Back in June, a report indicated that Everwild, Rare’s newest game IP, was being completely rebooted. In a recent interview with Kinda Funny, Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty said that that report was “more definite and a little more extreme” than the truth.
In his Kinda Funny interview (via GamesRadar), Booty elaborated on how game development, particularly the narratively rich and distinct flavor that Rare creates, is a difficult process consisting of thousands of little decisions.
“What is Rare known for?” Booty said. “They’re known for creating new IP and creating worlds. I’ll say when you look at it from the outside, when you hear words like ‘reset’ and maybe ‘restructure,’ those are probably a little more definite and a little more extreme than what really happens as a game comes to life.”
Booty also referenced his time working alongside NBA Jam developer Mark Trammell.
“He used to say that a game gets made a thousand small decisions at a time,” Booty said. “Every day you’re making hundreds of small decisions and at the end of however long you work on the game, they all add up. I think that’s where the Everwild team is right now. They’re just trying to make sure that they’ve got something special.”
Booty also touched on how, even with how long a game can take to make and release, the state of a game can dramatically change (or improve) with each new build.
“There’s some days where you’re just terrified,” Booty said. “‘What are they making? How is this ever going to come together?’ Then you balance that out with a day later, this build comes together and you’re like ‘this is magic.'”
Worries about a reboot of Everwild’s development started when the game was absent from Microsoft’s game showcase events during 2019. Everwild’s creative director Simon Woodroffe also left Rare in 2020. Rare filled the director’s chair with veteran designer Gregg Mayles, who previously worked on Donkey Kong Country, Banjo-Kazooie, Viva Pinata, and Sea of Thieves.
The initial report of the supposed reboot also stated that Everwild may have changed the game’s original concept of third-person adventuring with “god game elements,” but didn’t confirm if any changes actually happened.
Booty said Xbox will have more to share about Everwild when Rare has more to show and that they “don’t want to keep things hidden for too long.”
Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer/nature wizard for IGN.