How I Got My Mom to Play Through Plants vs. Zombies

In this 2012 GDC session, PopCap's George Fan walks through how he managed to get his Mom to play video games through the development of Plants Vs Zombies while still embracing the wants and needs of classic gamers.
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[@clearsky4049]

Here from Ben Brode's "Designing 'MARVEL SNAP'" GDC session

[@quintencabo]

Making the sunflower 50 is genius

[@JoeVirella]

It’s genius to the point it could be applied to real economies as well.

[@SOAPGames]

18:12 George: You aren't gonna beat the game without sunflowers. Shyguymask: Are you challenging me?

[@DaddyMarcos]

This is probably the best gdc talk ever made

[@LazarheaD]

The heart and soul of PopCap. It will never be as good without him.

[@KraylebStudios]

George is talking about spacing out mechanics and plants and optional stuff and I'm laughing as I recall PvZ 2

[@Mike-wu7ie]

that's what happens when the game is handed off to people who don't care

[@KraylebStudios]

@@Mike-wu7ie Yeah, PopCap really dropped the ball after Modern Day... hell, I'd argue after Lost City

[@Swidsinski]

The old Command and Conquer games taught the players in a similar way: First Mission move your troops around. Second Mission build a simple base. After that they added basically one new unit to both factions and let you experiment with that. Diablo II did a very good job in that regard too.

[@gulfgiggleanimations4472]

46:27 Paper Mario actually does have enemies like this, most notably the Jr. Troopa rematch in shiverside. Since he has both spikes and wings, you need to find a way to hurt him without using the basic hammer or jump attacks, for example, using Starstorm, an attack item, the hammer throw badge, or even some of your partner's attacks. It's one of my favorite moments in the game, I love enemies like this, like in Spyro how there's big enemies you have to flame, and armored enemies you need to charge, but there's also big armored enemies that you need to find a different way to defeat the enemy, finding a gap in the armor to flame or using a powerup. It's such a fun way to turn the enemy design on its head.

[@thurasoe3083]

One of the best GDC talks in game design. Thanks for the insights and thought you'd put in creating this artistic game. Very impressive.

[@zachwhaley208]

This along with the Hearthstone GDC talk are by far the best I've heard. Excellent job.

[@Avecit_]

and now the Marvel Snap one is a great addition to that list!

[@joshsanchez9793]

enjoyed every second of this

[@Cloud7050]

"I dunno who's this" → "Oh cool he made PvZ!" → "He also made Insaniquarium?!" Curious how he feels about EA's microtransaction-infested PvZ 2 now...

[@lyrebird5982]

he was fired from EA when after trying to make the game a one time purchase

[@AuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuA]

@@lyrebird5982 Microtransaction was Pop-Cap's idea George Fan either left by himself or was fired during a mass firing.

[@devanshmishra3434]

can't believe this is free!!

[@lamegamertime]

My mom played it on her own.

[@zomboyagegaming6356]

wait you're here too

[@lamegamertime]

@@zomboyagegaming6356 Well, of course.

[@theunbearables]

this guy also made insaniquarium? very cool!

[@Hchris101]

2012

[@maxmustsleep]

is there a reason why this is picture (content) in picture (grey background) in picture (black surroundings) instead of making the source fit the video (picture in picture)

[@nex]

Looks like a mistake in creating the KZbin version. The original video is just the grey area, which is 16:9. However, other GDC videos from the early 2010s were still produced in old-school 4:3 format - mostly 16:9 content letterboxed with black borders. It's OK to use this picture without further modification when creating DVDs from SD content. Publishing that same file to the web-site without cropping off the borders is rather sub-optimal for viewers with wide screens, who now get letterbox borders within pillarbox borders. A web developer tasked with putting the DVD version online could have made some excuses for going this route that aren't completely idiotic ... but not exactly good, so I won't go into them. Converting that content back to 16:9 by hard-coding the pillarbox-around-the-letterbox is lazy, if not idiotic. What's curious about this one is that when you compare the width of the grey box to the height of the 1080p video, you get a 3:2 frame instead of 4:3. At least this results in the black border being less annoyingly thick - I somehow managed to watch the whole thing without noticing the black border. I'm sure this problem will go away with newer videos, but if you see it again on KZbin, check gdcvault.com - chances are the video there will be formatted better.

[@sunovn.]

genius

[@delirium1326]

This guy is a genius but how can he like a well done steak? 🤨😂

[@Molimo95]

i like how he compares non-gamers to preschoolers.

[@jacobshirley3457]

The funny thing is this metaphor also works on intelligent gamers.

[@that1toad64]

somehow I'm here from the caretaker :troll:

[@fshiruba]

"try to make the tutorials without telling the player what to do, its better to DO IT than READ ABOUT IT", 10 minutes later: "we decided to write on screen what the player has to do, its better that way"

[@nex]

Please elaborate? I re-watched a few minutes to either side of 16:00 (i.e. "10 minutes later") and didn't notice anything like "writing what to do is better".

[@RetroDawn]

He said the reason not to just have a passive msg for this was to ensure that the player didn't miss it and actually did it, so they learned how and why to use it.

[@AuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuA]

When he says "read about it" he means reading about it in some "Info" button that's just text and images.

[@kuronosan]

Maybe she's from one of those cultures that embalms the dead, props them up in the living room, and swears up and down that they's still alive, just very quiet.

[@aerodylluk2543]

That's cute, I got my mum to play through Dark Souls 2...

[@BucketIHead]

He is the Messiah

[@voneror]

I personally don't like blending tutorial and gameplay. It kills replayability and some games are just too complex to be learned this way.

[@ZoidbergForPresident]

Blending tutorial with the main game means that: that the tutorial parts ARE already the game. If players can see your tutorial in your game, YOU are doing it wrong. Replay some Portal, will you? Then come back and post the percentage of tutorial this game is. If you answer less than 75%, then you don't get it. :P

[@voneror]

My argument is that: if tutorial is part of main game, then it will have to be replayed on every repeated playthrough. Game forcing player to learn by playing, is pointless if player already knows how to play. Portal is a bad example here since it has 0 replayability ouitside of speedruns.

[@ZoidbergForPresident]

@@voneror OK, firstly: if you manage to make a good tutorial, then replaying the game from the start will not pose any issue, because a good tutorial is skippable, and the whole part in this talk about the message specific to certain players depending on their actions is part of the solution. A good tutorial is there for the lost player and is invisible to the pro. Also, I wholeheartedly disagree about your argument on Portal, speedrunners DO play the game thousands of time, why discard it then? Because it tends to prove my point? When you see the game being speedran, it poses the runners absolutely NO issue whatsoever: they gladly skip any (very short) text displayed on screen and don't wait for GlaDOS to finish talking. They just run the game (usually under 10 minutes).

[@voneror]

"if you manage to make a good tutorial, then replaying the game from the start will not pose any issue, because a good tutorial is skippable" This is not the case in Portal. There is no way of skipping test chambers without glitching. "A good tutorial is there for the lost player and is invisible to the pro." Provide valid example (Portal objectively fails in this regard.) "Also, I wholeheartedly disagree about your argument on Portal, speedrunners DO play the game thousands of time, why discard it then? Because it tends to prove my point?" Portal is it is very static and predictable. Only dynamic and random element is the player. This qualities make it good for speedrunning, but impair standard replayability. "When you see the game being speedran, it poses the runners absolutely NO issue whatsoever: they gladly skip any (very short) text displayed on screen and don't wait for GlaDOS to finish talking." Without glitches it is impossible to leave first room before countdown ends. Speedrunning is about skipping content, so it is irrelevant to this discussion since if someone replays game is because they want more not less. edit:formating

[@ZoidbergForPresident]

@@voneror Yeah, whatever, this is getting nowhere. Let's just agree to disagree.

[@saintsalieri]

Writing is often more efficient and superior to tutorial levels. I find tutorial levels tedious. It causes some anxiety and uncertainty when game rules are just implied and need to be intuited. Just tell me in sentences how the game works and let me play the full experience quickly.