Afterwords – Evolve

Evolve launched nearly two months ago, but true to the game's title, Turtle Rock Studios is still working feverishly to bring changes and new content to the 4v1 multiplayer shooter. We talked with Turtle Rock co-founder and creative director Phil Robb about Evolve's launch, their plans for the future, and coping with the unwavering cynicism of the Internet.

2K released some impressive gameplay stats shortly after the launch of Evolve, but the number of players has declined substantially since then. How is Evolve's player base trending? Are you happy with where it's at so far?
Ha! We're never satisfied. There is always room for improvement and we're always looking for ways to get better.  That said, Evolve's player base is trending as most triple-A online game player bases do: There's huge concurrencies day one, and then it settles out over the course of the game's lifetime. We see Evolve as a living entity. Our plan is to continue to support and grow the game over time. We're in this for the long haul, and part of that is riding the concurrency waves through the highs and the lows. We've got a lot of cool stuff in the pipe and expect that as we grow the game, the community will grow with it. So even though our concurrencies may be lower in week five versus week one, we believe that we'll be able to boost concurrencies with all the new content and challenges we have planned. 

Countless games have had day-one DLC, but a surprising amount of anger has been directed at Evolve's offerings. Why do you think Evolve has become the target of such scrutiny in that area?
Honestly, I'm not sure. It definitely took us off guard. There was certainly some misinformation early on that seemed to take hold and spread; we were catching flak for doing things that we weren't doing and had never planned to do. Triple-A game development just keeps getting more expensive. DLC is one of the ways publishers and developers are able to stay profitable. It isn't going to go away anytime soon, but there are ways that you can offer it that are better than others.

End of the day, we worked really hard to come up with a DLC plan that we felt good about as gamers. No pay-to-win, no splitting the community. We achieved those goals and feel good about it.

Other players have complained about the pricing of Evolve's DLC – $7.50 per hunter and $15 per monster. What is your response to those who say the DLC is too expensive?
It's a tricky question, and I don't think there is a definitive answer. The idea of "value" is completely subjective; everyone has their own value meter. The price of the Evolve DLC characters and monsters is largely based on how many resources it takes to develop them.

We've all seen games charge $15 for cosmetic items that don't really offer any value outside of making your character look different. The stuff we're offering with Evolve is completely new.

Each new character and monster is a unique packet of assets and gameplay. These things are definitely not easy to make and it takes us a lot of time and money to do it. But in the end we feel good about the value you're getting when you buy a new monster or character because we're adding real depth to the Evolve experience.

The A.I. hunters do a commendable job of working together as a four-player team, but once you start to mix in human players, they become less efficient. Are you trying to improve the hunter A.I., or is reacting to the way humans play a problem that can't really be solved?
Short answer, yes. We're always looking for ways to improve the game. A.I is no exception. That said, we are really happy with the A.I. team. To get all the different hunters each doing their own individual thing consistently and in a way that makes sense was a monumental task. The dev team who works on A.I. kicks ass. I don't know if you could ever perfectly translate human behavior into a piece of software; that would require making sense of the sh-- we do everyday...and let's be honest, humans are messy, irrational creatures.

Coming Up Next: Robb discusses future content, dream monsters, and staying positive in spite of the unwavering cynicism of the Internet...

Evolve's progression system seems largely superfluous after you've unlocked all the playable characters. Did you feel pressure to include a progression system based on what other multiplayer titles offer? Do you think the sense of progression is important for the longevity of the game?
There was a bit of pressure to have a progression system, but we also had some good data that influenced the decision to go ahead with it.

We decided that if we were going to do it, we should do it in a way that services the overall experience. We saw that when new players had access to everything right away it tended to be overwhelming and resulted in a more confusing and often frustrating first impression. Some characters and monsters are a bit harder to play than others, so we used the progression system to ease folks into the game. We introduce the more straightforward, easy to grasp, characters first. Then as you become proficient with them we unlock the next set.

Evolve has a lot of tactical depth in terms of characters, abilities, and how players work together. What has the response from the eSports community been?
So far we've seen some very positive developments in the realm of eSports. We've had a few tournaments that have been very successful. Evolve is as fun and interesting a game to watch as it is to play. As time goes on we feel more and more optimistic about Evolve's eSport potential.

When the development team finally had the chance to jump into public matches, did you see any behaviors or attitudes emerge from the community that surprised you?
We are finally seeing some new strategies emerge, but it took much longer than most people expected. We thought the community would find game-breaking combinations within the first week. The fact that they didn't is a testament to how many hours the development team poured into the game.

Over the past few weeks we finally saw players eclipse everything we've seen and done internally. Nothing game breaking, but we are seeing abilities used in ways we never expected, like Kraken walking right up to a Hunter and Vortexing them while looking straight up into the sky to "juggle" them, and we are finally seeing some combinations of Hunters emerge as clear powerhouses. This stuff is pretty easy to adjust for, so the push now is to get our micropatching system online so we can release balance patches more often.

As far as attitudes go, everyone has been really happy with the player base. In a co-op oriented title, it's critical that people want to play together, that they are nice to each other. Evolve has one of the most positive communities in online games.

You have stated all future maps and modes will be free for everyone. Are you actively working on new maps and modes at this time, and do you have a timetable for when players will see them?
Yes we are, and no we don't. But by the time readers pick up this issue, two new free maps and Observer mode will be out in the wild!

There's been no shortage of fantasy lists posted online for potential future monsters. How big of a concern is the lore in terms of adding crazy monsters in the future?
We like to keep the lore consistent and have it make sense as much as possible, but I wouldn't say that is a barrier to trying something really wild and crazy. We've got some pretty messed-up ideas floating around for monsters. If it's a cool enough idea, we'll make it work.

Do you ever see yourself adding licensed monsters? I want to fight the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man...
Yeah, a lot of people have asked about this kind of stuff. From my personal perspective I would be very hesitant to go that kind of direction. Aside from the obvious legal issues, it would be pretty hard to get Stay Puft into the Evolve lore in a way that wouldn't completely destroy immersion.

What about on the hunter side of things?
The Evolve world is largely a human world. It's all about contrast. We can make robotic versions of ourselves or mix human and other DNA but they're still more or less human – familiar. That familiarity makes the idea of the monsters scarier in comparison. Malevolent beings bent on our destruction are one thing, but knowing they are intelligent and being ignorant of their motives takes the creepy factor a step further. That said, we certainly don't mind pushing those boundaries a bit by including a robot and more recently, a human-insect genetic hybrid, a.k.a. Slim.

Evolve's 4v1 format is very unique. Have you experimented with other types of matchups or challenges? Do you ever think Evolve will sport a mode that isn't 4v1, be it a strictly co-op experience or a competitive mode that changes up the player count?
Hard to say for sure. Evolve is all about 4v1 and there is still enough unexplored territory there to keep us busy for a while. I think that pushing those numbers would ultimately be an entirely different game.

How do you stay positive and enthusiastic in the face of so much cynicism? Does it ever get to you?
Sure it does. I think I can speak for a good number of game developers out there when I say that it's never fun to see years of work get trashed by someone that barely gave the game the time of day or, for whatever reason, came into it already having decided they hate it. At the same time, that's part of the gig. Sometimes there is some good data buried in the vitriol. A lot of people told us that Left 4 Dead would fail, but we went and built it anyway because there was an experience there that we wanted to have. We recognize that we're doing something out of the ordinary and that some people may not immediately embrace that. That's what you face when you try to do something new.

For more on Evolve, check out our review, DLC impressions, and beginner's guide. For tips on playing as the monster, read our recent Gamer interview with pro player Zaq "Maddcow" Hildreth.