Valve Explains Quick Left 4 Dead Sequel 130
Valve's announcement that Left 4 Dead 2 would be released only a year after the first game has generated a great deal of controversy among fans of the game. There are concerns that Left 4 Dead will not get any additional content, the community will be divided, and that the quick development cycle won't do justice to the sequel. Now, Valve devs and execs are going out of their way to address those concerns. Left 4 Dead project lead Chet Faliszek said, "It just became very clear that this was a cohesive, singular statement we wanted to make, not a more slow update thing... too much stuff was tied together with too many other things." Developer Tom Leonard was quick to point out that work wouldn't cease for the first game: "We are doing updates across the summer, adding new matchmaking features, and new features to facilitate user maps after the SDK is out. ... Additionally, those maps can be transported into Left 4 Dead 2." Doug Lombardi said simply, "Trust us a little bit," explaining that Gabe Newell is "always talking about providing entertainment as a service — it's not about making a game any more."
The Left4Dead SDK isn't even out yet. (Score:1, Informative)
It has been "coming soon", since last fall, I wonder if Valve plans to only release it for L4D 2, forcing the current players to buy the new game if they want to create mods.
Re:The Left4Dead SDK isn't even out yet. (Score:5, Informative)
Hell, it was even posted on Slashdot [slashdot.org].
And even before that, it was possible to create maps with a little tweaking of the Hammer editor.
Re:Why I cry at night... (Score:5, Informative)
It did! But, there's really only so many times you can run through Mercy Hospital before the experience becomes a little dull. Unpredictable certainly(to a point). But the difference between meeting a witch on the roof verse the reception area is kind of moot by the 50th playthrough.
After a while, even Left 4 Dead became routine. Despite the procedural content, after a few playthroughs you simply got to know the game and all its little tricks. The unpredictability became tactical, not strategic. I've played with people who can call smoker and hunter spawns before they even happen. People who know and scavenge every drop off point. People who know zombie dispersal patterns and bottling strategies. People with flawless plans for every panic event. Essentially, there are only 4 maps, so this wasn't very hard.
The game needed new expansions. Proper expansions. New maps, new campaigns, new game modes, new special infected, new survivors, new weapons, etc, etc. To keep things fresh. It was more than feasible. When you see how one man recreated the police station from Resident Evil 2 [kotaku.com] as a L4D map, Valve's tardiness in bringing out new maps becomes more incriminating.
Personally, I think the reason behind a new game verse new expansions has less to do with technical issues, and more to do with Microsoft. Specifically, the 360 port of L4D. Basically, Microsoft promote paid downloadable content, and weren't happy with the free updates for L4D that Valve were pushing out on the 360. In addition, all new achievements on the 360 must be tied to paid content, meaning Valve couldn't release new maps for free and give achievements for them at the same time.
In short, the 360 port of L4D has tied Valves hands with the entire game. For any major update they create, they'll invoke more of Microsoft's ire and that of their fans. A brand new game allows them to break the deadlock, but will probably end up creating a new one. You can fully expect that in future, L4D games will have minimal expansions and new games will be preferred to expansions in all cases.
Re:Why I cry at night... (Score:2, Informative)
I would like more content but am content with user-generated content & lobby support for 'discovering' that content and playing it with other people in a stable fashion (even with the beta sdk it's a bit of a hit & miss affair right now). But they have been working on the SDK & Lobby support so I would imagine we'll see that in the next month or so.
Re:The Left4Dead SDK isn't even out yet. (Score:3, Informative)
I'm pretty sure you can mod L4D just like any other Source game. There's even Metamod: Source [sourcemm.net] (lower level) and Sourcemod [sourcemod.net] (higher level) to help you there. Both appear to work on Left 4 Dead.