Plants vs. Zombies

Sunflowers make players trade attack power against income. Plants vs. Zombies uses sunflowers to teach unit types and economy balance. Every sunflower planted generates income but adds no defence, so players must choose between the two.

Mark Brown lists it among the games that taught him game design.

Plants vs. Zombies teaches late and leans on what players already know. Designer George Fan argued that a player's willingness to learn grows with their investment, so lessons should come once the player is invested. The game never explains that a metal bucket is tougher than a plastic cone, because players already know how those materials behave.

Fan's line: "a player's willingness to learn grows along with their level of investment." Splitting lessons up lets players start the real game almost immediately.

Showing the upcoming zombies makes a perfect defence too easy. Because the wave is visible, players can plan a flawless defence and play turns flat. It is cited as an example of giving the player too much information.

The comparison is with Into the Breach, where full enemy transparency can mean 10 to 20 minutes of staring per turn. The lesson is that drama comes from plans getting disrupted.