Chapter 21: Memory Replay Potion

Alex Parker had a good rest for the night. Early the following day, after freshening up and having breakfast, he used the Memory Replay Potion during his most clear-headed phase to search for memories he had forgotten.

The game "Plants vs. Zombies" was quite old, and many memories were already blurred. These memories contained many details that would directly affect the game's quality, so Alex couldn't afford to be careless.

The effect of the Memory Replay Potion kicked in quickly, and Alex's thoughts drifted back many years.

He first recalled the classic plant characters: the pea shooter that looked like Daenerys, the walnut resembling a particular high-profile musician, the potato mine with a joystick on its head, the mysteriously smiling sunflower, and the walnut with eyes as bright as light bulbs.

Then he remembered various zombies: regular zombies, conehead zombies, pole vaulting zombies, buckethead zombies, football zombies, and disco zombies....

He also recalled various scenes, such as the classic scene, the night scene, the swimming pool scene, and so on.

As the memories became clearer, Alex quickly used a drawing tablet to sketch these plants and zombies, capturing their key features and details.

Next, Alex began to recall the entire game process.

From the initial words of Crazy Dave when entering the game, planting the first plant, defeating the first zombie, to unlocking new levels, unlocking new plants, and defeating new bosses...

Alex recorded everything while recalling, noting down the key points of each level in detail. For example, which plant gets unlocked at which level, which special mode gets unlocked at which level, etc.

Then, he noted down some game data.

For example, how long it takes for a pea shooter to fire a bullet, the damage boost provided by a torchwood, the slowing effect of an ice-shroom, and how many hits it takes to kill different zombies with various attacks...

Though seemingly trivial, these data directly affected the entire game's numerical structure. Given his limited numerical ability, Alex could only use this meticulous approach.

Four hours flew by in the blink of an eye.

Alex breathed a sigh of relief. During those four hours, his mind was highly focused, leaving him extremely exhausted.

However, he couldn't relax just yet. He quickly filled in some data and details while his mind was still fresh, fearing that he might miss something.

Human memory continuously deteriorates. The Memory Replay Potion only ensured free memory search for four hours. After that, these memories would gradually fade again.

After another two hours of work, Alex finally slumped into his chair, exhausted, and drank some water.

On his computer, Alex created a new design document to record game details, totalling thousands of entries. The drawing files contained sketches of plants, zombies, scenes, and even the UI layout style.

The Memory Replay Potion had been fully utilized, squeezed for every bit of its value.

"Man, that was exhausting."

Alex wiped the sweat from his forehead. Six hours of intense focus he had taken its toll on him.

But why was it so gruelling? It was because he only had one Memory Replay Potion! If he had two, he could have been much more relaxed, using one today and another tomorrow. Eight hours would be plenty to record all the game's details without such tension.

So Alex knew he needed to earn money and spend it on more potions!

After a break, eating some food, chewing on a few pieces of chocolate, and drinking a cup of coffee, Alex resumed his work.

The next task was refining the design document and finalizing and recording the detailed design content. These seemingly trivial details significantly influenced the gaming experience, and Alex couldn't overlook them.

Refining the document took Alex an entire week.

After a week, the entire game's document was essentially complete, with all details finalized. The game's basic rules, interface layout, types of plants and zombies, etc., were all set.

Next, Alex inputs these rules into the editor, which automatically generates a game project based on them. Alex can then directly modify this project.

Generating the project took about 1–3 days, depending on the number of rules.

During this period, Alex planned to finalize the game's numerical system.

The primary attributes of the plants included attack power, health points, range, attack interval, attack area, preparation time (how long it takes to activate after placement), cooldown time (how long before it can be placed again), cost, damage points (for damage effects), etc.

For each plant and zombie, Alex listed their attributes and continuously verified them.

The previously recorded game data was beneficial, as the details of different plants and zombies could be cross-checked, making the entire numerical design process much more efficient.

In two days, the entire numerical system was finalized. With a wealth of reference data, this numerical system was very close to the original game. Any deviations would be minor.

Next, it was time to verify and continuously fine-tune the system.

During this period, the editor had already generated the game project, which Alex temporarily named PVZ. The project name was just a code; the official name would be decided upon release.

Alex opened the project, checked the rules and mechanisms, and found no significant issues. He quickly fixed a few minor rule errors and logic gaps.

Then, Alex imported the numerical settings and added corresponding art resources for various zombies and plants. Thus, a simple game demo was ready.

Currently, the project has no tutorial or levels.

Alex created a new scene, planted a pea shooter, and placed a regular zombie on the other side.

"Bang, bang, bang…"

Under the pea shooter's continuous attacks, the zombie fell.

The pacing was good. Alex tested other zombies and plants, finding no significant issues. He made minor adjustments to some values that seemed off, and everything else was fine.

Next, Alex worked on the interface and set up the levels.

Setting up levels was also a technical job. The difficulty had to increase gradually, giving players a sense of progression without growing too fast and blocking them.

Alex had previously noted a lot of level details, such as how many zombies to spawn per level and which plant gets unlocked at each level. Hence, it wasn't difficult.

In five days, Alex completed all the interfaces and main-level processes, along with the tutorial. Thus, the adventure mode of Plants vs. Zombies was almost entirely recreated.