Co-Optimus - News: Had Enough Zombies Yet? Of Course Not! Valve Has Your Latest Fix

Had Enough Zombies Yet? Of Course Not! Valve Has Your Latest Fix

Jim "txshurricane" McLaughlin May 18th, 2009 at 12:48 PM

Valve has released the official Left 4 Dead tools so you can create your own levels.

David Jaffe thinks that zombie games are -- for the most part -- "played out". His mini-rant on Twitter inspired The Enquirer of gaming blogs to ask the question: have we had enough?

According to Josh Olin of Treyarch -- who is currently very busy* hyping the upcoming Call of Duty: World at War map pack and introduction of a Japanese-themed variant of Nazi Zombies -- the answer is a resounding NO.

Valve to the rescue! The Left 4 Dead creators have released the official software tools to help you design your own zombie apocalypse maps and scenarios.

Using the L4D Authoring Tools, you may create your own campaign maps, character skins, 3D models, sound effects, and music and load them into the game.

Here's what's included:

Updated version of Hammer, the source level editor

Updated suite of command line compiling utilities

Updated Particle editor

Updated Faceposer

Example maps, common infected, props, and explosives

This release also introduces a pair of plug-ins for SketchUp, a 3D modeling program you may download for free. You may use these plug-ins to create building blocks and props that can be imported into Hammer for use in game levels.

PC zombie killers rejoice! On top of custom Left 4 Dead content, you can also pick up World at War for half price on Steam, including the first map pack (and Zombie Verrückt), which is free.

[UPDATE]: Sorry, World at War isn't on sale after yesterday. My mistake.

* Oh, hey, Josh -- enough with the "Banzai" Tweets. You like it...we get it.

Source: Link

Tags: 4 player co-op pc call of duty left 4 dead twitter

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6 Total Reader Comments

Jackel at 08:34 AM on 5.18.2009

Sadly, WaW is no longer on sale. It was a steam weekend only deal.

As for the L4D SDK, this is great news. As I know quite a few groups already have resources prepared for the release so we should start seeing custom content for the PC shortly.

I know over at Immortal Machines (on the CoG Network) a bunch of people are starting up a modding group so stop by if you are interested

Mrxknown_JG at 09:36 AM on 5.18.2009

Very interested, going have to wait until after graduation though (next year) Don't have a quality PC rig. But I'll keep the SDK just in case.

phrozenfearz at 10:11 AM on 5.18.2009

Wow, those SketchUp plug-ins sound really awesome. I can't wait to model my campus for some zombie apocalypse action

Biohzrd451 at 02:35 AM on 5.19.2009

Hopefully they will have something where the best maps eventually get but on steam as well xbox live. Would be awesome to see user content come to live to keep L4D alive and well, unlike Team Fortress 2 which the maps still haven't hit for the 360 .

Brainp0wa at 08:43 AM on 5.19.2009

The 360 version needs an editor too! If Bungie can do it with Forge then Valve should be able to come up with *something.

Jackel at 10:57 AM on 5.20.2009

The SDK is far more complicated than Forge. They would do far better off putting the best custom content onto the live version after they've been tested on the PC version.