level. He preferred to work independently, and did not join a single studio for a year. George Fan is the main designer of Plants vs. Zombies and the creator of the Plants vs. Zombies franchise. Fan served as the designer, Werner served as the artist, and Pfeffer served as the programmer for Octogeddon.
- The 2012 theme was «evolution»; Fan designed Octogeddon to fit that theme by having the octopus gain weaponized limbs over time.
- George Fan’s first game was Plants vs. Zombies which was released 16 years ago.
- When they ate all your fish in the bottom fish tank the game would be over.
- However, after playing Warcraft III tower defense mods, he wondered if plants could make good defensive structures.
- George Fan’s latest work is Plants vs. Zombies Adventures which was released 12 years ago.
The game was met with positive reception in the jam, inspiring Fan to work on the game more. The 2012 theme was «evolution»; Fan designed Octogeddon to fit that theme by having the octopus gain weaponized limbs over time. Fan was laid off during this time after months of discussion from PopCap’s management team. James Gwertzman, the vice president of the Asia/Pacific division of PopCap, revealed in a presentation at GDC China 2010 that the game had sold 1.5 million copies internationally. A critical aspect of developing was designing the game to be balanced between casual and hardcore gaming.
Pulling inspiration from two icons – the Air Max 180 and Air Max 93 – the Nike Air Max 270 is named after the 270 degrees of visibility in its air unit. After that, George Fan took part as the designer of Insaniquarium Deluxe. So, yeah, I did start out with a sketchbook, just sketching plants and, back then it was aliens, and whenever I would be programming, I would open up that sketchbook. Ideally someone who doesn’t even know English could play the game, because it would just be so reinforced by the visuals. One of the draws with Plants vs. Zombies, definitely the goal I try to shoot for, is that the art would support the gameplay. From that day on it was a game that gave the bad guys equal billing, or equal importance.
PopCap Games are the creators of Bejeweled, Peggle and Plants vs. Zombies, each of them one of the biggest and most lovable games on PC. George Fan’s first game was Plants vs. Zombies which was released 16 years ago. It quickly became the best-selling video game developed by PopCap Games. He became a full-time employee for PopCap Games after they convinced him that joining them would help him make the best game. After the enemies were changed from aliens to zombies, the game was renamed Plants vs. Zombies. It was not long after Insaniquarium was released that Fan realized that he was more of a designer than a programmer.
Fan then developed Hardhat Wombat, which was released on October 26, 2023. Fan formed a developing company named All Yes Good with Rich Werner and Kurt Pfeffer and developed Octogeddon further before releasing it in 2018. Upon release in 2009, it became the best-selling game developed by PopCap. He became a full-time employee for PopCap, who supplied Fan with a team. Before going into game design, Fan graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2000 with a degree in computer science.
Fan was laid off by PopCap Games in August 21, 2012 in a studio shutdown, due to him agreeing to make independent games instead of making sequels. Octogeddon was released on February 8, 2018, for the video game digital distribution service, Steam. He formed the indie video game company, All Yes Good, along with Werner — the artist for Plants vs. Zombies — and Kert Pfeffer — the programmer of the Xbox 360 port of Plants vs. Zombies. He later clarified in an AMA on Reddit that while he disagreed with the freemium model of Plants VS Zombies 2, he was not fired over this belief and that he preferred to develop independent games with smaller teams. The enemies, though initially planned to be aliens from Insaniquarium, became zombies to make the game distinctive from other plant games. Fan left Blizzard to become an independent game designer for a year.