Talking Evolve With Chris Ashton

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Still craving some Evolve news after that awesome beta? Good news, I had a chance to talk to Chris Ashton, co-founder of Turtle Rock Studios, the developer behind the intense cat and mouse game. He had some things to say concerning the recent DLC debacle that the game is facing, as well as some changes from the beta to release. Hope you enjoy!

There has been a little bit of an outcry recently over the DLC for Evolve being pricey. Would you like to clear the air on some of that? I’m no economist, so I don’t know how all the numbers work out. What I do know is that it takes a huge effort to create something like a new Hunter or new Monster. I think the price reflects our up front development cost. If dlc is cheap to make, it’ll be priced cheaply (such as skins.) Though we’re also spending money to develop free content. New maps and new modes are in the works now, and we won’t charge a dime for those because we believe that keeping the community together is a necessity. Nobody should ever feel obligated to buy dlc. It’s there if you love the game and want more and don’t want to wait a number of years until a sequel is released. With the beta ending recently and launch being just weeks away, what changes will be made in the launch title that we didn’t see over the past weekend in the beta? Lots of adjustments to the matchmaking system. Lots of bug fixes. Tuning adjustments, not only to the balance of certain characters but also to the progression rates. The beta also gave us a lot of insight into things we want to do in the future. Evolve will really change over time according to the community.

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I have to say, I love the game’s way of not holding the players hands in terms of gameplay, but I think that is where a lot of the “This game is repetitive” complaints are coming from. People are not really grasping the depth that this game has. You really have to play a couple hours at least to get a basic understanding of it. Do you worry that people won’t stick it out to see the games full potential? There is a hump to get over. I think that hump exists in all competitive on-line games. What Evolve really has going for it is that it is extremely fun to watch. So besides things like tutorial videos, we’re starting to shift our focus to spectating the game. You learn a lot when you watch other people play. We think that’s our window that will let people see the real depth of the game and learn optimum strategies more quickly.

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How often will we see new Hunters, Monsters, maps, and modes? Will it be a seasonal thing or? Not sure. While we have shipped three monsters (Evolve has gone gold), we have never made dlc characters before. It’s a slightly different process. With Behemoth, we have three gameplay coders working on Behemoth at once. Traditionally, we had one engineer per monster for six months. So with Behemoth, we are trying to build him more quickly by utilizing more manpower. We’ll have a much better idea of release schedules in the future, and obviously the supply of new characters will depend on the demand. It seems a lot of people are keen to welcome Evolve into the E sport arena, and I have to say, watching a match gets the blood pumping just like actually playing, which is rare in competitive gaming. What will the tournament set up look like and how do you plan on supporting it? I think everyone is trying to figure that out. I think teams of five is the way to go. Maybe the lowest ranked team gets to choose which side they play in the first game (Monster or Hunter.) The losing team gets to choose which side (and possibly map) they get to play in the second game. If that ends in a tie, I’d like to see a third round played for the tie breaker. Maybe the lower ranked team gets to pick side, and the higher ranked team gets to pick map or something. How hard was it to execute the 4v1 aspect of the game? I imagine there is quite a lot of balancing issues to deal with. The actual balance work is pretty straight forward but the foundation of the game took a ton of iteration and time. The hard part is that we sort of built two games in one. Four player co-op fps on one side and a third person Monster simulator on the other side. Those two games clash in Evolve, and it needs to feel competitive and fun for both teams. In hind sight the idea is maybe a little crazy but I think that’s one of the reasons Evolve stands out from the crowd. I hear Evolve has been in development for quite some time, something like four years right? It wasn’t revealed till February of 2014, how did it feel to finally let the public in on the secret that you guys have been keeping for all that time?

You’d think it would be a relief, but it just piles on the pressure. The more time and effort you invest, the more nervous you become. We think the pressure is good though. It makes us question everything.

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What made you want to become a developer? Any specific gaming experience as a youngster that spurred it on? I grew up on the Atari 2600, and later spent all my time on the SNES. Once I got to college and had access to a computer I started modding PC games. My graphic design teacher saw what I was doing and said, “You know, people get paid to do that.” I don’t know why it never occurred to me before, but that was the moment that I knew what I was going to do.

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In my opinion, you guys are the kings of co op gameplay. It is something that feels very ingrained in all of your games, from working on Counter Strike, to L4D, and now Evolve. What do you feel is at the core or most important when it comes to co op play? Forcing the team to work together to be successful is a must, but the challenge is to find ways to make that as easy and as intuitive as possible. And of course it has to be fun!

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We would like to thank Chris for taking the time out of his busy shedule and answering these questions for us, as we all await the arrival of Evolve. If you would like more Evolve news check out our 5 Days Of Evolve in the Let’s Play section.

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