The rather good, if rather buggy on release, Firewatch, showed great promise from new development team Campo Santo, so much in fact that shortly after release they were bought by industry giants Valve. At the time they stated that work on their new game Valley of the Gods would continue uninterrupted but, surprise surprise, that is not the case.
A few months ago the developers on the project removed all references to the game from the Twitter bios leading to speculation the game had been cancelled. The trailer for the game is no longer available on YouTube and Campo Santo co-founder Jake Rodkin has now confirmed to Polygon that the game is ‘on hold’.
To fans looking forward to In the Valley of Gods, it’s probably clear that the optimistic “2019” at the end of the announcement trailer isn’t going to be accurate. In the end, Valve Time makes fools of us all. But yes, developers from the former Campo Santo team have joined other projects at Valve, including Half-Life: Alyx. As you can imagine, our experience in the first-person adventure genre is pretty relevant. You hear a lot about how at Valve you can work on what you want. It turns out that’s true, and there’s a lot of work available. As we integrated ourselves into Valve it became clear there was a lot of valuable work to be done on Half-Life: Alyx. Some of us starting lending a hand, and have since become full-time on the project as it approaches launch. Similarly, some ex-Campos are working on Dota Underlords, some are on Steam, and so on. So to answer your question as of today, In the Valley of Gods development is on hold—but it certainly feels like a project people can and may return to. And when that happens, we’ll find an exciting way to let fans know.
That doesn’t sound particularly promising, “may return to”, I would wager Valley of the Gods, and indeed Campo Santo, will soon be no more, swallowed up by behemoth that is Valve.
Firewatch won numerous awards including our Best Story Award back in 2016 and even a BAFTA. A movie based on the game was announced in September 2016 but nothing has hit the screen.
Source: Polygon
