History Turtle Rock Studios

1 history

1.1 prior founding
1.2 turtle rock 1.0
1.3 valve south
1.4 turtle rock 2.0
1.5 future

history
prior founding

turtle rock studios founded michael booth. prior company s establishment, booth, phil robb , chris ashton worked westwood pacific , participated in development of real-time strategy games command & conquer: red alert. ashton, had worked presto studios, impressed counter-strike, popular mod of half-life, , decided join mod team texture artist. eventually, seattle-based valve corporation, publisher of half-life, purchased mod, , ashton left westwood join valve. robb , booth remained @ westwood studios , worked on command & conquer: yuri s revenge , command & conquer: generals, left company after acquired electronic arts, robb considered ea s acquisition of westwood had resulted in studio losing personality.

turtle rock 1.0

phil robb, co-founder of turtle rock.

turtle rock studios officially founded in 2002. team of 6 people had limited resources set work space in booth s garage. name turtle rock derived name of neighbourhood booth lived. team expanded studio , rented office, , continued development of condition zero. game officially released in 2004. satisfied work done turtle rock, valve continued contract them work on xbox version of counter-strike, next installment of series, counter-strike: source, , half-life 2: deathmatch. upon release of source, company wanted work on new game, , gained support valve. team later chose design first-person wizard combat game.

as team had developed competitive multiplayer games before, wanted design game encouraged , supported co-operative gameplay between players; game allow family , friends play instead of against each other, citing secret of mana example. team decided use source code counter-strike develop mod called terror-strike, scenario players fight against bots, equipped knives , act zombies. changed texture of game create gritty, dark atmosphere. not conceived full-budget project @ time. meanwhile, wizard combat game scrapped team considered project over-complicated , geeky ; decided use cancelled project prototype work on zombie game. idea of developing zombie game grew after team watched 28 days later, critically acclaimed zombie film. film helped team brainstorm ideas zombie game. after that, team decided remove counter-strike content , started developing zombie game, in players have plant zombie bait , kill zombies present in level. focus later shifted evacuating , surviving in zombie-infested area. project later presented valve, helped game s funding , publishing. project s name left 4 dead, , development began in 2005. title officially announced on november 20, 2006, , released in november 2008 microsoft windows , xbox 360.

valve south

on january 10, 2008, before release of left 4 dead, valve corporation announced had purchased turtle rock in effort expand company s console market. gabe newell, founder , president of valve corporation, added easy decision company make, had high expectations left 4 dead , considered having long-term relationship turtle rock. after being acquired valve, turtle rock served valve s in-house satellite development team, , renamed valve south.

with establishment of valve south, 9 eleven employees moved work @ valve s headquarters in seattle. after departure, valve felt size of team @ valve south small allow operate triple studio, , coordination between 2 studios difficult physically far apart each other. meanwhile, turtle rock felt team s communication valve lacking, , dissatisfied valve time , slow progression of projects. result, newell proposed turtle rock split valve, , valve south shut down after shipment of left 4 dead. valve retained rights left 4 dead franchise, while allowing name turtle rock , logo used again original team. news later confirmed doug lombardi of valve on june 3, 2009.

turtle rock 2.0

after being formally closed, remaining team members including ashton, , robb decided restart turtle rock independent company on march 17, 2010. on same day, turtle rock studios put new website announcing had reformed , once again working on video games. released iphone automotive maintenance app named garage buddy , began hiring full-scale project. upon company s reestablishment, booth left company, , robb , ashton requested share position of studio head. ashton declined it, accepted , partnered robb lead studio. both of them considered developers not managers, , found task of running turtle rock tough challenge. @ time, there 13 staff members in studio. team later rented warehouse , re-designed accommodate them.

despite being shut down valve, turtle rock still maintained relatively close working relationship it. studio contracted valve work on post-launch content left 4 dead , sequel left 4 dead 2, developed in-house valve, , worked on counter-strike: global offensive during phase of development. eventually, studio decided split away 2 franchises work on new. on june 2, 2010, turtle rock studios announced formation of new division within turtle rock called turtle rock garage, small division based solely on casual games. on september 22, 2010, digital development management announced representing turtle rock studios find publishers games.

 – phil robb, co-founder of turtle rock on evolve

the concept of next project had begun prior development of left 4 dead. inspired asymmetrical mode of left 4 dead, , hunting games cabela s big game hunter, team wanted create game prey strike @ hunters. concept became evolve, , company s next full-scale project. turtle rock pitched game multiple publishers including valve. of them not supportive of idea of asymmetrical multiplayer video game; valve not interested in project. these companies thought turtle rock small handle triple-a project. publisher thq decided accept game , funding. thq s president danny bilson, , jason rubin, enthusiastic idea of having asymmetrical multiplayer game evolve. rubin once hoped turtle rock develop free-to-play business model game. idea later scrapped, , resulted in significant changes in terms of game s gameplay , cast. on may 26, 2011, thq officially announced publishing turtle rock s next major title. on june 10, 2011, thq described turtle rock s next title wild .

at time, thq had been in financial crisis had begun in 2010, , declared bankruptcy on december 19, 2012. game, evolve, listed, alongside other unannounced titles from: relic entertainment, vigil games, , thq studios montreal in court documents filed thq. thq unable continue publishing , funding roles, auction held other publishers acquire these titles. publishers interested in game visited turtle rock studio see secret project . company s founders felt frustrated, , rubin later suggested turtle rock bid $250,000 own project, ashton described [they] had in bank . however, outbid take-two interactive, paid $11 million acquire game , secure rights entire franchise. according turtle rock, super excited work take-two. game set published under take-two s publishing label 2k games, , formally introduced on january 7, 2014 gaming magazine game informer. during game s development, team s size expanded 75 staff members. game released in october 2014, 2k later delayed release date allow turtle rock further polish game. evolve released worldwide on february 10, 2015, microsoft windows, playstation 4, , xbox 1 platforms.

future

in may 2016, turtle rock announced company working on new intellectual property published perfect world entertainment. studio consider releasing titles via steam s access program, allows players provide feedback on unfinished games or products being developed.