Tool Set: Left 4 Dead Authoring Tools
Game: Left 4 Dead
Number of Players: 8
Gameplay: Singleplayer & Multiplayer | Campaign Mode & Verses
Objective: The Survivors must make their way from the apartment they have been staying in to the Subway station in order to escape on the final inbound train making its way to a safe zone.
This level started out being a test bed for learning the L4D Authoring Tools and as they become more familiar it was easier to add onto it. It then became used as a Level design test for a company. While the test part is over, I still want to keep working on it and polish it up.
Complex will be the second level I’ve made on my own time to completion. Quite pleased really.
Below is the process of how Complex is being developed. From the first concept sketch and early level screenshots to the second, more developed sketch and more recent in game level screenshots.
Current WIP Shots:
Initial Concept Sketch
The location is based loosly on my apartment and the courtyard behind it in Berlin, Germany. I was going to try and make it fairly 1:1 in design but after some consideration I felt it wouldn’t have made for a very interesting location after all. Below is the initial concept sketch I made for the level. Doodled in between following the various tutorials for the the Authoring Tools.
Second Pass Concept Sketch
As the tools became more familiar I updated the concept sketch to reflect the newly aquired knowledge. I had already started modeling the level in the HAMMER editor by now, so this was the last sketch made before committing fully to Grey Boxing the level inside HAMMER. The location still has my apartment complex, but the inner area took on a more maintenance feel. I also changed the apartment complex to the West into an Office building with a terrace and the apartment complex to the North became a construction site which contains the Panic Event for the level. The large street is suppose to represent the approximate location of Frankfurter Alle, the major street north of my apartment. The Ubahn, or subway, is under neath it.
