Red Barrels: The Outlast Trials Took Six Years to Reach Early Access
Co-founder Philippe Morin said an early build looked shippable within four years, but poor playtests sent the team back to the drawing board.
Red Barrels co-founder Philippe Morin said The Outlast Trials took six years to go from concept to its early access launch, describing the development as very long and full of prototypes. He made the comments in an interview with GameSpot, as reported by pcgamer.com.
Morin said a build that looked ready to ship existed within roughly four years, but weak playtests sent the studio back to the drawing board rather than out the door.
He also said the team went too far in making the co-op horror game systemic and random while chasing infinite replayability, and had to pull back toward something that felt more like Outlast.
A longer road than planned
The Outlast Trials launched in early access after those six years, and Morin's account frames the delay as a matter of iteration and testing rather than a single setback.
In background, the game had around 20,000 concurrent players at the time of writing, and players are mixed on its use of AI-generated imagery. Red Barrels' Outlast 3 appears to have been put on the backburner after The Outlast Trials became a success.
Quick answers
How long did The Outlast Trials take to develop?
Red Barrels co-founder Philippe Morin said it took six years to go from concept to early access launch.
Why did The Outlast Trials take so long?
Morin said the studio chased systemic, random design for infinite replayability, and poor playtests of a near-shippable build forced a return to what felt more like Outlast.