Live service is a triggering word amidst gaming communities, but that didn’t sway Red Barrels. The Montreal-based developer has made a name for itself by crafting up the iconic Outlast series, an intensely linear single-player horror franchise that has to date surpassed 37 million sales. However, earlier this year the team launched its first multiplayer entry in the series on PS5, The Outlast Trials , a game that has just received its first post-launch update, Project Lupara.
We sat down with game director Alex Charbonneau to discuss the challenges faced and opportunities granted by switching to the live service format. Going bonkers with Bambino Night vision for four Trial and terror This interview has been edited for clarity. Push Square : What was the inception of making the switch from single player to multiplayer? Alex Charbonneau: To be honest, the initial pitch was just “let’s make Outlast in multiplayer”.
That was the core thing we wanted to achieve from the beginning, just because horror and scare jumps is a place that is fun to share with other people. So this was just the initial beginning point, and then it really did evolve over time. We explored all sorts of ways it could be played, but it also comes with a lot of challenges.
Like making a horror game multiplayer means multiple perspectives on a situation, whereas a horror game that you’re going to be playing solo is a lot more linear. You’re in a lot more control of the situations and the scare jump.