Campo Santo
CompanyUnited States · Founded 2013
Campo Santo is a small entertainment company and the video game developer behind Firewatch.
Connections
Each row is a game or company named alongside Campo Santo, each column a document, oldest first. A mark means that document names it. Select a row to see those documents.
About the company
- Founded
- 2013
- Country
- United States
Company data from IGDB.com
Documents about Campo Santo
Game File: News Round-up
The gaming industry is currently experiencing a shift in long-term development transparency, highlighted by Blizzard Entertainment’s recent announcement of Diablo V and a new StarCraft title for 2029 and 2030, respectively.
- Nearly 86% of Japanese game developers now use generative AI in their work, a significant increase from 51% in 2025.
- Roblox is launching a 'Play Roblox Everywhere' initiative to allow its games to run as standalone apps on PC, mobile, and consoles, as well as in web browsers, to capture 10% of the global gaming market.
- Indie studio closures and layoffs continue, with Heart Machine laying off nearly its entire staff after funding was pulled and Polyarc announcing its closure after 12 years.
Firewatch: (Studying) the Anatomy of a Game Design Process
This paper presents a method for studying game design processes by combining game jam practice with development timelines, applied to the 2016 narrative adventure Firewatch by Campo Santo.
- The paper proposes a rapid method for studying game design processes by combining game jam practice with development timelines, using publicly available sources such as interviews, developer logs, podcasts, and developer talks to map a game's creation quickly.
- The method was tested on Campo Santo's 2016 narrative adventure Firewatch during a two-hour session at the Multi Method Analysis Jam at DiGRA 2022, producing a timeline spanning ideation, preproduction, production, and postproduction.
- Firewatch's design process was linear rather than fully pre-planned, and several directions were abandoned, including Metroidvania elements and Far Cry-style systems.
In the Valley of Gods Canceled?! | Games ReCAP
The development of In the Valley of Gods, the highly anticipated project from the former Campo Santo team, has been officially placed on indefinite hold following the studio's acquisition by Valve.
- The development of Campo Santo’s 'In the Valley of Gods' has been placed on indefinite hold following the studio's acquisition by Valve.
- Former Campo Santo staff have been reassigned to internal Valve projects, including 'Half-Life: Alyx', 'Dota Underlords', and Steam platform development.
- The project's original creative momentum has been dismantled due to the departure of key personnel, including contract writers who held significant institutional knowledge.
The Art of Firewatch
The development of the narrative exploration game Firewatch required a strategic approach to translating a bold, 2D graphic art style into an immersive 3D environment.
- Campo Santo utilized a small, distributed team of ten to develop Firewatch, proving that resource constraints can be leveraged as an empowering design strategy.
- To maintain a stylized 3D aesthetic, the team implemented a procedural sky system and custom 'stylistic fog' using RGB texture strips to manage atmospheric depth and mood-driven color shifts.
- The team prioritized production efficiency by using a limited set of modular rock and tree assets, reserving high-detail artistic bandwidth exclusively for unique, narrative-critical props.
