This news was later confirmed by Doug Lombardi of Valve on June 3, 2009. After being formally closed, the remaining team members including Ashton, and Robb decided to restart Turtle Rock as an independent company on March 17, 2010. On the same day, Turtle Rock Studios put up a new website announcing they had reformed and were once again working on video games. They released an iPhone automotive maintenance app named Garage Buddy and began hiring for a full-scale project. Upon the company's reestablishment, Booth left the company, and Robb and Ashton were requested to share the position of studio head. Ashton initially declined it, but eventually accepted and partnered with Robb to lead the studio. Both of them considered themselves developers not managers, and they found the task of running Turtle Rock a tough challenge. At that time, there were about 13 staff members in the studio. The team later rented a warehouse and re-designed it to accommodate them. Despite being shut down by Valve, Turtle Rock still maintained a relatively close working relationship with it. The studio was contracted by Valve to work on the post-launch content for "Left 4 Dead" and its sequel "Left 4 Dead 2", which was developed in-house by Valve, and worked on "" during its early phase of development. Eventually, the studio decided to split away from the two franchises to work on something new. On June 2, 2010, Turtle Rock Studios announced the formation of a new division within Turtle Rock called Turtle Rock Garage, a small division based solely on casual games. On September 22, 2010, Digital Development Management announced they were representing Turtle Rock Studios to find publishers for their games. The concept of their next project had begun prior to the development of "Left 4 Dead". Inspired by the asymmetrical mode of "Left 4 Dead", and hunting games like "Cabela's Big Game Hunter", the team wanted to create a game where prey could strike back at hunters. The concept eventually became "Evolve", and was the company's next full-scale project. Turtle Rock pitched the game to multiple publishers including Valve. Most of them were not supportive of the idea of an asymmetrical multiplayer video game; Valve was also not interested in the project. These companies thought that Turtle Rock was too small to handle a Triple-A project. Publisher THQ decided to accept the game and help with its funding. THQ's then president Danny Bilson, and Jason Rubin, were very enthusiastic about the idea of having an asymmetrical multiplayer game like "Evolve". Rubin once hoped that Turtle Rock could develop a free-to-play business model for the game.