Almighty Game Designer

Chapter 26: Unable to Stop Themselves from Killing Zombies

The zombies moved very slowly, and the cartoony zombies werent scary either, but Wen Lingwei felt quite tense. As the zombies slowly waddled towards the Peashooters, she couldnt help but feel a little nervous for them.

The Peashooters started shooting out peas. The popping of the peas on the body of the zombie filled her ears.

Soon after, the hand of the zombie fell off, and soon after that, the head fell off. The headless zombie fell to the ground, dead.

Wen Lingwei now managed to relax a bit, thinking, Is that all? That was easy. Just a casual game after all, not all that difficult.

However, this combination is quite interesting. How did you connect plants with zombies? And it manages to be oddly satisfying.

Soon thereafter, Wen Lingwei cleared the first level and unlocked a new tile: Sunflower, and moved onto the next level.

As long as the players actually tried, the first few levels werent difficult at all. Following the guide, Wen Lingwei progressed through the game, constantly unlocking new plants.

Sunflower, Cherry Bomb, Wallnut; the plants unlocked themselves one after another.

The combat abilities matched their features quite well, easily making deep impressions.

The plants, zombies, and even the weird neighbor Crazy Dave worked wonderfully with one another, making the game seem very complete, with nothing out of place.

Wen Lingwei felt that although it was a casual game, a lot of effort has been put into it, and slowly immersed herself in the game because of how interesting it was.

She couldnt stop herself as she progressed through adventure mode.

After some time had passed, a pop up showed up in the bottom right corner, hinting that she had five minutes left on the hour.

Wen Lingwei was shocked. So soon? She felt that she had only beaten a few levels. How did the time go by so quickly?

She didnt give it too much thought as she was having fun, she couldnt leave it go at this.

Wen Lingwei scanned the QR code and paid another ten bucks for another two hours of playtime.

Surely two hours was enough to beat a casual game?

Noon

Wen Lingwei took a sip of coffee and was ready to continue battling.

At this point of the game, she started facing some difficulties. Many plants crucial to beating the level were restricted, putting her out of her comfort zone.

Moreover, more and more zombies had appeared, such as the Pole Vaulting Zombie, Dancing Zombie, Newspaper Zombie, Screen Door Zombie, and so on. All of them required different plants to beat.

When Wen Lingwei faced the Zombies for the first time she had to start over because she wasnt familiar with the abilities of the Zombies.

However, these little obstacles didnt stop her. Instead it made this little game a lot more interesting and stimulating. Games like this that required critical thinking made her quite excited.

Unbeknownst to her, it was now noon.

Wen Lingwei subconsciously looked at her phone and was shocked to find out that it was now twelve-something.

Taking a look around, Chen Mo was still at the bar, completely absorbed by his laptop screen deep in thought.

Wen Lingwei raised her hand and said, Excuse me.

Chen Mo put his head up, Whats up? Is there a problem with the game?

Wen Lingwei said, No, I was just wondering if you provided lunch?

Chen Mo shook his head, No, but theres a restaurant and a fast food outlet across the street. You could probably order some food delivery.

Wen Lingwei blinked her large eyes, What are you having for lunch? How about you go buy something and buy me something too?

The corner of Chen Mos mouth twitched. What is the meaning of this? Ordering me around? Do I need to put up a sign saying to not order the owner around?

This experience store doesnt provide a meal delivery service. Moreover, you cant eat inside the store. If you want to eat you have to go to the meeting room, said Chen Mo.

Wen Lingwei asked, Where do you usually eat?

Chen Mo said, I usually eat on the second floor.

Wen Lingwei said, Then Ill eat on the second floor, too.

Chen Mo was speechless. The second floor is my personal space, no outsiders allowed.

Wen Lingwei pursed her lips and said, Stingy!

Chen Mo,

Wen Lingwei said, Alright then, could you get me something from the fast food outlet? Ill eat in the meeting room. Ill pay you after.

Chen Mo said, Cant you order it yourself?

Wen Lingwei said, Sheesh, cant you see Im busy? Hurry up, Im starving!

Finishing her sentence, Wen Lingwei returned her eyes onto the screen, continuing her battle.

-Nice, someone raised a internet addicted daughter-

Chen Mo didnt think Wen Lingwei would be addicted to it so quickly, even disregarding eating. As he was hungry anyways, he ordered two meals from the fast food restaurant.

Chen Mo got up from the bar and moved around to get his blood flowing again, and checked on which level Wen Lingwei had gotten to.

The screen was dark, it seemed like she had reached the night level on the second stage. The stronger Football Zombie now appeared as one of her potential opponents. It was obvious that Wen Lingwei had failed this level once and had made suitable preparations. As the Football Zombie appeared, she put down a bunch of plants in that lane, attempting to beat it with more firepower.

In the end, the Football Zombie was defeated, but the other lanes didnt have enough firepower and were overrun by zombies, resulting in a game over.

Ah! Damn it! Wen Lingwei took a sip of coffee and restarted the level.

Chen Mo couldnt help but laugh, as this was quite normal. As there were only so many suns to collect in each level, if you spent too many resources going face to face with the football zombie, the defences of the other lanes wouldnt be good enough.

In reality the best way to beat the Football Zombie was the Doom Shroom, though Chen Mo didnt plan to hint that to Wen Lingwei, as spoilers affected the gaming experience. It wasnt because her mean words were still on Chen Mos mind.

Seeing Wen Lingwei completely immersed allowed Chen Mo to relax a bit. It seemed that classics in this world still remained classics, and good games would always age well, so he wasnt too out of his element as a videogame designer.

Based on the current contents in the game, an experienced player would take about five hours to go through it once; going through it twice would total about eight hours.

If you included the other minigames and if you were extremely talented and borderline crazy, you could probably beat it in two days in one sitting.

Of course, you could play the endless mode for the rest of your life.

However, new players wouldnt be able to cruise through all the levels easily, like the more experienced players, as there was an experimental and learning phase.

Moreover, casual games didnt require big health sacrifices, like playing throughout the night. Playing two hours a day, including time for experimenting ,would result in about a month of playing.

Even if you beat all the levels, there was still endless mode to compete with your friends. It was basically an endless rabbit hole.

Therefore, Wen Lingwei thinking that she could beat the game in two hours could be described by Chen Mo in one word: naive!