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Firewatch

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Firewatch
File:Firewatch logo.png
Developer(s)Campo Santo
Publisher(s)Panic
Director(s)Jake Rodkin
Designer(s)
  • Nels Anderson
  • James Benson
Programmer(s)
  • Will Armstrong
  • Paolo Surricchio
  • Patrick Ewing
  • Ben Burbank
Artist(s)
Writer(s)Sean Vanaman
Composer(s)Chris Remo
EngineUnity
Platform(s)
Genre(s)Adventure
Mode(s)Single-player

Firewatch is a first person adventure video game developed by Campo Santo and published by Panic for Microsoft Windows, OS X, Linux, and PlayStation 4. It was the debut video game by both companies. Firewatch follows the story of a fire lookout in the aftermath of the Yellowstone fires of 1988.

Gameplay

Firewatch takes place in the Wyoming wilderness in 1989.[1] Players take on the role of Henry (voiced by Rich Sommer), a fire lookout who is assigned to his own tower in Shoshone National Forest.[2] Through exploration of the surrounding area, Henry uncovers clues about mysterious occurrences in the vicinity that are related to the ransacking of his tower while out on a routine patrol and a shadowy figure that occasionally appears watching him from afar.[3] Henry's only form of communication is a walkie-talkie connecting him to his supervisor, Delilah (voiced by Cissy Jones).[4] Players may choose from a number of dialog options to interact with her when players discover new interactive objects or environments, or refrain from responding. The player's choices will influence the tone of Henry's relationship with Delilah. As the story progresses, new areas will be opened up for players. The game also features a day-night cycle, but time will only shift if players successfully complete all the objectives set for that period of time.[5]

Plot

In 1989, Henry takes a job as a fire lookout in Wyoming after his wife develops advanced early-onset Alzheimers. On his first day, Delilah, a lookout in another watchtower, contacts him via walkie-talkie and asks him to investigate illegal fireworks by the lake. Henry discovers a pair of drunken teenage girls, who accuse him of leering. On his way home he comes across a locked cave and spots a shadowy figure. He returns to his watchtower to find it ransacked.

The next day, Delilah asks Henry to investigate a downed communication line. He finds it cut, with a note apparently signed by the teens. He and Delilah plot to scare the girls off, but when he finds the girls' campsite ransacked, they begin to worry. A note left at the site blames Henry for wrecking their camp and stealing their belongings.

Later, Henry finds an old backpack and a disposable camera belonging to a boy named Brian, who Delilah explains was a lookout with his father Ned. Ned was an outdoorsman who drank heavily due to his traumatic experiences in the Vietnam War, while his son, Brian, enjoyed fantasy novels and role-playing games. Though it is against the rules for employees to bring their children to the towers, Delilah was fond of Brian and lied about his presence. Evidently, he and Ned left abruptly and never returned.

The teenage girls are reported missing. Fearing an inquiry, Delilah falsifies reports to say that neither she nor Henry encountered the girls. By the lake the next day, Henry discovers a radio and a clipboard with notes including transcripts of his conversations with Delilah. He is then knocked unconscious by an unseen assailant. He wakes to find the clipboard and radio gone. In a meadow referred to on the clipboard letterhead he finds a fenced-off government research area. He breaks in and discovers surveillance equipment and typewritten reports detailing his and Delilah's conversations and private lives. He also discovers a tracking device which he takes with him.

Henry and Delilah discuss destroying the government camp, but decide against it. As Henry hikes home, someone sets fire to the camp. He uses the tracking device to find a backpack with a key to the cave. Delilah reports a figure in Henry’s tower; when Henry arrives, he finds a Walkman taped to the door with an incriminating recording of Henry and Delilah's discussion about destroying the government camp.

When Henry enters the cave, someone locks the gate behind him. He escapes through another exit and discovers Brian's old hiding spot, where he went to escape his father when he tried to teach him how to climb. He goes deeper into the cave using climbing equipment left at Brian's camp, and discovers Brian's mummified body at the bottom of a cavern. Delilah is upset by the news, blaming herself for allowing Brian to stay.

The next day, the fire at the government camp has grown out of control and an emergency evacuation order is given for all the lookouts. As Henry prepares to leave, the tracking device begins beeping. He follows the signal and discovers a tape with a recording from Ned. Ned claims in the tape that Brian's death was accidental, and that the boy fell due to climbing inexperience. Unwilling to return to society after Brian's death, Ned admits he has been living in secret in the wilderness ever since. He then announces that he's heading deeper into the Shoshone to find a new campsite and that Henry shouldn't follow him. Henry finds Ned’s camp, along with items stolen from the government camp, the lookout towers, and the teenage girls, who Delilah confirms have been found safe. The government camp was simply studying wildlife; Ned had been using its radio equipment to ensure no one was looking for him and to create transcripts to scare Henry away. Delilah blames Ned for Brian's death and leaves on the helicopter, telling Henry to return to his wife. He goes to her tower, where the rescue helicopter is waiting for him, and he and Delilah say their goodbyes via radio.

During the credits, any pictures taken by the player through the disposable camera are displayed, as well as a few pictures of Ned and Brian.

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.[6] Chris Remo composed the score. Firewatch runs on the Unity game engine.[7]

Development for Firewatch began with a single painting by Moss.[1] 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.[1] 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.[8] In creating the aforementioned painting, Moss emulated National Park Service posters from the New Deal era in both color palette and iconography.[9] 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.[8] The development team went on a camping trip to Yosemite National Park for inspiration for the game.[10] The game is also inspired in part by Vanaman's and Anderson's experiences growing up in rural Wyoming.[11]

The game is a first-person game played from the perspective of Henry, and Delilah will only talk through the walkie-talkie. This gameplay decision was made as the team hoped to avoid lip syncing and minimize the amount of animation needed, as both were very expensive for them due to the limited team size and resources.[5] The lakefront sequence of the game's opening chapter features "Push Play"—a song by musicians Joy Chun and Nate Bosley from a 2014 synthwave concept album, "Let's Get Electric", which depicts a fictitious 1980's synthpop act known as Cheap Talk. In development, Taylor Dayne's "Tell It To My Heart" was used as a placeholder in the scene, but Vanaman conceded that the song was too overwhelming, and would cost too much to license. Under the realization that it would also cost too much to commission a song, Remo sought a song in the style of the 1980s by an unsigned, independent artist, leading to the use of "Push Play". Vanaman explained that "if the tone of a song is taking you, the player away from the game, we don't have anything to pull you back or make it better. This is the one that's like a soundtrack-to-your-life type thing. People don't make a lot of music like that, and they just nail it".[12]

The game was announced in March 2014 with a tentative release date of "2015".[4] At GDC, the company housed a public playtest away from the main building and game artist, Jane Ng, hosted a panel on the design and aesthetic of the game entitled The Art of Firewatch.[13] In June 2015, the team visited E3 and confirmed that they would be bringing the game to PlayStation 4 as the only console version.[14]

Reception

Firewatch received "generally favorable" reviews, according to video game review aggregator Metacritic.[24][25] Praise was given to its story, characters, dialogue, exploration based gameplay, and visuals while criticism fell upon its short length, ending, and technical hiccups. The game sold enough copies on the first day to break even, and a month since release has sold more than 500,000 copies.[26]

References

  1. ^ a b c Tach, Dave (March 12, 2015). "Before Firewatch was a 3D world, it was a painting". Polygon. Retrieved December 4, 2015.
  2. ^ Farokhmanesh, Megan (September 8, 2014). "Campo Santo's debut, Firewatch, is an exploration of isolation and choice". Polygon. Retrieved March 12, 2015.
  3. ^ Birnbaum, Ian (August 29, 2014). "First-person mystery story Firewatch revealed by Campo Santo at PAX". PC Gamer. Retrieved December 4, 2015.
  4. ^ a b Tach, Dave (March 13, 2014). "Firewatch is Campo Santo's first game". Polygon. Retrieved December 4, 2015.
  5. ^ a b Fenlon, Wes (March 12, 2015). "Firewatch's Wyoming fosters a bigger, weirder adventure than I expected". PC Gamer. Retrieved February 11, 2016.
  6. ^ Tach, Dave (September 19, 2013). "Walking Dead, Mark of the Ninja vets form Campo Santo, working on new game". Polygon. Retrieved March 12, 2015.
  7. ^ "Firewatch FAQ". Campo Santo. Retrieved March 12, 2015.
  8. ^ a b IGN UK Podcast (October 12, 2014). "Discussing Firewatch with Olly Moss". IGN. Retrieved March 12, 2015.
  9. ^ Ng, Jane (October 22, 2014). "Jane Ng Q&A Part 2". Campo Santo. Retrieved March 12, 2015.
  10. ^ Bowman, Mitch (October 21, 2014). "Field Notes: How Devs Recreate Wilderness In Games". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved March 12, 2015.
  11. ^ Anderson, Nels (November 26, 2014). "Greetings from Wyoming". Campo Santo. Retrieved March 12, 2015.
  12. ^ "Firewatch's boom box song by the lake is the best new single of 1987 — and today". Polygon. Retrieved February 22, 2016.
  13. ^ "The Art of Firewatch (GDC 2015)". Campo Santo Productions. March 12, 2015. Retrieved June 24, 2015.
  14. ^ "Firewatch Coming to PS4". PlayStation.Blog. Retrieved June 24, 2015.
  15. ^ Hansen, Steven (February 8, 2016). "Review: Firewatch". Destructoid. Retrieved February 8, 2016.
  16. ^ Cork, Jeff (February 8, 2016). "Gabbin' In The Woods - Firewatch - PlayStation 4". Game Informer. Retrieved February 8, 2016.
  17. ^ a b Butterworth, Scott (February 8, 2016). "Firewatch Review". GameSpot. Retrieved February 8, 2016.
  18. ^ a b Towell, Justin (February 8, 2016). "Firewatch review". GamesRadar. Retrieved February 8, 2016.
  19. ^ a b Navarro, Alex (February 9, 2016). "Firewatch Review". Giant Bomb. Retrieved February 9, 2016.
  20. ^ a b McCaffrey, Ryan (February 8, 2016). "Firewatch Review". IGN. Retrieved February 8, 2016.
  21. ^ Kelly, Andy (February 8, 2016). "Firewatch review". PC Gamer. Retrieved February 8, 2016.
  22. ^ a b Campbell, Colin (February 8, 2016). "Firewatch review". Polygon. Retrieved February 8, 2016.
  23. ^ a b Orry, Tom (February 8, 2016). "Firewatch Review". VideoGamer.com. Retrieved February 8, 2016.
  24. ^ a b "Firewatch for PC Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved March 24, 2016.
  25. ^ a b "Firewatch for PlayStation 4 Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved March 24, 2016.
  26. ^ Good, Owen (March 19, 2016). "Firewatch sells half a million copies, ships a thousand sets of photos". Polygon. Retrieved March 19, 2016.
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