Left 4 Dead for fun. They turned out well enough that he decided to expand the sprites. The composition of the music was the most difficult part of the game's development for him, due to Valve's Left 4 Deads composition, citing "heavy string sections, brass, digital choruses, and more". This made it difficult to adapt it to only four channels of sound, two square waves, a triangle wave, and a noise channel in order to reproduce the NES' sound limitations. Despite Left 4 Deads four-player support, the Pixel Force version only has two-player support for technical reasons. Ruth also had to cut the Survivor and Versus modes from the original Left 4 Dead, along with some of the weapons. As of November 15, 2009, Ruth had completed one map — No Mercy — as well as most of the core game mechanics. The game was released on January 4, 2010, for Microsoft Windows. Pixel Force: Left 4 Dead started a series of fan-made retro game demakes of newer games under the Pixel Force label, followed by Pixel Force: DJ Hero and Pixel Force: Halo. A Pixel Force demake of the video game Psychonauts was considered. Reception Before its release, Pixel Force: Left 4 Dead received mostly reception for its trailers. In response to the first trailer, Kotaku writer Owen Good felt that the infected were too docile and the game seemed too easy. GameSpy writer Tyler Barber thought it was cute, though felt that a fast-paced action game like Robotron 2084 would fit Left 4 Dead better. However, he still intended to download it. Retronauts Bob Mackey called it "impressive", noting that while the first trailer was disappointing, the more recent one showed its ambition. 1Up.com writer Chris Pereira also found it impressive due to it being made by only one person. Rock Paper Shotgun writer Alec Meer thought the game looked "lovely". Upon release, the game was met with positive reception, with Valve describing the idea behind the game as "hilarious". Destructoid writer Jonathan Holmes called it "pretty fun", comparing its play style to NES games Fester's Quest and Ikari Warriors. Fellow Destructoid writer Jordan Devore called it a "cool little project", though he wished zombies moved faster. The Escapist writer John Funk noted it as a good choice for fans of both zombie and retro games. Eurogamer writer Tom Bramwell felt it was worth it for its "cutesy"