Dead Before Dawn - Community Update 21/06/09

[Method]

Ok as we are having site issues that arent resolving any time soon. I am posting the article and screenshots here so you guys arent left waiting.

Dead Before Dawn Community Update 21/06/09

Dead Before Dawn, the replica of the Crossroads Mall from the movie Dawn of the Dead (2004) is coming to Left 4 Dead. The DBD team has been working tirelessly on the campaign and has vowed not to stop until the campaign is ready for release. Previously, we stated that the estimated release date will be the 1th of July (lol). At the time of this announcement, Valve was said to release the full SDK in a week's time. That didn't happen and we were forced to postpone the release date, BUT, Valve has now confirmed that next week we will have our dirty paws on the full version of the SDK and we're ready for it. I would like to use this opportunity to give you guys a rundown of what's been happening the past few months. So let's get crackin'

Ok as you all (should) know, the Crossroads Mall map was originally made for the Half-Life 2 Mod, No More Room in Hell. Which is back into production and for the past 8 weeks, we've had regular updates from the mod team and they are hard at work. We cover all the news from No More Room in Hell on our site as well. (Since it's Zombie related).

Myself and Darth_Brush are project lead on Dead Before Dawn (darth_brush being the godly mapper and I use my super powers in public relations and publicity to promote the campaign and various other tasks concerned to the campaign).


Since about 3 months ago, we took a leap of faith and invited certain community members to join us in creating this mod (Yes, I said it. MOD.) As it is not a FULL mod, it is a mod in the true sense of the word. Modification.

We have added to the team: a pro scripter/coder. His name is pshycokilla. He's creating all the events in the game, from triggers to the multiple crescendos and the gauntlets (Yes, we didnt call them guantlets until Valve did, but we had them in there for a while now). These triggers and other scripts in the campaign, ensure that you need to play the campaign at least 16 times before you have played every possible event in the campaign.

Then we have CosmicD, the god of Muzak who's creating custom, self-made music scenes for the campaign. One which I am very fond of is the part where the players will see the mall for the first time in "real life". This made the hairs on my neck stand on end. It was truly fantastic. Every event, crescendo and gauntlet has its own music cue/clip that will definately break away from the default music from Left 4 Dead and you guys are gonna LOVE it!

Our next talented artist is 3DSteve. 3DSteve is making more custom models and he's also working is ass off on something very special for the campaign that you guys will LOVE!!! (Think exit vehicle) 3DSteve is very talented and I wish I could show you some screenies but that would give the surprise away completely!

Miobeeno has a professional sound studio and he's a professional voice actor. He has done voice overs for many commercials and movie trialers (he sounds just like that dude from ALL the movie trailers) and he's working on the voice recording of another "player" in the campaign. This player is a big surprise to the campaign and we will not give out any more info on this matter as we feel it plays such a big role in the campaign that it would spoil a lot.

Last, but not least, is Shinobi. Shinobi is also a pro mapper and he's working on adding more scenes from the movie to the campaign. Most of you who've seen the videos we posted, will now that there is one building in particular (other than the mall of course) that is needed in this campaign. Well, we have that building now.

There you go, this is what we've been doing the last few months. Dead Before Dawn is not a dead project. It's gonna kick Valve's maps off the map and that's a promise.

When we release it, we will release it not as a final version, but as a beta of sorts. We all know that there are always so many things you might want to see changed, prefected, added etc. So that's what we'll be doing when we release it: Gather feedback from the community.

Thank you guys for your ongoing support and thank you for being patient.

We are still waiting for the full SDK because the beta is just filled with errors and stuff that don't work. We will be releasing it for Left 4 Dead 1 and we might do the same for Left 4 Dead 2 depeding the outcome of Valve's decision on making it DLC or not.

Enjoy the screenshots! Click on any image to view the full size.

Article by StephanBotha


























Thats all for today!

[jorgeluvshispie]

One word: Orgas-tastic

[s1nk0]

Very nice!

[sagefox601]

Is it wrong to love a map so much?

[Hunterbrute]

I miss my computer.

[Daemonhell]

Seems very nice.

[elysiumbliss]

Holy ***!!!! the map is very very polished; the lighting is awesome. one more thing to add is blood! it will definitely increase the eerie atmosphere and create the vivid recreation of real zombie Apocalypse.
Good job guys

[SwiftReal]

Absolutely fantastic project. You're gonna nail it! The only small, contructive, critisism I have for now is the texture used in this picture. The texture used on the wall on the right and the ceiling doesn't really fit the location. It looks nice. Don't get me wrong. To the untrained eye, it's fine. But to me, it looks like that part of the building (the cellar I presume) is in construction. Is that the case?

Or maybe that part was never finsihed? Hey, that could be it. If so, that's fine, but put some materials close to the wall that enforces the fact that the cellar is a work in progress. Just think about the objects you see in No Mercy (just before the rooftop)

Also, here's my introduction. I can help out with your project if you welcome some help.

Swift

[C:/Fodder]

Looking extremely sexy so far. Quick question; What is up with the Emblem above the main entrance sign? Older builds show it having a 3D Globe emblem; on these latest ones (And the Menu video released a few weeks back), it shows a circle with the triangle in. I hope that it's just a graphical glitch that'll get sorted out; it looked really snazzy beforehand.

[darth_brush]

wow! good eyes, man.
i had to compile the 3D Globe emblem again. i will place it in the finale version.

right now we have enough people who help us out with the campaign.

[Raelg14]

Wow all I can say is WOW, didnt know this was out there. Guess I will shelve my plans for making this campaign. You guys have been putting some time into this. Looks great, cant wait to play it. Guess I will concentrate on trying to come up with a campaign based of off Ghosts of Mars. (I know crappy movie but I still have an unholy love for that movie.

[TF2Fan]

It looks great. I really cant wait to play this...

[Savage]

Wow all I can say is WOW, didnt know this was out there. Guess I will shelve my plans for making this campaign. You guys have been putting some time into this. Looks great, cant wait to play it. Guess I will concentrate on trying to come up with a campaign based of off Ghosts of Mars. (I know crappy movie but I still have an unholy love for that movie.

Who says it's a crappy movie? John Carpenter made it, and it's awesome! Best would be if someone could make a full mod of Ghosts of Mars with reskined infected to look like the possessed miners and with remodelled survivors to look like those from the movie. If possible, more than 4 would be good, so you could have Lt. Melanie, Sgt. Jericho, the two rookies, then either Williams and his "hombres" or the prisoners.