Turtle Rock Studios



Turtle Rock Studios is an American video game developer founded in March 2002 by Michael Booth, Phil Robb and Chris Ashton. It was acquired by Valve Corporation in 2008, but was re-founded in 2011 as an independent company. Turtle Rock Studios is involved in the creation of original titles as well as the provision of consulting services to the digital entertainment industry.

The company's most notable games are the first Left 4 Dead, which was published by Valve, and Evolve, which was originally set to be published by THQ but was later published by 2K Games. The founder of the company had worked for Westwood Pacific, and assisted in the development of the Counter-Strike series. The company expanded from six employees to more than seventy staff members in 2011 to 2014, and opened a subsidiary company called Turtle Rock Garage in 2011, which specialized in developing casual games.

Left 4 Dead
Left 4 Dead is a first-person shooter survival horror video game released in November 2008 for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360. Turtle Rock led the game's development, with assistance provided by publisher Valve. It puts emphasis on co-operative gameplay, in which players must fight against zombies in order to complete levels. In addition, the game features an asymmetrical multiplayer mode called Versus mode, in which players fight against a zombie which is controlled by another player. The game was built atop the most advanced version of the Source Engine available at the time and introduced version 2 of Turtle Rock's AItechnology, which had since been updated from the AI used for the bots in Condition Zero. The game was released on Microsoft Windows and the Xbox 360 in November 2008. The game received critical acclaim. The PC version of the game received an 89 out of 100 from Metacritic, a review aggregator. The title was thought to have redefined co-operative gameplay. The success of Left 4 Dead led Valve to develop Left 4 Dead 2, the next installment in the series. Alongside its sequel, the franchise had collectively sold 12 million copies as of October 1, 2012.

Evolve
Evolve was Turtle Rock's next major project after Left 4 Dead. Published by 2K Games and powered by CryEngine 3, the title is an asymmetrical multiplayer game which pits four players, who play as hunters in a first-person perspective, against a player who play as monsters in a third-person view. An alpha version of the game was released on January 15, 2015. The full version was released on February 10, 2015 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. While the game received generally positive reviews, its extensive list of downloadable content available at launch caused controversy. Nevertheless, the game shipped 2.5 million copies as of May 18, 2015, and was considered as another "permanent IP" by owner Take-Two Interactive.

Philosophy
The team's founders enjoy playing co-operative multiplayer games and are passionate about them, as they allow players to play alongside each other instead of against each other. In addition, they found it more fun than the typical competitive multiplayer experience. However, they thought that this type of game was not well-developed, and often encouraged players to complete objectives alone. As a result, the company decided to develop a game which tasks players to deploy strategy and work with other players, leading to the development of both Left 4 Dead and Evolve.

The company's management and staff enjoy a close relationship. Any staff member can play a game, provide feedback, suggest improvements, and even criticize it, regardless of their position. The team thought that they were "open" with their games. As a result, instead of holding a press conference to explain the game to critics, they choose to invite people to play it in the studio. This practice allows them to see "people leaving with a smile", enabling them to gauge the real reactions of players and to see whether the game is welcomed or not. They also hope that through early access, they can introduce their games to a wide audience, and share the experience with the community prior to the game's official launch.