Left 4 Dead studio Turtle Rock's upcoming PC, PS4, and Xbox One shooter Evolve is the developer's opportunity to show that they are "not just Valve's bitch" according to founder Phil Robb in an interview with MCV.
Speaking about the game, which sees four players take on the roles of various human soldiers to take on a monster controlled by the fifth player, Robb said:
“All of this is very new to me. I have been on some big games, but I’ve never been this into it before with all the hoopla. For us this is a big deal, this is our proving ground. We are not just Valve’s bitch. I feel for the past 20 years we’ve been having to prove ourselves over and over. So here we are again, trying to prove ourselves.”
He's previously commented that Valve acted as good "mentors" for Turtle Rock but it's time for the studio to move on.
Despite the studio's significant success with Left 4 Dead, publishers were reluctant to invest in Evolve and so Turtle Rock eventually turned to THQ. There was only one problem, THQ was collapsing:
“We signed with THQ and we knew they were having some financial difficulties. But the guys there were such advocates of Evolve, they were so excited about it, and they were willing to take risks. And for us, we have a tendency to root for the underdog.
“Then when things started to fall apart for them, it was scary but we knew we had a good game. We play it every night and our guys scream and holler and hoot. So even if the worst happened, we believed we’d find someone else to pick it up.”
Despite THQ's problems and publishers' initial reluctance to pick up Evolve, when the IP came up for sale many were eager to take control of the franchise.
“We worked with THQ for a while, and all that time we weren’t allowed to say anything about Evolve. It was a big secret. And then all of a sudden, THQ starts to crumble, the auction starts, and every publisher that wants to see it – and it was quite a few – gets to come and rummage through our underwear drawer. It was uncomfortable. But, while they were evaluating us, we were evaluating them, too.”
Robb explained that Turtle Rock had three best case scenarios at that point; that THQ would pull off a miraculous recovery, that 2K would gain control of the IP, or, “as a fail safe we bid for our own product, which was all the money we could scrape up, and it would have been really fucking tense if we would have got it.”
He said that buying control of Evolve themselves was very much plan C and Turtle Rock is more than happy to be working with 2K who Robb says they have the "best rapport" and who he says "seemed so enthusiastic" during the buying process.
You can check out Evolve's Happy Hunting trailer here.
