Seven years ago, a team of about 30 developers at EA Vancouver set out to create a spin-off of Plants vs. Zombies. PopCap's original tower defense game had already been successfully converted into an online shooter in 2014 with "Plants vs. Zombies": in this case, teenagers team up with plants to fight the undead while traveling through time, It is a single-player action adventure with Arkham-style combat.

As IGN reports (opens in new tab), this intriguing and bizarre project was cancelled through no fault of their own so that the developers could move on to a single-player Star Wars action adventure started by Visceral.

Character/world artist Tom Bramall would go on to work on two more Plants vs. Zombies games, Garden Warfare 2 and Battle for Neighborville, which were cancelled in 2018 Concept art (opens in new tab) for some of the game's levels has been released, and according to IGN sources, it is codenamed "Project Hot Tub" after the movie "Hot Tub Time Machine" and is based on the present day, Pirate Island, the Wild West, and would have featured levels based on the far future.

Apparently, the structure of Project Hot Tub was based on the "Uncharted" games. Therefore, it is fitting that the team moved to the "Star Wars" project led by Amy Hennig: Project Hot Tub was to tell the story of a teenage boy named Eddie who befriends a plant called Peashooter, and an accident causes them and a zombie that invaded Neighborville to work together across time. The story was to be told as follows. Eddie's abilities differed depending on the plant he was with, with the peashooter providing short-range attacks and leaves that acted as gliders, the sunflower providing light to illuminate dark places, and the chompa providing heavy melee attacks and a grappling hook. In a few short sections set in the Middle Ages, the player instead takes control of Eddie's sister Tessa, who has the power to rewind time thanks to her friend, the plant Time.

Project Hot Tub seemed to have it all: a 20-minute playable slice, animated cinematics, and plans for a 2017 release, all part of a presentation that was well received by the executives who saw it in 2016. The "Star Wars" game was bigger and required more resources, so the "Project Hot Tub" team decided to help out. When that too was cancelled, the team was split into several other projects at EA.

The chances of EA returning to Project Hot Tub seem slim at best.Plants vs. Zombies: The mobile game Plants vs. Zombies 3 also had a series of soft launches in limited regions over the past two years, but never made it to a worldwide release. Zombies: In addition, the mobile game "Plants vs.

Meanwhile, EA's interest in single-player Star Wars action adventures resulted in Respawn's "Jedi: Fallen Order" being successful enough to warrant a sequel. is scheduled for release in 2023.