Fri, Aug 27, 2010 | 08:20 BST
Valve: Left 4 Dead was originally a “flying fairy game”
Fold your hands. Next, turn your eyes skyward. You are now looking in God’s general direction.
Now thank him. Thank him so hard.
“There were a few failed starts to build Left 4 Dead,” Valve’s Doug Lombardi told PC Gamer.
“Well, there was the flying fairy game. Is that the one you were referring to?” Gabe Newell chimed in.
“It was so bad,” he said, “you wanted to ask yourself: ‘How could we make a game that was this bad? And how should we make a game?’ And we said we should focus on what we do really well, so why are we doing this game which was kind of a… it wasn’t really an RPG… it was this action fantasy sort of role playing game that had no story.”
“And then we said ‘OK, that’s so horribly wrong. What we should focus in on is AI and playing in co-op, and that’s the interesting opportunity.’ That was where Left 4 Dead came from.”
Again, forces that control the universe, we can not stress the whole “thank you” thing enough. Granted, it’s a shame that – in order to counter Valve’s constant awesomeness – you had to create M. Night Shyamalan to keep the universe in balance. But we forgive you.
9 comments
#1
Psychotext
27/08/10, 3:29 am
Ok then…
#2
Michael O’Connor
27/08/10, 3:36 am
That was… very random.
Yes.
#3
unacomn
27/08/10, 4:59 am
You think that’s funny? Portal used to be a shower curtain simulator.
#4
Gekidami
27/08/10, 7:10 am
So instead they made a zombie shooter where you play as a shopping caddy.
#5
Freek
27/08/10, 7:37 am
Going by that train of thought, the reason we aren’t playing Half Life 3 right now is because Gordon Freeman is currently staring in a failed Sim City-ish god game where you have to run a City 17 style ocuption in a strategic manner. Actually that sounds pretty cool….make that happen Valve!
#6
mojo
27/08/10, 9:09 am
no, instead rather majke HL3 happen.
#7
Freek
27/08/10, 9:14 am
Why not do both? The sim city game could be called Half Living.
#8
The_Red
27/08/10, 12:59 pm
Well, as Alan Wake said, a story needs balance. If we can get the sublime L4D instead of a fairy game, then there indeed should be a Last Airbender from Shyamalan to balance things out.
#9
ARFarokhi
27/08/10, 11:57 pm
“Posted in: Hot, PC, PS3, Shooter, Valve, Xbox 360″
Is L4D coming to PS3?! Or this is some kinda mistake?