Valve talks about Left 4 Dead

Left 4 Dead from Counter-Strike AI”>Turtle Rock Studios and Valve is one of the most anticipated FPS titles this year. It is said to have a feel of Counter-Strike, only with a bit of a twist. Eurogamer was able to sit down with Valve’s project manager Eric Johnson and marketing manager Doug Lombardi.

There hasn’t been much info about Left 4 Dead but then we could literally see curiosities pique when we heard about zombies. The interview covered a number of things particularly the co-operative side of their titles. Left 4 Dead is a Turtle Rock developed game, built around Valve’s Source engine and distributed over Steam. Basically, the development itself is as cooperative as the game itself.

According to Eric Johnson, co-operative games are not so easy to make as it seems as the experience for the members of a team are taken into account. When players get a single player experience out of the game “but at the same time nudging them fairly hard into playing cooperatively”, then they know they’ve made a good co-op game. As for the zombies, Johnson said:

Mike [Booth, founder and head of Turtle Rock Studios] knew when he was designing the game that one of the things he wanted players to do was fight overwhelming odds. Zombies, or an infected strain that’s gone wild, provides a pretty good fiction backdrop for that. We knew that part of what would make the game compelling for people emotionally was that kind of horror setting: us against the world, everything’s attacking us including the world itself. It kind of gives you an automatic modifier for people’s emotional state.

Both Valve and Turtle Rock pay much attention to their AI, specifically not to make it impossible to beat but crafty enough to give players a challenge. In comparison to Half-Life or Counter-Strike, Left 4 Dead was said to be a much easier sell as it offers a very different setting and experience. In closing, Johnson says this about Valve’s passion for first person shooters:

There are so many advantages with a first-person perspective, especially in single-player: making the player feel they are that person, telling the story through the eyes of the character. But when we think about the Half-Life games, we don’t think about them as shooters, we think of them as telling a story where you’re the star.

Hmm, we’re still itching for more info about Left 4 Dead. We’re sorely tempted to drop to our knees and pray for Valve and Turtle Rock Studios to release more info but then again, we’ll just keep our eyes peeled for this zombilicious co-op FPS.

Left 4 Dead from Counter-Strike AI”>Turtle Rock Studios and Valve is one of the most anticipated FPS titles this year. It is said to have a feel of Counter-Strike, only with a bit of a twist. Eurogamer was able to sit down with Valve’s project manager Eric Johnson and marketing manager Doug Lombardi.

There hasn’t been much info about Left 4 Dead but then we could literally see curiosities pique when we heard about zombies. The interview covered a number of things particularly the co-operative side of their titles. Left 4 Dead is a Turtle Rock developed game, built around Valve’s Source engine and distributed over Steam. Basically, the development itself is as cooperative as the game itself.

According to Eric Johnson, co-operative games are not so easy to make as it seems as the experience for the members of a team are taken into account. When players get a single player experience out of the game “but at the same time nudging them fairly hard into playing cooperatively”, then they know they’ve made a good co-op game. As for the zombies, Johnson said:

Mike [Booth, founder and head of Turtle Rock Studios] knew when he was designing the game that one of the things he wanted players to do was fight overwhelming odds. Zombies, or an infected strain that’s gone wild, provides a pretty good fiction backdrop for that. We knew that part of what would make the game compelling for people emotionally was that kind of horror setting: us against the world, everything’s attacking us including the world itself. It kind of gives you an automatic modifier for people’s emotional state.

Both Valve and Turtle Rock pay much attention to their AI, specifically not to make it impossible to beat but crafty enough to give players a challenge. In comparison to Half-Life or Counter-Strike, Left 4 Dead was said to be a much easier sell as it offers a very different setting and experience. In closing, Johnson says this about Valve’s passion for first person shooters:

There are so many advantages with a first-person perspective, especially in single-player: making the player feel they are that person, telling the story through the eyes of the character. But when we think about the Half-Life games, we don’t think about them as shooters, we think of them as telling a story where you’re the star.

Hmm, we’re still itching for more info about Left 4 Dead. We’re sorely tempted to drop to our knees and pray for Valve and Turtle Rock Studios to release more info but then again, we’ll just keep our eyes peeled for this zombilicious co-op FPS.