Picking a Partner

Turtle Rock had a solid idea and the credentials to back it up, but that was only enough to get a foot in the door. 

"Yeah, we're the original team that made Left 4 Dead, and that sort of perked their ears up," Robb said. "But then we did have to go in with a good pitch and Chris and I really worked our asses off for about a month." 

"Two months," Ashton corrected.

Robb's explanation of the pitching process sounds like a trial by fire. No matter how strong your concept might be, the publishers are going to attempt to poke holes in it. That's where the two months of prep work paid off. Robb and Ashton said they had planned for every contingency, thought out answers to every question. They knew their idea inside and out, and it helped them to keep from getting stumped.

"I think it helped that the question did come up, everyone was like 'Yeah this sounds like a really cool idea, but how do you know it's going to work?'" Ashton said. "That's when we always threw the Tank response in there. 'Well we already know it works for 90 seconds with the Tank, the thing is we want to make that 15 minutes or 12 minutes long.' Everyone we pitched to was excited about the idea, but being excited and also being able to put your money where your mouth is was another level. It was always supposed to be a triple-A game, it was always going to be costly, a big project. It wasn't meant to be a little indie game or anything, so, it was a big investment for publishers. For a lot of publishers, maybe the timing isn't right." 

Monsters aren't the only threat on Shear, as this concept art shows a predator beast

With multiple publishers at least interested in the project, the two turned toward finding a good partner. It had to be mutually beneficial, a publisher that could support their vision and budget while also having a hole in their portfolio for a co-op shooter. Ashton said "a lot of planets have to align in order for it to work," and THQ was the one. Robb, meanwhile, admitted some trepidation towards finding a standard publisher, since its time with Valve had gotten them accustomed to a less traditional business model. 

"So for us being really sort of hesitant we were looking for somebody that, first, we had a rapport with," Robb said. "We liked them. They got what we were trying to do, got the game, and didn’t want to micromanage us to death."

THQ wasn't in a healthy position, and Turtle Rock knew it. Even so, the publisher was doubling down on triple-A properties to grab the interest of gamers. In fact, THQ's financial difficulties may have even made the studio especially willing to give Turtle Rock wide latitude, which was appealing for Ashton and Robb.

"As soon as you start negotiating you get a sense of to what depth they’re going to get involved, versus somebody who was kind of going to let us do our thing," Ashton said. "THQ was having financial difficulties, and they were more open to the idea of taking a risk. When we talked to them, they were cool guys, they really drilled us on the design aspects, asked a lot of good questions. Ultimately they were just super excited for the game, and they pursued us very aggressively. It’s hard to say no to that kind of enthusiasm."

"Not only that," Robb added, "but they were the underdog."

The Fall of the House of THQ

Statistically, though, and in contrast to every aw-shucks sports film, underdogs tend to lose. Turtle Rock's gamble took a turn for the worse, when THQ liquidated and its properties were put up for auction. Suddenly, Evolve was an expensive, triple-A game without a home. 

"We were scared as hell," Robb said. "Our advisors, our agent and our lawyer, they picked us up and said it was really fun; somebody is going to be interested in this and get it back. So whenever THQ’s assets went up for auction, again, publisher after publisher comes in and looks at what we’ve got, what we’re doing. I think that’s the scariest part. There were some publishers we had a great rapport with, 2K being one of them, and there were others we were deathly afraid they’d bid."

The two even put up a nominal bid themselves, so they could buy back the property if no one else bit. Ashton said it was sort of like re-pitching their idea all over again. They had to show the game to publishers, and yet again, they were looking for a good relationship. Some representatives would clearly have fun with the game, which they took as a good sign. Others didn't get it, or weren't gamers, or just wanted to make it into something else. 2K was "one of the good ones," according to Ashton.

With its second publisher in just a few years secured, Ashton and Robb were presented with another choice. When would they show off the game? For this, they say they rely on the expertise of their publishers. They admit they leaned on Valve a lot during the promotion for Left 4 Dead to make the roll-out a smooth one. For Evolve, they similarly deferred to publishers, but were insistent on one point: the game would not be shown until it was playable. They didn't want press to come see a demo and then go home. Getting early hands-on time had worked to build hype in the case of Left 4 Dead, and they wanted to repeat that success. After 2K got a chance to play it, they agreed. 

"Anytime we show a cinematic trailer, we show gameplay too," Robb said. "What's a cinematic trailer show you? It just shows you a few pretty pictures, it doesn't really give you an idea of what the game is like. So we said anytime we show trailers or cinematics we want to show gameplay, and as often as possible to get people to actually play the game. That's when they usually start to get it."