The Outlast Trials' initial playtests went poorly: Designer says 6-year development took 'a f**king long time' and 'a s**t-ton of prototypes'
Red Barrels co-founder Philippe Morin recently spoke on the trials The Outlast Trials outlasted.
Gamedev can often feel like a black box to many players, leading to the perception that a good game developed smoothly while a bad game encountered significant setbacks. However, The Outlast Trials' journey to becoming a successful game was fraught with challenges. Red Barrels co-founder Philippe Morin revealed in a recent interview with Gamespot that it took six long years to transform the initial idea of a co-op Outlast game into a playable early access version.
Morin described the development process as "a fucking long time" and attributed much of the struggle to the team's attempts to make the game systemic, random, and infinitely replayable. Despite producing a seemingly shippable build within four years, Morin acknowledged that playtests were "too poor" to warrant the team's efforts, prompting them to revert to a more traditional design.
While the game has since evolved into a live service title with approximately 20,000 active players, its development has not been without contention. Players have expressed mixed opinions about the game's use of AI-generated imagery, and Outlast 3 remains in development, seemingly set aside after The Outlast Trials' resounding success.
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