Plants vs. Zombies/Concepts

This page records beta content of Plants vs. Zombies. There are unused graphics, texts and mini-games that still remain in the game's coding. There are also earlier ideas for the game. These concepts began production in 2007.

Early names
Before the game came out, PopCap came up with many different names for it, but ultimately Plants vs. Zombies was chosen. The scrapped names still were reused later.

Concept art
As seen in earlier concept art for the game, the player was going to fight against aliens rather than zombies. This concept is used from another PopCap game, Insaniquarium.

Some sketches show plants that did not appeared in the final version. It also suggests that Jalapeno was going to be bound to the ground.

Unused text
Most of the text is stored in main.pak/properites/LawnStrings.txt.


 * Dog Walking Zombie, Dog Zombie and Propeller Zombie were going to appear in the game, but were taken out and there are no sprites for them but artwork.
 * Shovels had to be recharged before it could be used again.
 * There was going to be a Vasebreaker level called "Vasebreaker Facebreaker."
 * Survival Mode was going to be available from a present item but now it is unlocked after beating Adventure Mode for first time.
 * There is a Mysterious Vase that unlocks Vasebreaker mode but in the final game, unlocking puzzle mode also unlocks I, Zombie and Vasebreaker mode.

Trivia

 * The unused zombie vase makes its debut Plants vs. Zombies 2 using a different design and color.

Unused plants and zombies
Rich Werner's (artist of Plants vs. Zombies) concept art on his site shows unused plants, zombies or some early designs. Some of the unused plants later appeared in Plants vs. Zombies: All Stars, showing that Popcap did not forget about them.

Trivia

 * Most of the unused plants make it into Plants vs. Zombies All Stars.
 * The concept of Garlic makes him look like a vampire, due to vampires having a weakness to garlic.
 * The boy and girl zombies may be a reference to Hansel and Gretel.
 * The concept of Buckethead Zombie may explain the final version's red stain on its bucket.
 * In one of Chomper's concepts, he appears to be made with 3D animation software.

Earlier gameplay
As seen in earlier screenshots of game, Snow Pea was going to cost 200 sun, Tangle Kelp was going to be a ground plant, and plants were given via conveyor style, but the player still needed sun to plant them. Possibly, players were going to select the rating of getting plants on the conveyor belt.

Also, in October 2007 when the name was "Lawn of the Dead", the progress bar was shorter, the Sunflower cost 100 sun, the sun amount was near the right side of the screen, the lawn was zoomed in more, the lawnmowers were closer to the grass, and Potato Mine cost 50 sun instead of 25 sun and was bigger, as wide as a grass tile. Like the Snow Pea, Chomper originally cost 200 sun, and in an Ice World the Wall-nut cost 75 sun.

Limbo Page


The Limbo Page is a hidden amount of data in the GOTY version of Plants vs. Zombies that contains ten mini-games, along with four variations on Survival: Endless, that were going to be added to the game, but were eventually cancelled. It is possible to access this page via using third-party memory editing programs such as Cheat Engine and changing specific data values.

Removed achievements
These achievements were originally intended for İOS version, but were removed. They are still hidden in the coding for the game.
 * Disrespect The Dead - Remove 10 graves during a single nighttime level.
 * Heavy Weapons - Complete Last Stand using only Cob Cannons to kill zombies.
 * Zen Profit - Earn a total of 100,000 coins through your Zen Garden.
 * May Not Contain Nuts - Defeat a nighttime level without using Wall-nuts or Tall-nuts.
 * Even Morticulturalist - Use every Plant at least once.
 * Beat It - Defeat a Dancing Zombie before he summons Backup Dancers.
 * Gold Farmer - Plant 5 Marigolds and a Gold Magnet in a single level.
 * Face To Face - Complete a level with Digger Zombies without any of them reaching the left side of your lawn.

Ice Area
An ice themed area was made as of popularity Zombie Bobsled Team. Yeti Zombie was supposed appear here as a regular zombie. Still, there is data for ice level.

Post-release
After the game was released, a Plants vs Zombies soundtrack was released afterwards. In the soundtrack, it included an unused soundtrack originally designed for the battle with Dr. Zomboss. It was not included in the final release because the "intense" parts of the track weren't long enough to sustain the entire Dr. Zomboss battle, but portions of it are scattered through out the game's released songs.