Sean Vanaman, the company’s co-founder, was originally the co-leader and lead writer of The Walking Dead video game. However, after discussing along with Idle Thumbs co-founder Jake Rodkin, he and Rodkin[5] co-founded Campo Santo, joined by Mark of the Ninja designer Nels Anderson and graphic artist Olly Moss on September 18, 2013.[3] Soon after, they announced Panic would back their debut video game.[6]
Environment artist Jane Ng and designer and composer Chris Remo, both at Double Fine Productions at the time, soon joined the team as well.[7][8] After a painting by Moss,[9] Ng adapted the painting’s aesthetic style into a 3D environment[9] with the color and in
spiration drawn from both New Deal advertisements and icons from the National Park Service[10] as well as a camping trip in Yellowstone National Park in which team visited a preserved fire lookout tower 2 miles out from the campsite.[10] Development eventually led to the announcement of Firewatch on March 2014, with release originally slated for 2015.[11]
On August 30, 2014, the game demo was released at PAX West, revealing the overall plotline and story of a fire lookout named Henry in the Shoshone National Forest in 1989.[12] The demo was then released again on March 12, 2015 at GDC, which also had a separate booth hosted by Ng containing the art,[13] and at PAX West on September 2, 2016 again.[14] The game was released on February 6, 2016 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, OS X and Linux with an Xbox One version released September 21, which included an audio tour and free roammode.[15][16] The game received positive reviews from critics, and has been nominatively known alongside other “walking simulators”.[17] The original score to Firewatch by Chris Remo was released digitally alongside the game, and received a vinyl release later in 2016.[18]
