14 DAY TRIAL // Evolve, the new title from Turtle Rock, might be headed to the Xbox One from Microsoft, the PlayStation 4 from Sony, and the PC later in the year, but the studio initially started working to launch it on the current generation of consoles, while it still was a part of publisher THQ.
Chris Ashton, who is the design director working on the project, tells VG247 that his team initially started the development process before it knew exactly what Microsoft and Sony were preparing to reveal.
He explains, “When we were with THQ we didn’t even know when the next-gen systems were coming, so when we started development the idea was to go to current-gen, but as soon as those doors opened it was going to be a really brutal challenge to maintain the type of game we wanted to make.”
Working on the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 meant that the team needed to deal with a number of hardware limits, including how much foliage they could include and the amount of animals that could be introduced in a level.
Turtle Rock was evaluating how to create the game while adapting to the hardware they had access to when they found out about the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4 and the improved power they were supposed to introduce.
Ashton adds, “It was really hurting the game and I’m not talking about visuals, these are things that are core to the game Evolve, and so fortunately the next-gen systems came out, 2K adopted the title and we all took a look together at both options. The right decision was to go exclusive to next-gen to make sure that the vision for the game could actually be executed on.”
It’s unclear how far along in the development process the current-gen versions of Evolve were when the team abandoned them.
Evolve is a five-player asymmetrical experience that will ask gamers to take on the role of a monster or a human character.
The creature needs to explore a level searching for opportunities to evolve and gain more power and abilities while also isolating his enemies to take each one out individually.
The hunters need to focus on teamwork in order to use their own weapons and skills to slow down the monster and then take him out before he gets too strong.
Evolve set to launch in the autumn of this year.