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Hi, I’m Sean Vanaman, I make games at a company called Campo Santo. On September 21st, we’re bringing Firewatch, a first-person mystery set in the woods of Wyoming, to Xbox One. We’re excited and we hope this news that, I hope, elicits one of the following reactions.
1) Delight: “YES! I’ve had may eye on that game and I can’t wait to play it on my Xbox One home console. I’ll see you, Campo Santo, on September 21st, credit card in hand!” Now, if that’s you, wonderful. We’re genuinely tickled by your enthusiasm. We’d prefer you use the Xbox store and your stored credit card information than show up to our small office with your credit card in hand on September 21st.
2.) Curiosity: “What is Firewatch?” A great question that’s been asked many times over by folks that have come before. As I intimated above, Firewatch is a first person mystery set in the woods of Wyoming. You play as a man named Henry and you’ve escaped your messy life for some peaceful time alone in the woods. Except you’re not alone: you’re in constant contact with a woman named Delilah who works in a nearby tower and your time quickly stops being peaceful. I won’t spoil anything more than that but I’ll add that the group to came together to make Firewatch worked on games like the Bioshock series, Mark of the Ninja, Brutal Legend, and The Walking Dead Season One (if you’re mad about how that series ended, you can fill my personal emails with your complaints). Now, if the test-tube baby of all of those games sounds exciting to you, we think you’ll like Firewatch. September 21st!
3.) Disgust: “I watched the trailer and I gotta say, these folks talk quite a bit and while I enjoy the beautiful scenery, the woods is a place full of ticks, poison oak and dirt, and I won’t be bothered with such crap” to which I’d reply, well, then Firewatch is the game for you, because while we spent great time making sure you can climb ropes, explore canyons, caves, mountain tops, old campsites and spooky cabins, we left out the ticks and poison oak and the dirt is all VFX. This game keeps nature just as the Lord intended: on your TV screen.
Furthermore, we’ve really gone all-out for our Xbox One release. Firewatch now comes with the complete Firewatch Audio Tour, a making-of that takes the normal game mode and turns it into one part Director’s Commentary, one part Game Dev Workshop and wraps that all around a scavenger hunt. You’ll get stories from the development, hear from both Rich Sommer (Mad Men) and Cissy Jones (The Walking Dead), and get a real-time look at how we built this thing with such a small team. Also furthermore (yes, more furthermore!) Xbox One owners are getting a free-roam mode that lets you explore the entire Shoshone Wilderness of the game with dynamic time of day and a few hidden secrets.
If you want to know more about Firewatch, you can find us on Twitter at @camposanto or head over to our blog for development insights into the game. We’ll see you on September 21st!
