Synopsis:
Firewatch takes place in the Wyoming wilderness in 1989. Players take on the role of Henry (voiced by Rich Sommer), a fire lookout who has been assigned to his own tower in Shoshone National Forest. Through exploration of the surrounding area, players uncover clues about mysterious occurrences in the vicinity, related to the ransacking of his tower while out on a routine patrol. Henry's only form of communication is a walkie-talkie connecting him to his supervisor, Delilah (voiced by Cissy Jones). Players may choose from a number of dialog options to interact with her, or refrain from responding. The player's choices will influence the tone of his relationship with Delilah.
Development:
Firewatch is the first video game from Campo Santo, a San Francisco-based developer founded by Jake Rodkin and Sean Vanaman, who were the creative leads of Telltale Games' The Walking Dead; Nels Anderson, the lead designer of Mark of the Ninja; and Olly Moss, an artist of some repute. Chris Remo is composing the score. Firewatch runs on the Unity game engine.
Development for Firewatch began with a single painting by Moss. Jane Ng, lead environment artist at Campo Santo, was tasked with translating Moss' key art into 3D environments while maintaining his stylized, elemental artistic vision. Moss, who had previously been known primarily for his graphic design work, joined Vanaman and Rodkin to found Campo Santo after spending many years working on the periphery of game development. In creating the aforementioned painting, Moss emulated National Park Service posters from the New Deal era in both color palette and iconography. The walkie-talkie interaction in Firewatch is inspired by the player's relationship with Atlas in BioShock, as well as the dialog system from The Walking Dead. The development team went on a camping trip to Yosemite National Park for inspiration for the game. The game is also inspired in part by Vanaman's and Anderson's experiences growing up in rural Wyoming.
The game was announced in March 2014 with a tentative release date of "2015". The last update from the developers' blog, concerning their GDC exhibition, was posted April 15th, 2015.
