In the Valley of Gods "on hold" as Campo Santo devs work on Half-Life: Alyx and other Valve projects
As fans had feared, Campo Santo developers are now busy working on Valve projects.
In the Valley of Gods was, for a couple of years now, Campo Santo's upcoming project. After the success of Firewatch, the developer announced the game almost exactly two years ago, with a release target of 2019.
Beyond the only trailer we have, Campo Santo hasn't revealed any details about the game, shown gameplay, or really attempted to remind anyone that it wasn't dead. The developer was acquired by Valve a few months after, promising to continue working on In the Valley of Gods.
Recently, however, fans noticed that key members of the game's development removed In the Valley of Gods from their Twitter bios, which usually only means one of two things: either the game has been cancelled, or it's done and coming out very soon. The answer, as the developer has now revealed, is not necessarily either of them.
Campo Santo co-founder Jake Rodkin confirmed to Polygon that his studio's talent is spread across Valve's different projects, including the upcoming Half-Life: Alyx, Dota Underlords, Steam as well as other unannounced ventures.
Here's Rodkin's full statement:
"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."