Zombie massacre game, Left 4 Dead initially had a more dark low brigthness lighting. Valve explained the reason for to increased brightness in a new blog entry that with the darker earlier build, play testers were having difficulty spotting zombies. They designed the game to allow player to see silhouettes of zombies from a distance to avoid being mobbed. They said :
Because of this, playtesters weren't able to see zombie silhouettes in the midground and background. Because of this, they were repeatedly getting mobbed.
While sudden zombie attacks were inarguably scary, they were also frustrating—players weren't being given the information they needed to react. They wanted that "Here they come!" moment, and we weren't giving it to them. The solution? Light-colored fog
I think this is what makes a Valve game so well polished. The amount of play testing they do, it takes years for them to develop the game. But when its done, its so well made and everything so cleverly thought out.
The blog post has details on how Valve made some other design decisions on the art style and is a good read.
Source : http://www.l4d.com/blog/post.php?id=2129
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