L4D Media Incoming, Interview - 7/10/08

Mike Booth has responded to a community interview put together by 411er Steve Cloud, confirming that L4D media is in production, details on changes to the Smoker, and clarification on the release date:

Do you plan on having trailers exploring the four survivors similar to Team Fortress 2's "Meet the Team" advertisements?

L4D media is in production. We hope to have the first of it online for folks to check out in the coming weeks.

Does the Smoker's tongue still poison survivors, turning their health into temporary health?

No. In all cases, the Smoker wraps his tongue around the victim's chest and squeezes boa-constrictor-style until that player is saved by a friend, or dies. Pain Pills are the only source of temporary health now, which is much more understandable and discoverable for the player.

The release date in UK was the 7th. Does the UK release date also include any other countries or just the UK?

We're targeting the first week of Nov for availability everywhere. Retail debut dates vary by country, and L4D will become available on the standard "new release day" of that week.

Will there be things like the taunts from TF2 in L4D? I don't think taunts would really fit the games's style, what about things like "Whoop! Nice work people!" type expressions through animation?

The auto-vocalizations in TF2 were added after the dev team played L4D and saw how effective they were. We really do collaborate at Valve, and this is yet another example of the benefits of such cross-pollination.

Make sure to check out the entire interview here, which not only has what questions Mike answered but the ones he decided not to (including if L4D will be at QuakeCon). Huge thanks to community member Steve Cloud for putting together this interview and providing us with some information to munch on until the E3 barrage next week.