Happy Birthday 2 Us

November 17, 2010 - L4D Team

On this date last year, we released Left 4 Dead 2. The year before Left 4 Dead debuted. The team would like to thank the over 9 million people who have taken the time to prepare for the upcoming zombie apocalypse.

While we continue to update – new stuff coming Friday – we wanted to take a quick look back at the creation of Left 4 Dead 2’s new Special Infected.

November 12th Update

November 12, 2010 - L4D Team

Taannkk!, The Breakdown, Feature?

Taannkk!!
Everything is coming up Taannkk!!

Scared to play Versus? Think there is too much strategy? Don’t want to embarrass yourself? Give Taannkk!! a try. We simplify everything. What does everyone spawn as? Tanks. What is trying to kill you? Tanks. Why should you keep running? Tanks. You’re welcome.

The Breakdown.
Taannkk! won easily and here is how the rest of the field faired by platform.

XBOX 360
51% Taannkk!!
17% Hunting Party
16% Healing Gnome
10% Lone Gunman
  6% Bleedout Versus

PC
47% Taannkk!!
17% Healing Gnome
16% Hunting Party
12% Lone Gunman
  8% Bleedout Versus

Feature?
You are playing Versus, you see a Survivor in red, you pounce on them! You tear them up for 10 seconds and when you get knocked off they get right up. Seems they had temporary health you didn’t “see”.

So we propose that the Player’s outline should match their current health not their permanent health. So if they have 20 health and take pills we show their glow as green not red. As their health counts down the green would turn to orange then red.

The problem here is if everyone was green, you wouldn’t clearly see who had temporary health or permanent health – most people would rather be eating through someone’s permanent health in this case.

You can always check the scoreboard but this is just for the quick identification you do based on the infected glow. So that leads us to the poll question. Would you rather the glow color reflect permanent health only or reflect permanent and temporary health? Let us know.

November 5th Update

November 5, 2010 - L4D Team

Healing Gnome, Halloween?, Pick the Mutation, Tweet Tweet

Healing Gnome
There is only one way to heal, holding the Gnome!

This Coop game is all about the Gnome and his magical healing properties. There is only one way to heal and that is by holding the Gnome. Better share him with your teammates!

Halloween?
If you haven’t checked out the Halloween Costumes on our Facebook pages, what are you waiting for? Hunters, Zoeys, Bills, and even Rochelles are all there to TERRIFY YOU!!! For the poll, the Hunter handily won followed by the Tank. PC players then chose Bill and 360 players chose Ellis.

From a quick headcount in the real world, I think the order was Hunter, Ellis, Zoey, and then Bill. The Tank seemed to be too much for most people’s costume making abilities.

Pick the Mutation.
Pick Next week’s Mutation:
1)Bleedout Versus
2)Healing Gnome
3)Hunting Party
4)Lone Gunman
5)Taaannnkk!

Tweet Tweet
Want to know what the Left 4 Dead development team is working on or thinking about? Follow us on our brand new Twitter account at twitter.com/l4ddev. We promise we will never bore you with what we are eating or … okay, we did have some really good Thai food today. But look, we said that here and not on the twitter account, the twitter account will stay food free. We promise. Most likely.

October 29th Update

October 29, 2010 - L4D Team

Bleed Out Versus, You Rock, Halloween?

Bleed Out Versus
Now you have a good excuse for rushing through Versus.

There is no permanent Survivor health, it is all temporary and it is ticking down. Even if you don’t normally play Versus, this is a great mutation to try. The action is frantic and fast as team wipes are always just a few seconds away.

You Rock!
It didn’t matter on the platform, 38% of you have rocked out with the Midnight Riders in Rock Band. We need to get cracking on converting the rest of the Riders’ catalog.

Are you dressing up for Halloween?
Of course you are, the real question is - are you dressing up as someone from the Left 4 Dead universe? If you do dress up, make sure to post your picture on our Facebook pages. This week’s poll asks who you would dress up as - make sure to vote using the in-game poll.

Still not sure who you want to be, what about just being part of the crowd? If you are going to go as a common infected make sure to check out this tutorial on getting your infected makeup right.

Don’t forget, if you are in Seattle this weekend, the first annual ZomBcon will be in full swing. Look for us Sunday, we’ll be the ones carrying shwag and concept art to hand out at our 12 noon panel.

Next week: Healing Gnome

L4D1 and L4D2 on the Mac

October 27, 2010 - L4D Team

BOOmer!



L4D is on the Mac and more, check out our Halloween page for all the info.