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In the Valley of Gods "on hold" indefinitely

Former Campo Santo devs now at Valve have moved to other projects, including Half-Life: Alyx

Firewatch creator Campo Santo's second project, In the Valley of Gods, is now "on hold" indefinitely as its developers scatter to new projects across Valve.

This announcement was made to Polygon today from Campo Santo co-founder Jake Rodkin, who noted that the project wasn't outright canceled, but also could not confirm the team would be returning to it.

"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."

Campo Santo was acquired by Valve in 2018 after its exploration game set in ancient Egypt, In the Valley of Gods, had already been announced. At the time, the studio stated it would continue working on the game following its move to the Valve offices in Bellevue. The project's release date on Steam has been changed from 2019 to "TBA."

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Rebekah Valentine avatar
Rebekah Valentine: Rebekah arrived at GamesIndustry in 2018 after four years of freelance writing and editing across multiple gaming and tech sites. When she's not recreating video game foods in a real life kitchen, she's happily imagining herself as an Animal Crossing character.
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