Chapter 21: Art and Music
After setting up the Adventure Mode, Chen Mo continued to focus his energy on other gameplay modes like the Mini-Games, Puzzle Mode, and Survival Mode.
With the foundation laid by Adventure Mode, these other modes were relatively easier, purely a matter of grunt work. Chen Mo didn't have to push himself as hard as before. Working and playing as he went, he finished all the other modes in less than a week.
Features like the Zen Garden, the Almanac, Achievements, and the Shop were even simpler, completed in just three days.
Finally, Chen Mo spent another three days testing everything. He played through the entire Adventure Mode, checked the other modes for unknown bugs, and tweaked a few details.
At this point, Chen Mo had worked day and night for over a month, finally completing the main body of *Plants vs. Zombies*.
In his previous life, *Plants vs. Zombies* was created by a team of one designer, one artist, one musician, and one programmer over three years. However, most of that time was spent constantly revising the design, optimizing the user experience, and polishing the game until it became the masterpiece it was.
For Chen Mo, he didn't need to write code, do extensive numerical balancing, or search for inspiration and redesigns. He was copying it outright, yet it still took him a month. This alone proves that game development is not as simple as most people imagine.
But this wasn't the finish line yet.
The gameplay was essentially complete, but all the art resources were free placeholder assets from the editor. The art styles were severely inconsistent, many models and original drawings were the wrong size, and the whole thing looked like a garbage heap. "Horrible" wouldn't even begin to describe it.
Moreover, the game had no music or sound effects at all. Playing it felt completely devoid of tension, and the sense of impact during combat was practically zero.
Chen Mo's next task was to elevate the art and music quality to the level of the previous life's version.
Fortunately, Chen Mo had already memorized the designs of the plants and zombies, and rough sketches were saved on his computer. The next step was to complete them. However, this process was painful. Chen Mo had to hand-draw everything and animate the movements himself.
Over forty types of plants and over twenty types of zombies, each with their own animations—this was a significant workload.
But thankfully, the original designs for these plants and zombies were relatively simple. Many zombie models could be reused, so it wasn't too overwhelming.
Chen Mo's current drawing skills weren't great, but since the game's art style was relatively cartoonish, with simple lines and color schemes, he could manage.
Of course, Chen Mo could have hired someone to do it, but he would have had to explain his requirements in detail to other artists, and he wasn't sure he'd be satisfied with the results. After thinking it over, he gritted his teeth and decided to do it all himself.
On average, Chen Mo could finish one plant and one zombie per day. Including interface elements, loading screens, and other resources, it took him nearly a month and a half to complete all the art assets.
Next came the music and sound effects.
After consuming the skill book, Chen Mo's music and sound effects skill was now at 10 points. Creating something from scratch was certainly impossible, but simply recreating classic background music was not difficult.
The background music of *Plants vs. Zombies* is also classic. Chen Mo still remembered many of the melodies clearly. While he couldn't achieve a 100% perfect reproduction, he could at least capture the spirit.
However, he couldn't recall the background music for some of the more obscure modes and systems.
The music for the tutorial, the preparation screen, the classic scene, the night scene, the boss battle, the Zen Garden... Chen Mo could still recall these classic tracks. He synthesized a few background music pieces based on the melodies from his previous life, managing to capture their essence.
For the less important background music, Chen Mo had to find some free resources from casual games in the editor. He chose tracks with a similar style, so they didn't feel too out of place.
As for sound effects, Chen Mo could only search the editor. Fortunately, the editor had a massive library of sound effects. As long as he had the patience to sift through them, he could always find something close enough.
The music and sound effects took another two weeks, and finally, Chen Mo was basically satisfied.
Chen Mo spent another week or so testing the game, playing it repeatedly and making minor adjustments to things he felt were off. In the end, the game was officially developed, taking a total of over three months.
Chen Mo packaged the tested game. The final installation package size was 127 MB, slightly larger than the previous life's version, but that didn't matter. This resource size was already considered very small for the parallel world's game industry.
Chen Mo prepared installation packages for two platforms: PC and mobile. Both could be downloaded and installed, account data could be shared, and there was a simple ranking feature.
The final step was the issue of which account players would use to log in.
Chen Mo didn't think twice and directly chose to use his own company's official account, the "Thunder Game Pass."
In reality, Chen Mo had other options. He could have allowed users to link their social media accounts or use the Imperial Dynasty Game Platform account.
Imperial Dynasty Interactive Entertainment was the largest distributor and developer in the country. Most players had an Imperial Dynasty game platform account.
Furthermore, Imperial Dynasty Interactive Entertainment allowed other games to use their platform account for linked login. Many designers, finding it troublesome, directly used the Imperial Dynasty game platform account.
Using this account would be very convenient for players, and Chen Mo's game would gain more users.
Many players are too lazy to re-register a pass, verify their phone number and ID. Even this step could cause player churn.
But Chen Mo still decided to use the "Thunder Game Pass," even if it meant sacrificing some user numbers.
The reason was simple. Whether he used social media accounts or the Imperial Dynasty game platform account, Chen Mo would be dependent on others. Even if the Imperial Dynasty game platform didn't take a single cent, it would still be a loss for Chen Mo.
This player data was an incredibly valuable asset. Chen Mo would develop many more games in the future, and he would inevitably have to go to war with these monopolistic distributors. It was better not to get too entangled with them from the start than to have a falling out halfway through.
The game was finished, but it couldn't be uploaded to the app store just yet.
Because Chen Mo wasn't sure if the tastes of players in the parallel world were the same as in his previous life. If there were differences, the game would need some adjustments.
Chen Mo installed *Plants vs. Zombies* on the computers and phones in his experience store, planning to first gauge the players' reactions before deciding on the game's subsequent promotion strategy.