It’s been years. Honestly, the gaming world hasn't really moved on from that one specific trailer. You remember it. The 1920s Egypt setting, the shaky camera work, and that sudden, jarring needle-drop of "Resurrection" by Native Construct. When Campo Santo announced In the Valley of the Gods back in 2017, it felt like lightning striking twice. People were still riding the high of Firewatch, a game that basically redefined how we think about walking simulators and narrative pacing.
Then everything went quiet. Dead quiet.
If you’ve been scouring old Reddit threads or refreshing the Campo Santo blog hoping for a release date, you’ve probably felt that weird mix of hope and frustration. It’s a strange case. Usually, games get canceled with a press release, or they enter "development hell" for a decade before stumbling onto Steam. But this one? It just... drifted. The studio got bought by Valve, the team got absorbed into projects like Half-Life: Alyx, and the sweeping vistas of the Egyptian desert were traded for the grimy corridors of City 17.
The Vision: Why Everyone Lost Their Minds
To understand why people are still obsessed with In the Valley of the Gods, you have to look at what it promised. It wasn't just Firewatch in the sand.
The story was set to follow Rashida, a disgraced filmmaker and explorer, and her former partner Zora. They were trekking into the remote desert to find something—anything—that could restore their reputations. Unlike Henry in Firewatch, who was largely isolated talking to a voice on a radio, Rashida was going to be physically present with Zora. This was the big technical and narrative leap. Developing a convincing AI companion who moves naturally through complex terrain is a nightmare for developers, but Campo Santo seemed ready to tackle it.
The chemistry was the selling point. In the reveal trailer, you see them climbing, helping each other up ledges, and filming their progress with a hand-cranked camera. It felt tactile. It felt personal. Gaming rarely captures that specific "professional but strained" relationship between two people with a complicated history.
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The Valve Acquisition and the Great Silence
In April 2018, Valve bought Campo Santo. At the time, the founders—Sean Vanaman and Jake Rodkin—assured fans that In the Valley of the Gods was still happening. They moved the whole twelve-person team to Bellevue, Washington. For a second, it looked like the ultimate indie dream: keeping your creative soul while gaining the infinite resources of the Steam empire.
But Valve doesn't work like other companies. It's famous for its flat structure. People work on what they want to work on.
When Valve decided to go all-in on Virtual Reality with Half-Life: Alyx, the "all hands on deck" signal went out. Members of the Campo Santo team, including high-profile talent like Jane Ng and Vanaman himself, started showing up in the credits for other projects. By late 2019, Vanaman officially confirmed that the project was "on hold." He didn't say "canceled," which is a distinction that has kept fans fueled by copium for half a decade.
Technical Hurdles in the Desert
It wasn't just corporate shifts that slowed things down. Transitioning from the stylized, chunky forests of Wyoming to the realistic, light-drenched sands of Egypt presented massive hurdles.
- Character Animation: Making Zora look like a human being rather than a glitchy robot while navigating uneven rocks is incredibly hard.
- The Camera Mechanic: The game involved filming your surroundings. That meant the engine had to render scenes twice or manage complex "vision" logs that impacted the story.
- Engine Shifts: Speculation suggests the team had to move from Unity to Valve’s Source 2 engine, which is a bit like trying to rebuild a car while it's driving down the highway.
Some developers who have moved between studios often talk about the "culture shock" of moving from a small, agile team to a behemoth like Valve. In a small studio, you finish the game or you don't eat. At Valve, you can spend three years perfecting the way a door opens in VR. The urgency changed.
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Is It Actually Dead?
"On hold" is often a polite way of saying "the files are on a hard drive in a closet somewhere."
As of 2024 and 2025, several former Campo Santo employees have updated their portfolios. Some have left Valve entirely. However, the official website for In the Valley of the Gods is still live. The trailer is still on YouTube. Usually, when a project is truly buried for legal or branding reasons, the footprints are scrubbed. The fact that it remains "pending" suggests that Valve is holding onto the IP just in case the spark returns.
There's also the "Valve Time" factor. Half-Life 3 became a meme because of the decade-long gaps. It’s entirely possible that once the current cycle of VR and Steam Deck hardware pushes subside, a smaller team could spin back up. But don't hold your breath. The gaming landscape has changed. Narrative-driven indies are in a different place now than they were in 2017.
What This Teaches Us About the Industry
The saga of this game is basically a case study in the risks of acquisition. When a massive company buys a small one for its talent, the specific project that made that talent famous often becomes secondary to the needs of the parent company.
It’s a bummer for fans of the "walking sim" genre. We missed out on a potentially groundbreaking exploration of 1920s archaeology and female friendship. Instead, we got one of the best VR games ever made (Alyx). It’s a trade-off. Whether it was worth it depends entirely on how much you like headcrabs versus how much you like emotional dialogue.
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How to Follow the Trail Yourself
If you’re still holding out hope, there are a few ways to keep tabs on the situation without falling for fake "leaks."
First, watch the credits. When Valve releases a new project or a major update to Counter-Strike 2 or Dota 2, look for the names of the original Campo Santo crew. If they start disappearing from those credits or updating their LinkedIn profiles with "Unannounced Project," that’s your first real clue.
Second, keep an eye on the Steam store page. It hasn't been delisted. If the "TBA" date ever changes to a specific year, even a far-off one like 2027 or 2028, you'll know the project has been resurrected.
Third, check out the work of the individual creators. Many have branched out. Looking at their current projects often reveals the themes they wanted to explore in Egypt. For example, some of the environmental storytelling techniques intended for the valley ended up influencing the dense, atmospheric world-building of the Quarantine Zone in Half-Life: Alyx.
The reality is that In the Valley of the Gods exists in a state of quantum uncertainty. It’s both a masterpiece and a ghost. For now, the best thing to do is play Firewatch one more time, appreciate the 2017 trailer for the piece of art it is, and keep your expectations firmly on the ground. The desert doesn't give up its secrets easily, and neither does Valve.
Check the official Campo Santo blog or the Valve press page every few months. Avoid the "leak" YouTube channels that claim to have inside info—they're almost always chasing clicks. If a revival happens, it will be a sudden, massive announcement directly from Valve, likely tied to a new hardware showcase or a Steam event. Until then, consider the game a beautiful "what if" in the history of interactive storytelling.