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Ars Technica has posted a new article about the origins of PopCap Games' Plants vs. Zombies. As revealed in the article, the game began as a sequel to Insaniquarium before ending up as a casual tower defense title.

What many gamers don't realize is that Plants vs. Zombies started out as a sequel to Insaniquarium, a strategy game that involves growing an aquarium's population while simultaneously protecting the fishes from an alien invasion. PopCap recently shared some original concept sketches for with us, and the evolution from sequel to fully original title is fascinating.

According to the game's creator, George Fan, the development team wanted to create a game that was pretty different from Insaniquarium. "We knew we wanted to significantly change up the gameplay for the sequel," he said, "and [we were] leaning toward it to being more defense-oriented than the first Insaniquarium. During that time I was also playing a lot of tower defense games in Warcraft III, and realized that they had this innate appeal that made me think of fond childhood memories like building forts out of sofa cushions and watching Swiss Family Robinson. I really wanted to capture that appeal, and once I realized that plants and zombies made a much better theme for this game than fish and aliens, I shifted from creating a sequel into creating a whole new game."

Ars Technica: PvZ Origins

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