News - Left 4 Dead Concept Art Contest

The release of Left 4 Dead is HERE, making zombie fans everywhere anxious and sweaty. As we ran this contest, we endeavored to get digital copies to the winners before the release date (which was formerly November 19th). However, due to Valve's speedier-than-expect delivery of the title (yippee!), winners probably won't be getting this news until a few hours after release. Sorry about that, we blame Valve — its all their fault. Although, I don't think any of the winners will deny it was totally worth it.

Judging this contest was no easy feat. The quality level across the bulk of entries was impressive. All of the judges were hard-pressed to vote for just one piece as their top choice. Over 70 entries qualified for entry and artists engaged in a healthy discussion over at the competition thread; providing critiques and comments for others submitting their works-in-progress. Alas, there can be only one grand prize winner. After all the votes had been tallied, here's how it all shook down:

Runner-up (tie - 2 copies of L4D on Steam each)

Grand Prize Winner

The grand prize winner will take home a Steam copy of Left 4 Dead along with his choice of an Xbox 360 or a video card of equivalent value.

So there you have it, congratulations to all the winners (check your email, guys)! And also to all contestants (browse all the entries here), we had a blast running this and hope you learned a lot and enjoyed the process. All judges picked different entries (valve especially) so keep up the fine work because who knows what the future holds. Also to any future L4D modders out there, consider implementing these great ideas when you change the game.

Zombies have always had a home in the modding scene (just check out the latest mod countdown if you want proof). It should come as no surprise that one of the most anticipated games of 2008 is Valve's cooperatively driven take on the zombie apocalypse, Left 4 Dead. In it, the story focuses on four individuals and their harrowing battles against the hordes of the infected that roam the streets. What about other survivors? What would they look like and what kind of deformed monstrosities would they be up against?

We want you to tell us! Send in your concepts of what you think would a good addition to the L4D universe, be it another survivor or infected boss monster. Have your concept chosen as the winner win copies of Left 4 Dead for you and your friends plus more! Entries will have to submit works-in-progress to the competition forum thread and the submission period ends November 15th, so get crackin'!

For full details, check out the Left 4 Dead contest profile. Good luck!