Valve has, most unexpectedly, released the official SDK this week, officially titled Left 4 Dead Authoring Tools. The SDK is still in beta, but we had a lot of fun tearing it open and playing with all the goodies inside nonetheless.

The updated version of Hammer still feels like the same ol’ Hammer we know and love. It has been redesigned, though, specifically for Left 4 Dead campaings, versus, and survival map editing. One of my favorite new features is that, once the model files are loaded, they stay loaded during a session. The SDK also comes with tons of example files to help newbies (such as us) get started.

Progress on The Suburbs is going well and we’re just finishing up with details on the house. Rick is currently making texture files to replace the “white boards” you see in the screenshots below, so please keep in mind that those are temporary placeholders.

This is a shot from the dining room looking out to the new backyard.

The front of the house; seen here is the garage to the left and the front porch to the right.

From the corner of the backyard, showing the back side of the house. The idea is that the survivors will start the campaign in the tree to the left, in a child’s treehouse they’ve been using for shelter. The fog controller’s colors still need to be tuned to better match the skybox.

A view of the backyard from the master bedroom. I was sucessfully able to climb through an upstairs window and onto the roof, so keep that in mind as it may serve as a strategic spot during the game.

Obviously there’s still quite a bit to go. Plans are to add bushes and piles of leaves, the treehouse, furniture, doors and windows, and various other details. Custom textures and models are also slated to be shown in the next few updates.