Life in the Concrete Bayou

Tonight is the night, the release of my beta version of the first map in my Left 4 Dead campaign, Concrete Bayou.

Some background: The survivors find themselves holed up in an infested Office Park when the military begins bombing runs in an attempt to curb the spreading infection. Left with no other options, players must escape their hideout and work their way to the distant city of Palm Island where it is rumoured a survivor's outpost has taken hold. The campaign consists of five maps which span a variety of locales, from a small town Office Park through a backwoods swamp and into the commercial delta of the Palm Island city limits, where players fight their way through a department store and finally to the gates of the Palm Island Civilian Outpost itself.

The campaign is planned as follows (All links will lead to L4DMapDatabase campaign pages):
Concrete Bayou (Working Title)
01 - The Office Park
02 - Rural Route 305
03 - City Limits
04 - Bullseye
05 - Drawbridge

Seeing as how this project has taken up a large portion of my free time, I believe it is fitting to include my progress here, both as a resource for anyone interested, as well as a contribution to a rather stagnant portfolio. As of this post, Automated Sweet Talk has taken on the additional function of Concrete Bayou Developer's Log, and I will provide campaign progress, development milestones and hurdles, L4D Mapping tutorials, and "exclusive" screenshots for those interested.

But enough of that, the Demo build of The Office Park is compiling now and will be live in approximately two hours. Take care, and remember:

No zombie is safe from Chicago Ted.

A... Transition?

As anyone who's been paying any attention to their surroundings in the past few weeks can tell you, the inauguration was a heroic victory for all things that are blue. Being frozen for the better part of a day is generally a negative experience, but somehow a million-something of my closest friends managed to overlook our poor decisions and convince ourselves that it was all worthwhile. And it was. And though the actual crowd count may forever remain a mystery, the mass of humanity that filled the mall and seemed to stretch on for eternity was a daunting sight, to say the least. True to my nature, of course, I managed to convince myself that bringing my camera would be a bad idea only to change my mind mere minutes after paying my bus fare, and so I've failed once again to expand this 'hobby' of mine.

Now that I'm back, though, it has come to my attention that my 'photography, writing, and tech blog' has transitioned into a 'political zombie blog,' which is an angle I might pursue as I have resumed work on my Left 4 Dead campaign. With the Beta 0.5 release in two days, I've been hard at work hammering out some of the finer details that I've previously neglected. More on this soon.

Also deserving an honourable mention is the town of Zebulon in North Carolina, because never before have I been so convinced that a small town is inhabited by a race of highly advanced extraterrestrial beings.

Photo actually taken by someone else, in Georgia. Who'd have thought there was more than one?

Now if only I could have seen Jesse Jackson's face when Obama stepped out of his limo...

Left 4 Inauguration

Well of course, the moment I commit myself to regular blog updates is the moment I become embroiled in a fierce crusade to craft a recreation of my hometown for previously-mentioned zombie murdering masterpiece Left 4 Dead. But I've been remiss, and there's no excuse for it.

Of course, it can't be helped after Sunday, because I'm venturing north to try to get into the District of Columbia before the bridges are closed for the inauguration. No, I wasn't fortunate enough to get tickets to see the big man himself, but I'm just crazy enough to brave the crowds and sub-freezing temperatures anyway.

What all this means is two things: first, that I have every intention of abandoning my post(s) for at least another solid week, and second, that my return will mean a huge content boom for the site. This will be the temporary home for everything involving the development of my Left 4 Dead campaign (tentatively titled Concrete Bayou), including updates, concepts, and development milestones. A number of photography updates should be expected as well.

Also, happy new year, for those who mind. Now, if only I could find a pair of long johns...