Left 4 Dead has one of the best designs of boxing art in the recent history of video games. Simple, attracting attention and memorable thanks to the hand, the bright green cover L4D was the main element of the gaming table on the PC or on the floor near the TV during the heyday of the game about zombies. Even Falishk, the developer Valve, whose merits are also Portal and Half-Life, recalls that the creation of the Left 4 Dead cover was a real nightmare, and one meeting with the future creator of Steam Deck was especially "terrible".
This is a difficult task – to try to accommodate everything that is in the game, one attractive, characteristic image in one. As a result, LEFT 4 Dead coped with this task, taking its place in the canon of the best boxing arts, but the image of the cover prototype, which recently appeared on the network, which you can see below, along with the final design, prompted Falishech to recall the difficult creative process.
The meeting about the cover of the box was terrible. I was not ready and got on the ass for being sure that it was not working, but could not clearly explain why.
Falishk, who also worked on Half -Life 2 episodes, describes in detail how the Left 4 Dead cover was planned and finalized – and how it all started with rethinking the illustrations for the series of Stephen Spielberg about the Second World War "Brothers in Arms".
So there was a meeting on boxing art. I did not know that she would take place. I was not preparing for this. The first was shown photography "Brothers in arms". I didn’t like her, and I could not express why I did not like her, because of a few things. Firstly, I did not raise my head – I did not look up and did not see where the project was located with everyone else.
This meeting made me the impression that I can say where I was sitting. Gabe Newell sat opposite me, the door was there there. I screwed up and Gabe did not let me go from the hook. I did not prepare for this and was not ready. So I not only did not look up, but did not express a vision, feeling, essence of the game to the team.
Falishki talks about how he felt at the meeting, and about some reasons why he could not correctly explain his opinion about the box-art LEFT 4 DeAD. As you can imagine, work in Valve, especially after the Half-Life 2 exit, may seem a little frightening when it comes to sharing your own creative vision. Falishk explains in more detail:
Until this moment, Valve made Half-Life 2 and beautiful things similar to symphonic orchestras, close to perfection. I played in student rock groups and got drunk very much until vomit. And I was scared to talk about it. I’m not from a family of creative people. We don’t make a movie. And therefore it was strange that in this room they allowed me to say something like "Oh no, you’re wrong, it’s not right".
After Gabe talked with me about this to find out if everything is in order, because he likes to hold meetings where he can be extremely clear with people. And he very clearly told people that I failed him, and he was right, I failed. And I thought: "Yes, it’s cool", Because I learned so much. This laid out an imprint on me, that I am allowed to own this, I am allowed to be creative, I am allowed to talk about it".
Falishki says that this meeting allowed him to describe Left 4 Dead in other terms and gave him the opportunity to better understand how to discuss other creative ideas. In fact, he believes that "terrible" The meeting helped strengthen the vision of the main experience L4D.
This is a zombie apocalypse with your friends, right?. This is a terrible thing, but with your friends, so this is a good pastime. All these things arose from this. And this came out of this – not because I was smart enough to talk about it in advance – but because Gabe pulled it out of me and pushed me to this. It was great, and since then I have not forgotten this lesson.
So, the next time you launch Left 4 Dead and admire her perfectly balanced by a cooperative, a carefully detailed environment and a classic design of monsters, remember that even the cover has been carefully thought out. I wonder how the cover for Left 4 Dead 3 could look like.