Campo Santo

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.