Building Left 4 Dead Maps With Google Sketchup 44
notthatwillsmith writes "If you're a fan of Left 4 Dead and you've ever wanted to build a zombie-filled map of your hometown, office or grocery store, Maximum PC just posted a how-to that shows you how to convert photos of real-world locations into ready-to-play L4D 1 or 2 maps. It's everything you need to know in order to kill zombies with your friends — in the comfort of your own backyard."
Oh this is going to be fun. (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm just waiting for the "school" maps to appear. This game has already had to be mutilated to make it onto the shelves in Australia. I think once the first screenshots of a zombie-killing spree in some kid's high-school appear, that should probably do for it in the rest of the world as well.
I know when I was a teenager, I developed a Doom map based on my school. Didn't think much of it at the time (this was pre-Columbine) - it was just a fun setting while I taught myself level design - but I know that if I'd done that (and been found out) today, I'd at best have found myself in compulsory counselling and at worst in jail.
Re:crapflood (Score:3, Insightful)
Actually I'm convinced that easier to use tools will result in more useful maps, not more chaff.
Let's be sensible here. People will only invest so much time into creating a map for a game. So depending on how this time is spent, quality will either be good or bad. If it's easy to get a basic layout done and get ladders, items, movables etc. in place, they will spend that time fleshing out details and testing. If you have to spend already a ton of time on basic layout, that's gonna be what you will get.
Think of it as programming a game in pure assembler vs. doing it with C++ and DirectX. Yes, the latter creates an influx of a lot of average quality programmers who will suddenly be able to create something. But at the end of the day, which approach will lead to more games with less errors?