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Deadlockmod
04-24-2009, 01:30 PM
I'm posting all our old news posts all along with this. It's a lot to read, so either read something else, or grab some popcorn.

*****INITIAL RELEASE*****

Hello all,

My name's O'Malley and I'm a member of the development team for DEADLOCK (http://www.deadlockmod.com), a Left4Dead Multiplayer modification. In DEADLOCK, two teams of survivors are pitted against one another and endless waves of zombies. The mod stresses team play, resource management, and massive amounts of zombie kills. On top of this, our mod boasts over 30 weapons, a large array of usable items (and drugs!), new characters complete with player models, dynamic environments, and a new and more realistic health system.

Right now we are in our fourth week of production (after two months of pre-production) and are looking for a few more team members. Our current staff is composed of motivated individuals with industry experience who are working day and night to move the project forward.

Mods get a bad rap because a high percentage of them die young and abruptly (we've got a high infant mortality rate I guess), but Deadlock is different. We're not here for money, but it's not amateur hour either. Our team is established and things have been running smoothly for three months. Now we're trying to build a community to get feedback from as we develop. If you're interested in the mod, please track us on ModDB (http://www.moddb.com/mods/deadlock), Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=54847819493), Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/thedeadlockteam), Steam (http://steamcommunity.com/groups/deadlockmod), or our Forums (http://www.deadlockmod.com/forum).

As stated above, we are currently looking for similarly motivated individuals to join our team and help make our mod a success, while also furthering their career in the gaming industry. Our most immediate need is for a Character Concept Artist. If you are interested in joining the team, check out the Application Section of our forums (http://www.deadlockmod.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=42).

*****NEWS MARCH 24TH*****

The mod is undergoing steady production. We've added three artists to our ranks: Stefan our Character Concept artist, Matt our 2D General Artist, and Hannah our Zombie Artist. They're all working diligently and we should have media to display shortly. Stefan has already drawn several of our characters in black and white and fleshed one out entirely in color (see below).

Also, we're now hosting biweekly Left4Dead parties (http://www.deadlockmod.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=103) for our community. Our last party was a full Versus game that ended up being VERY close! To play with us all you have to do is be a member of our Steam Group (http://steamcommunity.com/groups/deadlockmod). The games are Tuesdays and Fridays at 3PM PST.

Finally, the volume of media we've had has easily doubled, and our forums have jumped massively in postings per day. We've released more images of models (made by our 3D Artists, Michael and Benoit), some modder tutorials, and a full color character concept. Most of the content can be found on our ModDB Page (http://www.moddb.com/mods/deadlock). I've also posted some images below (click image for a high res version).

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f331/ajman098/farmercolorsmall.jpg (http://www.deadlockmod.com/forumimgs/farmercolor.jpg)

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f331/ajman098/Antibiotic02small.jpg (http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f331/ajman098/Antibiotic02.jpg)

*****NEWS APRIL 6TH*****

We greatly appreciate those of you who have supported our mod! Thanks to sexy folks like yourselves, our fan-base grows larger every day. Last weekend our Steam Group (http://steamcommunity.com/groups/deadlockmod) hit 50 members. On top of that, we are consistently ranked among the top tenth percentile on ModDB (http://www.moddb.com/mods/deadlock).

Our team has gotten larger once again, with the addition of our new animator, Gregory (http://www.gecklund.com/). His voluminous amount of industry experience is a great asset for our mod.

We've released more media as well. Hannah's "Female Zombie" concept art and Benoit's "Road Flare" model (see below) top the list. To get the latest materials we release, when we release them, consider tracking us on ModDB (http://www.moddb.com/mods/deadlock/). I am also now working on a few mapping tutorials and survival-style maps that will be hosted on L4Dmods.

Finally, do you use Twitter? If so, follow us (http://twitter.com/TheDEADLOCKTeam)! We try to update it 3-4 times a week, and with our expanding team size that number should grow.

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f331/ajman098/z_woman1xsmall.jpg (http://www.moddb.com/mods/deadlock/images/female-zombie-w-hair-by-hannah#imagebox) http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f331/ajman098/RoadFlarexsmall.jpg (http://www.moddb.com/mods/deadlock/images/road-flare#imagebox)

*****NEWS APRIL 22TH*****

To start off, our team has gotten much larger! We've added three more 3D Artists: Bojin, Paul, and Alex. They are diligently working on the models and characters that will bring the DEADLOCK world to life.

Our new Audio Director Tony, with the help of Andy (our audio technician) is tackling the gargantuan task of recording and perfecting every sound we plan on using in the mod.

Though it was a slow week for 3D Non-Character development, we have had some major strides in Zombie Art development, thanks to the lovely/grotesque work of Hannah. We've posted the bulk of her work on our ModDB Page (http://www.moddb.com/mods/deadlock). Here's a snippet for you:

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f331/ajman098/zomb1_side_small.jpg (http://www.moddb.com/mods/deadlock/images/zombie-male-head-side-view#imagebox)

From this, Alex and Bojin have begun working on models for the zombies, and some early stills of these will be released soon on our website. Starting this week, all 3D promo materials will be released a week early on our forums (http://www.deadlockmod.com/forum/index.php) before they are released on forums like this one. So, if you want to get the most up-to-date info on the mod, please join us at DEADLOCKmod.com (http://www.deadlockmod.com)!

We're working hard to keep our community entertained between updates. We've added a Zombie Apocalypse Role-Play (http://www.deadlockmod.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=25) section to our forums and our L4D Parties (http://www.deadlockmod.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=103) have also been growing. We're currently looking into getting a couple dedicated servers up to make hosting the games easier for our staff, as well as a means for trying out some custom gameplay.

If you read all that, my hat's off to you!

-O'Malley

Steve Cloud
04-24-2009, 03:16 PM
Sounds like an awesome mod idea and I look forward to trying it out.

I wonder though, are the zombies shamblers or runners?

Suman
04-24-2009, 03:21 PM
I really agree with Steve, this already seems awesome, I too have a question.

When you write "two teams of survivors are pitted against one another and endless waves of zombies." Do you mean that 2 teams of survivors will try to defeat eachother, while killing zombies?

Frito
04-24-2009, 03:42 PM
Sounds like great progress, and a great idea. I look forward to this.

Deadlockmod
04-24-2009, 03:48 PM
Sounds like an awesome mod idea and I look forward to trying it out. I wonder though, are the zombies shamblers or runners?

Thanks for the support! Our zombies are going to be less mob-powered than L4D. They will be stronger, as well as quick, while lacking the strength of the large groups they have in L4D.

I really agree with Steve, this already seems awesome, I too have a question. When you write "two teams of survivors are pitted against one another and endless waves of zombies." Do you mean that 2 teams of survivors will try to defeat eachother, while killing zombies?

Loving the support! Yes, the survivors are fighting over resources and stomping groups, while they are attacked by waves of zombies.

Sounds like great progress, and a great idea. I look forward to this.

Again, thank you all for the thumbs-up! We're working hard to bring you all a quality product. Please continue to post your questions, comments, and any other feedback!

-O'Malley

Shrubberyjsc
04-24-2009, 03:56 PM
Any plans for building barricades?

BlackCat
04-24-2009, 04:02 PM
This seems like an awesome mod! =D

Damen
04-24-2009, 04:03 PM
Looks like a great mod. Hopefully we will get some beta sometime soon in the future. I have much more hope for this mode than one_of_them's. Even though I think one's idea is a bit better I doubt it will ever be completed.

DarkevilPT
04-24-2009, 04:03 PM
Nice Job, keep Ahead with that!

Steve Cloud
04-24-2009, 04:19 PM
Looks like a great mod. Hopefully we will get some beta sometime soon in the future. I have much more hope for this mode than one_of_them's. Even though I think one's idea is a bit better I doubt it will ever be completed.

If you want to be negative about On3's mod, do it in the thread about On3's mod.

yourbadmega
04-24-2009, 04:42 PM
it still sounds like it's well into production and you have capable people working on it. Your mod might not be the first official one, but it will be a quality one. Keep up the good work

FaceGrater
04-24-2009, 07:27 PM
I like the idea of pitting two survivor teams against each other. I was hoping someone would do something like that with left 4 dead. I had a similar idea but mine was based off of the "The Walking Dead" comic series. I look forward too this, please don't get M-SIDS.

Easton Dark
04-24-2009, 08:03 PM
Why cant l4d's zombies look like that!!

That would make survival so much more epic

nice job

Deadlockmod
04-24-2009, 09:12 PM
Thanks so much everybody for the comments! I've already passed everything over to the team, and they were happy with your responses. I'll keep updating this thread with news as it develops.

Any plans for building barricades?

We've actually been publicly discussing this very matter with uor community! You should throw your opinion in. Here's a link to the discussion:

http://www.deadlockmod.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=74

Steve Cloud
04-24-2009, 09:43 PM
What sort of weapon selection will there be?

By that, I mean: Are there only firearms, are there melee weapons?
Are the weapons based on archetypes (shotgun, sniper rifle, machine gun, ect) and working in tiers as in Left 4 Dead? (Pump-Shotgun > Auto Shotgun)
Or are all 30 weapons be balanced and in some cases, unique?

darkmessiah
04-25-2009, 12:01 AM
I have much more hope for this mode than one_of_them's. Even though I think one's idea is a bit better I doubt it will ever be completed.

Ass... ho... le...

I support you DeadLockTeam.

DethPenguin
04-25-2009, 12:43 AM
If you let me beat down zombies with a loaf of bread in this mod, I'd buy it.

Deadlockmod
06-11-2009, 04:05 PM
News update!

As some of you may know it was recently finals for most college students, Deadlock developers included. Good news is, (at least for the northern hemisphere) it's summer!

Though sporadically, work has continued through this dry spell. Some of you may have noticed our ModDB exclusive releases (http://www.moddb.com/mods/deadlock/news/3d-promos-character-concepts) of our 12 characters in black and white. If not, I recommend checking them out now. Stefan did a wonderful job on them!

Stef is now busy on coloring them (http://www.moddb.com/mods/deadlock/images/farmer-wip-by-stefan-hansson#imagebox) as well as working on a 3d version of his suburban male (http://www.moddb.com/mods/deadlock/images/urban-male-model-by-stefan-hansson#imagebox) for animation purposes. On that subject, our animation department has started gearing up for the large number of models they will be animating soon. Keep an eye out for some videos we plan to release concerning this.

Speaking of movies, we're very excited to release our first official video, our Repathing Demo (http://www.moddb.com/mods/deadlock/videos/repathvid#imagebox)! This video explains our plans to make all of our levels dynamic and more replayable. If you have any questions about the video, please forward them to the modDB page (http://www.moddb.com/mods/deadlock/videos/repathvid#commentreply), where you will get the quickest response.

Finally, we're announcing our opening of auditions for Voice Acting for the Deadlock cast! Not only are you able to easily submit audio for review by our team, but you can come up with your own lines of dialogue too. If you're interested in becoming a voice actor (or possibly a writer) for Deadlock, check out the new site (http://www.deadlockmod.com/dialog.php).

As always, thank you for giving us your love, hate, questions, comments, and criticism.

-O'Malley

SlainPwner666
06-11-2009, 05:08 PM
I've been following this pretty closely, and I have a few questions, comments and such.

Questions
1. Will survivors be able to kill one another?
2. Have you and your team taken steps to prevent griefing and exploiting?
3. Can you give us an uncompleted list of all of the weapons in the game?
4. Besides stacking fire against the zombies, what encourages cooperation?

Comments
1. I'm liking the way that this mod is taking shape, and with the SDK being released shortly, I have a ton of hope for this mod.
2. I like the idea of both co-operation and competition.
3. My only worry about this mod is that it will encourage people to team kill and exploit just to get at a food source or medical supply. Which spawned questions #1 & 2

gutsydude
06-17-2009, 11:54 AM
1. will there be large teams(more then four per team)
2. will there be, like checkpoints(small areas with resources)
3. last one, will there be an AK-47?
thnx if you don't think i'm bieng a critic

lawlhat
06-17-2009, 12:02 PM
Woah this looks epic. Definitely following on ModDB