tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2815369594819576239Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:09:15 +0000No camping. No marshmallows. No hope. Come and get some new Left 4 Dead action for free!http://www.ihatemountains.com/index.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Nicolas)Blogger25125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2815369594819576239.post-17472111587149253Thu, 04 Mar 2010 00:05:00 +00002010-03-08T20:01:17.504+01:00versusmapsgameplaylumberyardvalveLike we said on our Twitter feed a few days ago, we recently decided to restrain ourselves to a few deadlines. The work is nearly over (I know we're always saying that), the first deadline was 4 days ago, and we only missed it by a few days. Unfortunately, we still can't give any release date yet because we're waiting for Valve to fix the game (else we can't even play the campaign properly), but http://www.ihatemountains.com/2010/03/light-at-end-of-tunnel.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Marc / Moroes)27tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2815369594819576239.post-7481027099431838936Sun, 07 Feb 2010 03:09:00 +00002010-02-07T04:24:14.673+01:00problemvalveDon't worry, we're not posting articles anymore because we're migrating our website to Wordpress. Google is slowly giving up on the external publishing and hosting features on their Blogger platform. This is quite a sudden decision on their part, and it seems that all they want is to gain control over all the blogs they're hosting and save a few bucks. Even if we see the advantage of letting http://www.ihatemountains.com/2010/02/dont-worry.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Nicolas)12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2815369594819576239.post-8130501648065361249Fri, 22 Jan 2010 01:01:00 +00002010-02-06T20:44:20.591+01:00mapslakesideBecause it's been a long time since we last provided new materials, here's 3 brand new action screenshots taken from the Lakeside level during our last playtest. We try to keep as much mystery as possible around this one, but we've been busy working on weather recently and as it turned out pretty good, we wanted to share it with you. Color correction is awesome. Also, playing with the right http://www.ihatemountains.com/2010/01/thunderstorm.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Nicolas)38tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2815369594819576239.post-7373482815717369376Wed, 23 Dec 2009 23:02:00 +00002010-01-05T21:26:29.118+01:00mapslakesidegameplaylumberyardvalvesource sdkOkay, I don't know for you and your country, but in France, we just entered Christmas Eve day. For a few days (probably more than two weeks), we'll keep silent and take a break with family. But before we leave, we wanted to say a few last things about the campaign. We know it's taking a bit longer than expected to get this campaign done. In fact, this is taking way longer than expected. At firsthttp://www.ihatemountains.com/2009/12/clarification-campaign-overview.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Nicolas)24tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2815369594819576239.post-808297679675260809Tue, 01 Dec 2009 19:20:00 +00002009-12-02T10:31:03.359+01:00misc... but still, we're giving it a shot. You may have noticed the huge ugly block that appeared on top of the website*. It's a place dedicated to hype and modernism, a place were our tweets sit. Okay, we're not going to explain you how Twitter works, but now if you're interested, we might give some more frequent but less interesting news about what we do with the campaign via this trendy website. http://www.ihatemountains.com/2009/12/i-hate-twitter.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Nicolas)7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2815369594819576239.post-6276480207087339340Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:41:00 +00002009-12-08T14:37:46.131+01:00problemvalvesource sdkSince the release of Left 4 Dead 2 a week ago, we received a few emails asking us if it was going to have any consequences on our I Hate Mountains campaign. I thought it could be good to clear up the situation for everyone at the same time. So here's our thoughts on the current situation. First, there's still no SDK for Left 4 Dead 2 and something tells us that we might not see it before a long http://www.ihatemountains.com/2009/11/lies-and-concerns.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Nicolas)27tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2815369594819576239.post-6053026501272016048Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:15:00 +00002009-11-03T15:17:49.987+01:00mapsdifficultyproblemvalveJust a quick note to tell everyone to try the Suicide Blitz campaign for Left 4 Dead 1. We don't know the guy who made it, but kudos to him, we were asbolutely thrilled when we played it yesterday. The campaign is brilliant and beautiful, full of details and sweet lighting. Plus, the ambience is really great, the difficulty high enough for a great challenge and the optimisation is quite good too.http://www.ihatemountains.com/2009/11/advertising-and-notifying.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Nicolas)20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2815369594819576239.post-5932228204111595569Thu, 22 Oct 2009 23:07:00 +00002009-10-23T02:22:07.569+02:00valveOur last news got a bit buried under this new Left 4 Dead 2 trailer, don't forget to check it out too and understand why it takes us so long to release something good. By the way, don't expect our trailer to be this awesome...http://www.ihatemountains.com/2009/10/best-trailer-ever.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Nicolas)9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2815369594819576239.post-6319171187210890149Wed, 21 Oct 2009 23:36:00 +00002009-11-09T21:53:30.230+01:00difficultyproblemmanorvalveundergroundforestsource sdkAs you may already know it, we're almost done with the big stuff (ie: level-design and gameplay). What's left is mostly bugfixes, sound effects and little details here and there, which will still take some time. But I'd like to point a few things I'm not really happy with recently and that most people don't understand when they contact us. I'm not gonna make a pamphlet about Valve, but the http://www.ihatemountains.com/2009/10/could-someone-fix-left-4-dead.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Nicolas)26tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2815369594819576239.post-4515790541005164359Sun, 04 Oct 2009 20:00:00 +00002009-10-05T00:35:38.405+02:00mapslakesidelumberyardvalveIt's been a while since we last gave you some real news about the content of the campaign itself and most of you had been pretty patient until now. We never stopped working on the campaign, but we're not working on it full-time either, so it takes some time. You already know that the first, second and third maps are finished ; it still need a few tweaks here and there, but nothing really hard to http://www.ihatemountains.com/2009/10/fresh-news-from-front.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Geoffroy)27tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2815369594819576239.post-2037175811772469259Sat, 19 Sep 2009 12:56:00 +00002009-09-20T17:44:30.323+02:00Hey people, it's not because we're not posting any news that we're not working. I bet a lot of people don't understand how hard it is to come up with a campaign like this one, when you're not paid for it nor supposed to work on it everyday for 7+ hours. Let me explain... One regular single map can take up to one year of work to be fully finished and polished to the max (I even saw more). Imaginehttp://www.ihatemountains.com/2009/09/imbroglio.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Nicolas)30tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2815369594819576239.post-3848001256795911191Sat, 15 Aug 2009 11:38:00 +00002009-08-15T17:03:02.190+02:00mapsproblemmanorHi back, I'm writing this from home, where I'm constrained since a few weeks... It's been a terrible mess recently and we kind of lost our goal with this campaign. As I'm writing, I don't really know where my team mates are and I don't really know if they're still working on their part of the campaign since I didn't had any news for a few weeks. I became sort of Internet-anonymous in the past fewhttp://www.ihatemountains.com/2009/08/is-anyone-there.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Nicolas)46tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2815369594819576239.post-1555393184105545671Mon, 06 Jul 2009 01:09:00 +00002009-07-29T16:26:13.060+02:00mapslakesidegameplaylumberyardmanorvalveundergroundforestWe know it's been seriously quiet there since mid-may regarding new materials, but don't panic! We'll have plenty of new things to announce in the upcoming weeks. No, not a release date unfortunately, but some crusty details about the manor (exterior detailling stuff), the lumberyard (progress stuff), the lakeside (progress stuff), the forest (gameplay stuff) and the underground (ambience stuff).http://www.ihatemountains.com/2009/07/hang-on-tight.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Nicolas)40tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2815369594819576239.post-306564986465441665Tue, 23 Jun 2009 23:18:00 +00002009-06-24T20:31:47.053+02:00mapsproblemvalvesource sdkIt's been a while since we last updated this blog with real content about the campaign and not just some random banter. It's been a while but that's it, the campaign is back on the rails. Geoffroy and Nicolas just finished their school year and I'm back from a little mapping rest. We're getting back to work, even if Valve seems to hate us, poor Left 4 Dead mappers, since they broke the SDK (againhttp://www.ihatemountains.com/2009/06/back-on-rails.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Marc / Moroes)13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2815369594819576239.post-8719958218072087681Thu, 04 Jun 2009 15:54:00 +00002009-07-06T03:20:39.752+02:00miscproblemvalvesource sdkFace it, everytime you're beginning to get "famous" in a way or another, everyone starts to ask you what's your opinion on everything. I'm not too fond on giving personal opinions in public, but hey... this is a blog after all. So, stop sending us e-mails, here's our opinion. With the recent announcement that Valve would be releasing Left 4 Dead 2 just one year after the first one, we've all http://www.ihatemountains.com/2009/06/left-4-dead-left-2-die.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Nicolas)34tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2815369594819576239.post-6441881347759146275Wed, 27 May 2009 09:21:00 +00002009-05-27T21:31:45.366+02:00miscmapsforestA quick message to tell you that we're not dead yet. It's just a flat period... I am working for my master of engineering final exams, Geoffroy is working for his end of the year exams, and Marc is still working hard at Ubisoft while doing his best to focus on the campaign each evening. We don't have any release date for the moment, we'd like to focus a bit more on levels and finish this up http://www.ihatemountains.com/2009/05/flat-period.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Nicolas)15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2815369594819576239.post-7976001876953702255Sat, 16 May 2009 16:01:00 +00002009-05-27T21:20:27.951+02:00problemvalvesource sdkAll right, you can stop sending us e-mails to say that the Left 4 Dead SDK was released yesterday, we already know it. We're actively following what's going on in Valve's universe day after day and downloaded it as soon as it came out. Unfortunately, it doesn't add anything useful to us for the moment, simply because we made our own SDK during this 6 month wait and because the Left 4 Dead http://www.ihatemountains.com/2009/05/left-4-dead-authoring-tools.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Nicolas)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2815369594819576239.post-3172510778798491789Tue, 12 May 2009 00:28:00 +00002009-05-12T17:59:02.776+02:00mapslumberyardvalveWhen we began to think about a campaign title and a slogan, we naturally tried to highlight our montainous environment with a catchy title, just like every official campaign. Once the title and slogan found, the second step was the creation of a movie poster, an essential step for every Left 4 Dead campaign, because this will probably be the first thing people will see before downloading it. Withhttp://www.ihatemountains.com/2009/05/finally-poster-and-lumberyard.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Marc / Moroes)18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2815369594819576239.post-3606025262893887939Mon, 27 Apr 2009 20:56:00 +00002009-04-28T00:29:25.322+02:00mapsgameplaydifficultyundergroundTwo weeks ago, we talked about the manor level and why we decided to do things the way they are right now. This week, the focus continues on the third level, the underground and on the overall campaign difficulty. When Nicolas wrote the game design document about the campaign, one of the key elements was to build a rather long campaign with changing environments and gameplay. The goal was to http://www.ihatemountains.com/2009/04/balancing-difficulty.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Geoffroy)17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2815369594819576239.post-6659192522262473732Fri, 17 Apr 2009 21:48:00 +00002009-04-19T15:01:23.621+02:00lakesideproblemsource sdkBelieve me, we'd really like to add some news on this front page, but I got an unfortunate accident with my Source SDK. Today, without any warning, it just stopped working. When opening up the Source SDK Launcher, there's nothing I can do anymore. It opens correctly, but I can't click anymore on the tools. If I try to double-click on Hammer Editor, Model Viewer or Face Poser, the SDK Launcher http://www.ihatemountains.com/2009/04/unfortunate-sdk-accident.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Nicolas)14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2815369594819576239.post-9101726937458311836Fri, 10 Apr 2009 21:57:00 +00002009-04-18T00:15:40.485+02:00valvesource sdkYesterday, we learnt that some people managed to get their hands on some private-exclusive-early access to the Left 4 Dead SDK. Which means a few things : First, that there is a SDK. That's not as bad as some people thought after all. Even if it's five months late, it's still better than never. Second, that Valve is testing it. Therefore, we can assume that they got it right this time. Hopefullyhttp://www.ihatemountains.com/2009/04/early-left-4-dead-sdk-access.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Nicolas)8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2815369594819576239.post-3748786231198725349Mon, 06 Apr 2009 20:35:00 +00002009-04-25T16:04:18.892+02:00mapsgameplaymanorDuring the last week, we talked about the forest level and how we managed to get around some of the limitations of the engine. This week, we'll focus a bit more on the second level, the manor. When the survivors get out of the forest, they must reach the highest point of a dusty manor and try to launch a distress call from the radio. Since we first talked about the campaign, some people asked http://www.ihatemountains.com/2009/04/building-emmental-also-known-as-manor.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Nicolas)8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2815369594819576239.post-7414218364462219260Mon, 30 Mar 2009 22:27:00 +00002009-04-18T00:16:09.756+02:00mapsgameplayproblemundergroundforestA few days ago, we unveiled our new project I Hate Mountains and this website was already visited by more than 3,000 people. This is quite impressive and it motivates us for the next part of the development. We'd like to thank you all for your support and your confidence. It's now our job to try not to disappoint you, and believe us, it will not be the case. Talking about the campaign, here's http://www.ihatemountains.com/2009/03/left-4-dead-hates-open-spaces.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Marc / Moroes)7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2815369594819576239.post-3703830683377181688Sat, 28 Mar 2009 22:25:00 +00002009-03-31T01:42:21.143+02:00A few hours after the first showcase of this campaign, we talked with the guys at NoFrag.com, a french FPS community. It's in french and we're talking about what are the drawbacks of mapping for Left 4 Dead without a proper SDK. Check it out: http://nofrag.com/2009/mar/28/30989/http://www.ihatemountains.com/2009/03/talking-with-nofrag-about-sdk.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Nicolas)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2815369594819576239.post-8799040231750459589Tue, 24 Mar 2009 19:24:00 +00002009-03-28T15:02:40.038+01:00mapslakesidelumberyardmanorundergroundforestHere we are. Almost half a year passed since we began communicating on our previous project Portal: Prelude, and we believe it's time to unveil our next plans. Welcome to IHateMountains.com! Beware, the following is a shameless copy of the about page. What? You hate mountains? No, it's not a joke, and no, we don't really hate mountains (only Francis does). "I Hate Mountains" is the name of a http://www.ihatemountains.com/2009/03/what-hell-is-this-all-about-bis.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Nicolas)11