User:Baliame/L4D Progress

This is a personal page on my own namespace. If you have anything to add or you managed to find something I didn't, please post on the talk page. Thanks!

Current project Project status Name: Life Sentence Type: Co-op first, then versus. Chapters: 5 Status: Chapter 1 - Planning: 100% - Construction: 034% - Entities: 018% - Beautification: 010% Chapter 2 - Planning: 100% - Construction: 000% - Entities: 000% - Beautification: 000% Chapter 3 - Planning: 100% - Construction: 000% - Entities: 000% - Beautification: 000% Chapter 4 - Planning: 100% - Construction: 000% - Entities: 000% - Beautification: 000% Chapter 5 - Planning: 075% - Construction: 000% - Entities: 000% - Beautification: 000% Project blog December 10, 2008 Yeah, it's coming along nicely. So far I've constructed everything on the right side of the street before the bend. The large houses are inaccessible for the player, the small on the corner of the wide street is one that contains supplies. The design philosophy for supplies will follow throughout the mission: small dead ends or alternative, longer routes may reward the player with items which eventually make the chapter easier to complete than if people just rushed through the shortcut. One thing about the city is that, like a real city, it's really open. There should be many routes to get from one place to another in a real city, however in this particular city, it's a goal to limit players from accessing too many routes. There are a few reasons behind this is. If I'd leave the city wide open, the players would wander around in loops trying to find their way towards an unmarked safehouse. While this might sound fun and hours of gameplay, it is pretty frustrating the first time. And when it actually happens, people will know where to go and the big open area loses it's point. And here's the second point, if there would be a huge open area to access, but it's irrelevant to the main route, noone will actually visit these sideroutes, unless it's rewarding. Supply areas, such as ones mentioned above, however, are rewarding enough by themselves to completely obliterate the point of these sideroutes. Therefore, designing these side routes would be a waste of release time. Obviously detail is important but only as a scenery. I really need to invent new and creative ways of blocking off areas, such as the abandoned ambulance car right outside our safehouse. A couple of screenshots for your convenience. The safehouse, from the inside. A bird's eye of the narrow street which is basically your starting point. A bird's eye of the road before the bend. A street level view of the currently complete parts of the first chapter. December 8, 2008 I certainly like zombie games more than cartoonish shooters, so it's much more likely that I'll finish this project in an acceptable timeframe (though I'll have to wait for Valve to release the real SDK to refine it a little). Alright, here we go. The campaign basically looks like this: Chapter One starts out in a small saferoom built in the downtown of Unspecifiedtown. The infection has overrun the city and our heroes have to leave. The survivors have to make their way through a street which was much more lively just a few weeks ago. They have to reach an office building on the far side of the street, sitting right in front of a security fence set up by the military after the first outbreak. On the third floor of this office, the survivors get to take a little break in the first saferoom. In Chapter Two, the survivors must proceed to the roof exit of this building and get lower and lower rooftop by rooftop. In co-op mode this isn't a very challenging task, however, in versus mode survivors have to be on their toes, as smokers can climb nearby buildings which survivors can't, and as they proceed in the level, less and less defensive brick rooftop fences are available to protect from these nasty smokers, and a vital step can decide between life and death. If the survivors successfully reach the bottom, they find themselves inside the secure area, which is in fact a riverside beach. Here, a mini-finale takes place as survivors must fend off a zombie horde while their ferry crosses the river. The ferry is the saferoom itself. By the beginning of Chapter Three, the ferry has arrived on the other side. The survivors must fight their way through an industrial district full of warehouses. A specific warehouse at the end of an obvious path is the one they are looking for. On a higher level of this warehouse is another saferoom. Chapter Four takes the survivors to the roof of this warehouse, this time however they have an easy time getting down, through a short series of ladders, where they arrive in something that was a park a few weeks ago. There are quite a few ways out of this place, however most of them are blocked by debris and crashed cars. Therefore they have to take the only path they have - up. A path leading up to the unloading area of the warehouse. A truck parked in front of the only back door of the warehouse was the one obstructing the survivors from getting out earlier, however it's time to take revenge. They can use the truck to smash the security gate of the outer yard of the warehouse, which, after destroying the gate, falls into the river below, since the bridge after the intersection is broken. Survivors must take an alternate route through the river, but not in this chapter. They get to rest after a long journey on the other road of this intersection. Finally, Chapter Five will play in the countryside. A quite difficult path is ahead of the survivors, which, when crossed, leads to an abandoned prison with a working radio. However, the main entrance is blocked and survivors must find a hole in the wall to get inside. When inside, they have to navigate to the central control room of the prison which has a radio. After that, survivors have a relatively short time to once again rush through the prison complex, into the courtyard where the helipad is, and it will be the main battlezone of the finale unless the survivors are slaughtered on the way out. Sketches may be upcoming in the next update, as well as screenshots from the first segment of the first chapter.