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We love the sound of the wonderfully-named Left 4 Dead, Valve's upcoming four-player co-op zombie survival horror game, but we're still not entirely sure what it's all about. Never fear, Chet Faliszek, the game's project manager and writer, was at EA Games' showcase media event in London to give us the low-down on what could turn out to be an essential experience on PC and Xbox in 2008.

VideoGamer.com: Where did the idea for Left 4 Dead come from?

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Chet Faliszek: Originally there was a company called Turtle Rock, started by Michael Booth, and they did a bunch of work for us for Counter Strike. Michael Booth did the bots for CV and the CS bots in general, and the whole team down there did Militia and some other maps for us. While they were doing that they were always thinking they wanted to have their own IP, they wanted to have their own game. Mike is a really big AI guy, that's his fun, and so he wanted something that would lend itself to that and equally he started liking co-op games. We get further and further in this process of Xbox LIVE and Steam, it's easier and easier to hook up and play with your friends. They brought the game to us at a stage where it was just grey walls, mapped out and using assets from CS, and instantly everyone was just like, oh right you guys are on to something; this is really fun. Some of us started working on it even when it was still Turtle Rock doing it because Valve has worked closely enough with them that we could go back and forth. Then this past winter we purchased them, or, we integrated ourselves with them permanently...

VideoGamer.com: It sounds like you purchased them...

CF: Well it's such a weird thing to say!

VideoGamer.com: Yeah, they're people right, not bread.

CF: Yeah, but also it's one of those things that goes both ways right. Valve's integrated great single-player storytelling, it's in all of our multiplayer games, but in this kind of game we're pretty good at storytelling where we control things that happen and we give you this experience, whereas they were really working on this dynamic way to do this. Our games we make a fighting arena, and we want to give you a break from combat. What Mike figured out, with this AI director which sits over the top of everything, is how to do that dynamically. So your interaction and behaviour isn't just tied to a piece of architecture, it can happen anywhere in the game. And so you'll see, like right now (points to 360 pods playing the game) they're at the hilltop and there's no Infected running around right now. Next time they come here there might be a ton of Infected running around. But equally both times as the director sees you ramping up in intensity and having this intense experience it will also drop you off then and calm you down. So it's doing the things we used to do level wise, it's doing it dynamically with the AI and how it interacts with you and the Infected. We have this cool thing where it's different each time and the experience always gives you these lulls where you can actually catch your breathe and actually end up feeling freaky.

VideoGamer.com: A lot of our readers own a PS3. How come the game isn't coming to PS3?

CF: It just really comes down to the 360 is really easy for us to do. We developed the PC and 360 version almost simultaneously. They're like a day off kind of thing where we build the next stage of the 360 version, but the Source Engine lets us just develop at the same time both the games. It just makes it really easy and simple, to the point where it would just be stupid if we ever don't do a 360 version of one of our games. It literally almost comes for free for us.

On the PS3 it's just a different beast for us. The Orange Box was actually done outside, not by us. That's not to say that we won't do some version later but at this point we're just concentrating on PC and Xbox.

VideoGamer.com But the game could potentially come to the PS3 at a future date?

CF: Who knows it could come to the DS one day! We're never against trying to put it on anything right. But the demand comes from making the best possible game you can and that's what we're great at and that's what we're doing. And so, if the demand follows we'll go anywhere but right now we're just concentrating on the PC and 360.

VideoGamer.com: What was your opinion on how The Orange Box turned out on PS3?

CF: It was a fine product. We had some people give it a little bit negative there in the beginning but past that I think you saw strong reviews, it sold well. You just don't have as big of an audience States wise, compared to the 360, so the PC version is where we spend a lot of our time. With that way we came afterwards so you're always going to have less adoption because a lot of people have multiple platforms and they're going to choose the one that comes out first.

VideoGamer.com: The feeling in terms of performance was they didn't turn out exactly the same. Is that just down to the PS3's architecture?

CF: A different team developed that so it's going to be different. I am not a technical guy to know the trials and tribulations of how they handled the PS3 versus the PC. But I just know we expect the PC and the 360 to have the same experience, to not have one harm the other.

VideoGamer.com: What's the release time period of Left 4 Dead?

CF: Fall 2008.

VideoGamer.com: Do you think it will be a simultaneous Europe/US release.

CF: I know it's going to be. We're a partner with EA and not EA studios. We have a history of simultaneous release. The Orange Box was available on simultaneous release. It's just easier for us that way.

VideoGamer.com: I had the impression that it was harder to get a game out at the same time everywhere.

CF: Well it's not hard for me because I don't have to do the work! But for the rest of the company that's just how we like to do with it.

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