Lingering whispers that work on Campo Santo’s In the Valley of Gods had either slowed down or ended proved accurate this week, with Campo Santo co-founder Jake Rodkin confirming that the game is now “on hold”.
Valve bought Campo Santo last year, and its Firewatch team has apparently put In The Valley of Gods in the rear view to work on other projects at Valve instead.
“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,” Rodkin told Polygon. “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.”
In The Vallery of Gods’ former 2019 release date may have been “optimistic”, but Rodkin’s statement feels a little pessimistic about the game’s future. Hopefully, we’ve not heard the last of it.
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