Map 02- The Elevator

Map 02- The Elevator

ok the first issues with creating this map are strictly speaking it should just be the elevator surrounded by the wire fence helipad 2 small buildings and the makeshift graves, and the only other map of day of the dead ive seen follows this format, however in l4d2 campaigns 1 small area does not cut the mustard, and also the above ground area is a very iconic part of the film, so i made the some what mad decision to create a level leading up to the elevator, in the

film we see the chopper flying over marsh land and forests to reach the compound, great a forest map to break up the urban sprawl and the underground claustrophobia !.

because forest levels take alot of props to be convincing however optimization is going to be key to this levels success, turns out teh elevator and its surrounds itself were fairly simple, coming up with an idea for the lead up to that however has taken some artistic liscense, i have imagined that the whole facility was part of a larger operation in which people were being shipped from the citys to this location for processing in one form or another, at first when the survivors arrive at the docks that becomes obvious but the closer they get to the compound the more ugly i wanted the sights to be, half way is a mass grave with a panic eventcreated around it, by this point i want it to be obvious that this place was also for disposal not just sanctuary, when they get to the elevator i imaine it has not been magically raise since miguels suicide so im planning on a scavenge event to get teh lift back to the top or simply calling the lift and waiting for it to arrive at the top as yet no final decision has been made, work continues on optimizing the forest, gods its tough going!.

map 01- Dead Place

Map 01- A Dead place

At the beginning of the movie we see the team landing at the edge of the city after failing to raise anyone on the radio, Miguel shouts down the bullhorn
" Hello is there anyone there?!", immediately the city is full of corpses traveling towards that sound.
the first level imagines that there were some survivors in that city, and they tried to fight there way to the chopper but couldn't make it in time and were
left behind by Miguel and the gang only to find themselves at the docks, they decide to steal a boat and follow the direction of the chopper..



Hows it coming along?...
Recreating the city from the opening of Day of the Dead poses a few problems, like most good film makers Romero filmed only the sections of the city he was interested in, and which projected the idea he wanted to communicate to the viewers, this scene in the film has only one sentence of dialogue but speaks volumes, as i rant to my friends when talking about this scene "Romero ends the world in under 10 shots".

So approaching how to create this city for players to navigate and experience is somewhat like a jigsaw puzzle, there are several clear images which stay with any fan of the film from this city, the Bank from which 2 corpses and a corpse alligator emerges, the Edison Theatre, the main streets and the newspaper headline "the Dead walk", i decided to embrace the jigsaw and create these areas separately first and with as much detail as I'm able, this has meant including custom textures and creating a few buildings purely with brushes.



after creating the bank and theatre i was left considering weather or not to leave them as mere display pieces or actually allow the survivors to enter them and have a reason for doing so, however with the daunting task of the entire project i have Little time for considering until the main body of work is done, and so i moved boldly forward onto the main streets, straight away i realised the streets were going to be challenging, the buildings are not like your average urban sprawl, they reek of the 50's and each building really seems to have its own unique idea, when trying to create everything with as much effort as possible this was a very demanding starting point to say the least.






The main street seen right is the first real wide shot
we see of the city, its an image of decay and
immediately we get the sense of an aftermath
of sorts, but also we see the street stretching off into the distance, i decided i wanted this street, the street we are shown Miguel and Sarah are looking down while shouting for survivors to be my finale area, the idea is that the survivors do not make it to the chopper in time so this gave me several things to play with, Miguel's use of the bullhorn is an excellent prompt for the a gauntlet event down the street towards the chopper and just as they reach the end they watch as the chopper flies off into the distance, so work on the street was vital and so i began!.

now as i say each building has its own design feel, so i embraced that and tried to match the feel for the street also making several shops enter able as i progress i will also have to decide whats in teh shops if anything, the shops will also make excellent spawn points for infected as well as the roof tops, though i feel the hunter will have the most fun with them.

where am i up to on this?...
i have created the final stretch section of the road and i intend to work backwards towards the T-junction and from there decide where the bank and theater locations should be, from there i should have a clearer idea where the survivors should begin and just what lies in-between them and the final stretch

Day of the Dead -Map for L4d2 overivew

Map 01- A Dead place
At the beginning of the movie we see the team landing at the edge of the city after failing to raise anyone on the radio, Miguel shouts down the bullhorn
" Hello is there anyone there?!", immediately the city is full of corpses traveling towards that sound.
the first level imagines that there were some survivors in that city, and they tried to fight there way to the chopper but couldn't make it in time and were
left behind by Miguel and the gang only to find themselves at the docks, they decide to steal a boat and follow the direction of the chopper..

Map 02- The Elevator
The survivors arrive at forest surrounding the bunker and here we realize that long before the bunker was used for this operation the military and ceda were perfoming a delicate and extensive cleanup operation which has been abandoned, after fighting there way through the deadly forest the survivors come across the elevator leading to the bunker, but without power its going nowhere, so in a scavenge finale they must reactivate the lift and fight off the horde as they descend..

Map 03- 14 Mile tombstone
inside the bunker corpses are literally everywhere and after searching for survivors they find that all manner of inhuman experiments have taken place down here, its not just a graveyard its a slaughterhouse, the only option they can turn to is to detonate the missiles remaining from the cold war in order to wipe this abomination off the face of the earth.

Map 04- Missile Silo
the missiles are located deep within the mine at the back of the facility and through the specimen gate, there they find the missiles and initiate the arming sequence..

Map 05- "Get off the hill in a hurry!"
racing to the top of the missile silo they fight wave after wave as they try and get to the surface before the missile blows, across the radio they hear the voice of john and billy and realize there not the only ones who heard the arming sequence, can the survivors hold out for john and billy to be heroes after all?...