The Outlast Trials Interview – Red Barrels Intends To Establish Second Team

Philippe Morin: I’m Philippe Morin, co-founder and designer at Red Barrels. The latest update is a big one. We’re basically starting a season structure with lots of new stuff and improvements. Among other things, it has a new Prime Asset, new environment, new mode (Escalation), etc.

Philippe Morin: The reaction has been very positive. We’ve seen a big bump in terms of engagement and concurrent players. We get a lot of love from fans, and we feel privileged. We always listen to players’ feedback, and we will keep on improving and refining with each update. 

Philippe Morin: It’s been really satisfying to see the game evolve. I’ve been making games for almost 26 years, and it’s the first time I play a game I’ve worked on just for the fun of it. Considering we started working on Outlast Trials 7 years ago, I never expected this to happen.

Our team is amazing and they’ve been able to create so much content and new features in the last year, the future is looking bright. People tend to forget, but we’re a small team. 

We were 10 on Outlast, 20 on Outlast 2, 45 when the early access of Trials shipped, and we’re currently 65. We’ve grown, but we’re still significantly small for the kind of game we’re making.

Philippe Morin: Ask me in a few months…

Philippe Morin: Total commitment and very little compromise. You gotta love scaring the shit out of people. 

Philippe Morin: The landscape has changed a lot since we released the first Outlast. There’s a lot more horror games on the market. Players have a lot more choices these days, which is a good thing, but it’s a lot harder for game developers to make their games stand out.

I honestly don’t pay too much attention to trends. We focus on the games we want to make and hope enough players enjoy it. I think if you pay too much attention to what others are doing, you risk losing your focus and derailing the whole project. 

I’ve seen it several times in big studios. Some dude gets a promotion and wants to justify his job, so he comes up with an analysis showing Project X is heading in the wrong direction and the team must do a 180, bla bla bla… 

We started Red Barrels to avoid those frustrating situations.

Philippe Morin: Yes, it’s been a big adaptation. A lot of us must change our mindset. We’re used to shipping a game, taking a break, and then slowly starting the conception phase of a new game. But with Trials, it feels more like a marathon… a very long one. So, we must find a balance between what needs to be done and keeping the creative juices flowing.

Philippe Morin: No. It was never part of the conversation. Our focus was to make the best cooperative horror experience we could.

Philippe Morin: Never say never, but currently, it’s not an option on the table.

Philippe Morin: We’re growing the studio so we can eventually have a second team. I can’t give dates or make any official promises. As a small team, we can’t do it all, and we must pick our battles.

Philippe Morin: It definitely becomes an important parameter of the equation, but it doesn’t pinpoint the source of problems, even less the solutions.

Philippe Morin: Now we have the foundations of the game. We can focus on creating cool content and bring back a lot of ideas we’ve had along the way but couldn’t do yet. We always saw Outlast Trials like a universe in motion, and I can’t wait for people to see what we have in store for them.

Philippe Morin: It’s been a long and bumpy ride, but I’m proud of the team and the game.