Left 4 Dead
A cooperative zombie survival shooter from Valve.
Where Left 4 Dead comes up4 episodes and tests
Gcreator of Game Maker's Toolkit testValve's "Secret Weapon"
Gcreator of Game Maker's Toolkit testWhat Pac-Man Brought to Game Design | Design Icons
Gcreator of Game Maker's Toolkit testWhat Makes Good AI?
Gcreator of Game Maker's Toolkit testThe Design of Dead Space - Part 2Left 4 Dead's playtests showed players struggling to find teammates in trouble, so Valve added x-ray outlines on survivors. Its AI director alternates horde assaults with lulls, using each player's health and special infected encounters to pace play. Lesson: fix where testers get lost, pace pressure with relief, and choose swarm panic or slow dread on purpose. Sources give no sales or player numbers.
- 1Track each playerHealth and special infected run-ins
- 2Spot team cruisingPlayers are doing well
- 3Raise horde intensityTension builds across the level
- 4Ease offTeam gets room to relax
From Valve's Left 4 Dead AI director
What was said about Left 4 Dead
An AI director paces zombie attacks by alternating pressure with relief. Left 4 Dead's AI director tracks each player's health and their run-ins with special infected, raises horde intensity when the team is cruising, then eases off so they can relax.
The result is an undulation of tension and relief across a level, the same rhythm Pac-Man used with its ghosts' scatter waves.
Playtests showed players losing teammates, so Valve added x-ray survivor outlines. Testers struggled to find teammates who were in trouble, so Valve drew outlines around fellow survivors that show through walls.
This is one of the many small fixes each Valve playtest produces: watch where players get lost, then add the missing aid.
Swarming players with fast zombies in tight spaces creates panic, not dread. Being swarmed by dozens of fast zombies in a tiny room is scary, as Left 4 Dead showed, but it is wide-eyed terror.
Mark Brown contrasts it with the original Dead Space, where fear came from worrying how to handle a creeping army with little stasis and few ripper blades. Pick which kind of fear you are building.
1Similar examples from other apps
These are about other apps, not Left 4 Dead: examples from the same sources that help explain it.
Pac-Man's ghosts scatter to the corners so players get relief. Designer Toru Iwatani made the ghosts alternate between chasing and wandering to the four corners rather than hunting nonstop.
Quote: "I felt it would be too stressful for a human being like Pac Man to be continually surrounded and hunted down."
Half-Life filled crates with supplies because testers broke all of them. Half-Life's playtesters broke every crate in a level, so Valve stuffed some with ammo and health.
Valve's "Secret Weapon"
Testers struggled to find teammates in trouble, so Valve added x-ray outlines around fellow survivors.
Playtests showed players losing teammates, so Valve added x-ray survivor outlines. Testers struggled to find teammates who were in trouble, so Valve drew outlines around fellow survivors that show through walls.
This is one of the many small fixes each Valve playtest produces: watch where players get lost, then add the missing aid.
Half-Life filled crates with supplies because testers broke all of them. Half-Life's playtesters broke every crate in a level, so Valve stuffed some with ammo and health.
What Pac-Man Brought to Game Design | Design Icons
Its AI director later used the same rhythm as Pac-Man's scatter waves, alternating zombie assaults with lulls.
An AI director paces zombie attacks by alternating pressure with relief. Left 4 Dead's AI director tracks each player's health and their run-ins with special infected, raises horde intensity when the team is cruising, then eases off so they can relax.
The result is an undulation of tension and relief across a level, the same rhythm Pac-Man used with its ghosts' scatter waves.
Pac-Man's ghosts scatter to the corners so players get relief. Designer Toru Iwatani made the ghosts alternate between chasing and wandering to the four corners rather than hunting nonstop.
Quote: "I felt it would be too stressful for a human being like Pac Man to be continually surrounded and hunted down."
What Makes Good AI?
The AI director raises horde intensity while the team is cruising, then eases off. It uses each player's health and special infected encounters to pace play.
An AI director paces zombie attacks by alternating pressure with relief. Left 4 Dead's AI director tracks each player's health and their run-ins with special infected, raises horde intensity when the team is cruising, then eases off so they can relax.
The result is an undulation of tension and relief across a level, the same rhythm Pac-Man used with its ghosts' scatter waves.
Pac-Man's ghosts scatter to the corners so players get relief. Designer Toru Iwatani made the ghosts alternate between chasing and wandering to the four corners rather than hunting nonstop.
Quote: "I felt it would be too stressful for a human being like Pac Man to be continually surrounded and hunted down."
The Design of Dead Space - Part 2
Being swarmed by dozens of fast zombies in a tiny room is scary, as it showed, but it is wide-eyed terror unlike the first Dead Space's nervous tension.
Swarming players with fast zombies in tight spaces creates panic, not dread. Being swarmed by dozens of fast zombies in a tiny room is scary, as Left 4 Dead showed, but it is wide-eyed terror.
Mark Brown contrasts it with the original Dead Space, where fear came from worrying how to handle a creeping army with little stasis and few ripper blades. Pick which kind of fear you are building.
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