If you hadn't heard from my older post, I am completely rebuilding Plants vs. Zombies Infected from the ground up, as it was messy and not turning out quite as I would have liked. As a result, this newer iteration of the game will improve greatly upon the game engine and make a far better experience.

Version 2.0.0 will most likely be released late October. Version 1.5.0 will still be left available, but no further updates to that build will be made. Additionally, a new Discord server will be operating at that time.

Here are all of the major changes that will come with version 2.0.0:

Heavy Cutbacks:

A large portion of content seen in version 1.5.0 will not appear in the newest version. Only plants, enemies, and levels from World 1 will return in this version. This is primarily why 1.5.0 will still be active, as some may want to see what may be reincorporated in future versions.

The cause for this is simply because of the overall recency of the new engine and the effort needed to add every feature from 1.5.0 into it. I want to prioritize high quality with the upcoming versions over high quantity.

Content not included extends to:

• Worlds 2, 3, and 4

• Plants beyond those associated with World 1 (with two exceptions)

• Enemies beyond World 1 (one exception exists, but is unused)

• All minigames and extra enemies and gimmicks associated with them (with three exceptions)

• Save data from versions 1.5.0 and older (specifically coins, diamonds, and trophies)

• Note that much of these features will return in future versions.

UI Enhancements:

The user interface is being modified to be generally more understandable and interesting. Changes include:

• Widescreen: The game has been changed from an aspect ratio of 4:3 to 16:9, fitting screen space, especially for mobile users.

• Level Selection: The level selection screen now features a world map with level icons, rather than a menu to change world and level.

• Seed Selection: The seed selection screen will show an interactive menu that sorts each seed packet by world and makes it much easier to select them, instead of pressing arrows to see each seed's Almanac entry and choosing select. Seeds can also be removed from the deck by tapping it in the deck or from the menu, instead of having to remove every seed prior to it. The Great Zucchini, originally implemented to tell the player what enemies will appear in a given level, has been removed and is going to be replaced by sprites of each enemy appearing on the far right until the player finishes selecting seeds.

• Availability: The game will be available to play directly in the browser rather than just being download-only. It will also be put onto Itch.io for further outreach.

Save Data:

Saving is no longer a Game Jolt user exclusive feature, but instead something that all users can do. There are local saves, and saves that can be made to Game Jolt's servers.

All save data follows a JSON format that only works for PvZ Infected and is easily readable.

Game Jolt saves still act like the old versions, requiring the user to log in with their account details in order to save and load the data. Local saves can be made by anyone and will download a JSON file containing the data for use offline.

Local saves can be modified easily thanks to the overall simplicity of the save data, allowing users to change their progress directly, if they wish to.

As stated, older data for coins, diamonds, and trophies are not compatible with the new version. These will most likely not get ported over due to the different standard the game was in as of 1.5.0.

Plants:

As stated, the vast majority of plants will not be in this version, however those that remain have been worked on to improve their functionality. The plants that will appear in this version of the game include:

• Peashooter

• Sunflower

• Wall-Nut

• Bonk Choy

• Potato Mine

• Repeater

• Cabbage-Pult

• Bi-Shooter

• Garlic

• Snow Pea

Unlike past versions, most of these plants will be locked and will require beating a level to unlock them. The seed packet will be darkened on the seed selection screen until unlocked.

The player will have up to six available seed slots to build their deck of plants from. "Special plants", as deemed by versions 1.5.0 and older, will not be available in this version. Should they get added, they will be regular seeds like the other plants and occupy the same slots.

Seed packets during levels have been moved to the left of the screen, rather than the top. Placing a plant down now uses floor-based rounding, making placements more accurate to where the player intends. A failed attempt to place a plant will not cause the seed packet to undergo its cooldown, and moving the mouse over multiple packets will not make those packets try to put a plant down on the same tile.

Plants now use an attack queue to check to see if they should attack. This is done to prevent multiple plants attacking on the same frame, causing projectile/damage sprites to spawn over on one plant instead of all of them.

Plants now use a slightly visible black box for collision detection with other plants/obstacles/damage sprites and spawn a separate visual sprite over it, making collision not sprite-dependent for those with larger graphics.

Enemies:

As stated, the vast majority of enemies will not be in this version, however those that remain have been worked on to improve their functionality. The enemies that appear in this version include:

• Basic Zombie

• Conehead Zombie

• Buckethead Zombie

• Glitch Zombie

• Speedrunner

• Pan-o-Maniac

• Boot Sector

• Glitched Soul

• Macro Virus

• Lammerglitcher

• Bisector

• Viral Resident (unused)

• Riftmaker (unused)

• Worm (unused)

• Gear Shield (unused)

All enemies now use animated walk cycles and move progressively instead of most switching between two costumes and moving in a staggered pattern.

Just like plants, enemies also use a slightly visible black box for collision detection with a second visual sprite overlayed.

Enemies can now stop to attack a plant while in the middle of their movement between half-tiles and, under most cases, cannot damage two plants at once.

Enemies now have a unique death animation that includes them fading away, as opposed to just disappearing.

Enemies tend to spawn much further away from the lawn instead of on the 8th column, typically where a "12th" column would be.

Levels:

As stated, the vast majority of levels will not be in this version. Only levels 1-10 of World 1 (plus the tutorial) will be included, but heavily changed from their older versions.

All levels use manually-created data, including plants, obstacles, enemies, and layout. This differs from older versions that used a spawnpool and level slot conditions to determine what to do. This data is also stored on Game Jolt's servers, meaning changes to it will occur for all copies and not be exclusive to each version.

The tile grid is now a 9x5 instead of an 8x5, following typical PvZ standards.

Levels now follow a linear form of progression in their completion, rather than all being unlocked immediately.

Instead of a percentage display for level progress, a progress bar similar to PvZ2's has been implemented.

Music:

PvZ Infected's music is getting revamped, with songs that feel more full with use of panning. In game, level tracks will adjust depending on how far the player is, making calmer or more intense parts of a level reflect that in the music. The soundtrack itself will be composed from a selection of segments into a unique mix. The older songs will be kept on the Game Jolt page with [Legacy] at the end as to indicate they are no longer being used (though they may have great impact on the new soundtrack).

Apologies for the long-winded article, but a lot of changes are being made to PvZ Infected in order to make it a more enjoyable experience. Version 2.0.0 should be out near the end of October, so hang in there and defend your lawns!