Some Thoughts about Left4Dead 2 (And Computer Gamer Elitism)

I wanted to post about this sooner, but I thought it would be better to wait and let the initial shock reaction simmer down a bit. I did and now I think I'm ready to really lay out what this move is about for Valve, from my perspective.

The internet is a hate machine. Many PC gamers feel like they are the elite of the gamer world and many of them feel entitled to...stuff because of that. Part of why the community flipped out when L4D2 was announced was because of this feeling. But, there was also a tidbit of information from Gabe Newell in an interview where he said that L4D would be supported much like TF2, with new characters, weapons, campaigns, etc.

That is largely what the commotion has been about. I hear a lot of "Valve promised!" coming from all sorts of directions. As much as I love Gabe Newell, him saying something in an interview is not and should never qualify as an official press release. It isn't.

I think he also told us something about having Half-Life 2 a little sooner than we did.

What Valve did instead, was give us a game that's bigger than Left4Dead, for the same price. It has more campaigns, more weapons, and seems to take place a little after L4D2 in the story line which allows for some cool things. (Like Zombies in Hazmat suits who can't be lit on fire.) This is sweet. This is not something to complain about.

I've also heard a lot of accusations that Valve's support of Left 4 Dead 1 would stop once L4D2 comes out. We have been assured, in an official capacity, that this is not the case. They tell us it's coming, and I for one believe them. I think they're still working on stuff for L4D1 and it's far too soon, especially considering the release of the SDK, to have a funeral.

Hi, I'm Ray Ortgiesen and I'm a PC gamer.

And I am not entitled to dick.

Thank you.

L4D Goings On

First off, let me just say that I'm have been very very pleased with the reception I've gotten for my recently released L4D map. I've been doing pretty regular updates to it, and people are responding well. At the time of this post it has 1765 downloads and a 3.77/5 rating on L4DMaps.com

I also released a map that was ENTIRELY made as a joke. It's just a giant hallway, with four miniguns at the end and a near infinite supply of pills and medkits. I was able to hold out by myself for 20 minutes until I got bored and quit. I uploaded it to the site, and people really ran with the joke. It's up to 653 downloads itself.

There's been a lot of controversy going on lately with regards to Valve's announcement of L4D2 and I'm still mulling it over in my head, but expect a new thoughts post regarding it shortly. And if you haven't gotten the chance to check out my map yet, give it a look.

Dead End Beta Released!

Hey everybody, I've been hard at work trying to get this puppy up to par as fast as possible in time for the update of the matchmaking system and I feel comfortable with it's fun and polish levels to release it as a beta. There will be improvements to come, but for now I give you the beta of:



It is available for download from www.l4dmaps.com. If you find any bugs, or have any suggestions, let me know!

First Batch of Bunker Screenshots

I promised you some real screenshots showing off the map, didn't I? Well here they are. Remember that the map is not 100% done, which is particularly noticeable in the lighting as I always do that last. Here they are though:

Outside the facility.

Close up outside.

The first fallback point.

The silo room (the top of the missile should be red, it didn't show in the screenshot.)

I'm going to show two more screenshots that our closeups from the first checkpoint and second checkpoint. I like doing subtle things on my maps that players who take the time to look around will notice and appreciate. The following screenshots are two "mini scenes" I created within the game, where you can look at the bodies or the situation, and imagine what may have transpired there.

A corpse with spray paint next to it, some desperate graffiti, and three covered bodies.

A body slumped against a barricade, weapons and ammo at the ready.

I think it's little details like this that really make the differance between a polished map and just a fun one. Sure, I could have just played the rifles in a row next to the ammo by the sandbags, but this gives the scene a little more character. The same goes for the first checkpoint in the bunker, there's no real purpose for the scene, but it adds some context and flavour to what would otherwise be a regular survival map with a fall back mechanic.

Check back for more in the future, beta soon!

Delicious Zoey Bait

I'm in the process of rapidly trying to get the survival map to beta so I can get as many people playing it as possible. So far so good, with it looking like I might have it up to beta as early as Friday. Though I do start working tomorrow so that's going to suck up some free time. Regardless, I've got a nice screen shot for you. This is a picture of me testing the Missile Room you can see in the middle of my SketchUp screenshots. You can imagine how this ended:


Real screenshots coming soon.

Mapping for Left4Dead

Not more than a few days ago, Valve finally released their long awaited SDK for Left4Dead and I promptly set about making a survival map that I've had bouncing around in my head for a while. The concept was that, instead of a single area with a few defense points that is typical of the standard suvival maps you have have a larger area with multiple "checkpoints" that you could fall back to. The ideal set up for this kind of gameplay is a military bunker, set into the side of a cliff. You start outside, fall back to an inner chamber and can close blast doors that will hold the infected at bay for a time. You repeat this process two more times falling deeper back into the bunker until you reach a command room where you can run no further and make your final stand.

I used SketchUp to lay the map out:


I actually have all of this laid out in Hammer already, but I'm having some difficulty getting the director to cooperate with where I want zombies to spawn in from. It has to do with the navigation mesh editing, which is only done in Left4Dead. Well it's kind of done in Counter-Strike: Source, but not to the extend you need to do it in L4D so I'm still getting the hang of it. Once I do I'll have a beta version up for download. At the least, expect screenshots soon.

DemoReel!

This is a short video that I put together to showcase some of the stuff that I've done during my schooling, both in and out of class. Mission 16 and Decay were done in free time, the War map was my level design final project.

Check it out:



And as always feel free to leave your thoughts, criticism is good.