Interactive Story Without Challenge Mechanics: The Design of Firewatch

In this 2019 GDC talk, Valve's Chris Remo discusses the ways in which the Campo Santo team succeeded (and came up short) in making deep interactive narrative design a vital part of Firewatch.
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[@unvergebeneid]

Firewatch is the perfect game for when you come home at 3am half drunk but don't want to go to bed yet. The serenity really mellows you out.

[@_kneasle]

The ending is anything but mellow though...

[@unvergebeneid]

@@_kneasle that is very true

[@Dousch]

Really well conducted talk. A couple of years back I gave the game a try without knowing much about it. I was waiting for another game to arrive in my mailbox, one that I had been dying to play, and my favorite game of that year ended up being Firewatch. I look back on that time as one of complete immersion and joy. I’ve listened to the soundtrack more or less weekly since then. Bravo, Chris, bravo.

[@orthovasky]

One of the best talks so far.

[@GonziHere]

This talk nails why I loved this walksim. I hate it when the games just force you to do something and then optionally punish you for it (the last of us 2 has it in spades). You did the opposite. You let the player be the player and just commented on it as much as you were able to. Great stuff. Really great stuff.

[@connorhillen]

What an absolutely fantastic and comprehensive talk. Outstanding perspective and insights here.

[@LordTrilobite]

This makes me want to play Firewatch again and try out some different dialog choices.

[@RFC3514]

None of them makes any difference to the outcome or the main events. Even the "big choice" (when you can choose to start a fire or not start a fire) is fake. Whatever you choose, the exact same things happen.

[@jennaperkin]

This is such an interesting talk! It's so cool seeing the depth of narrative design choices, both embedded and emergent. All of that benefits the game's immersive appeal.

[@maessof91]

Yay, New Firewatch Talk. I have watched all on youtube. :)

[@someonesomewhere1975]

Awesome and interesting talk with a lot of depth and technical details. Very appreciated!

[@tristanwegner]

One of the best GDC talks (non-technical) I have seen! With such clear thought, it is easier to see how Firewatch got so great!

[@oussamasoudassi]

I hope that In the valley of gods will be released one day

[@MASTERCRAFT938]

the story of the game can go a little over the top sometimes. But what really wows me is the environment and chill atmosphere. It's a really cool game that stayed with me :)

[@lyonartime333]

The Delilah Brain is clearly one of the 45 Brains.

[@alexferland101]

I miss IIT more than anything

[@jossedrooc99]

This games is actually pure gold

[@TheMightyPirateTm]

Great talk

[@dansudansudansu]

Watching this makes me sad that In the Valley of Gods will never see the light of day.

[@Epinardscaramel]

I loved Firewatch!

[@TheBlackjack182]

Firewatch ❤️

[@falxie_]

I didn't realize how complex decisions in Firewatch were

[@AF-ei5yi]

The Valley of Gods is well and truly over now

[@RasmusVJS]

The gal talking at 53:00 sounds so incredibly familiar, but I cannot put my finger on who it may be.

[@joseph2000117]

Female Chills, the number 15 guy

[@omerfarukbykl6097]

7:00

[@AdamHawkesDeveloper]

The clip of the review was from this video. kzbin.info/www/bejne/f2Haqo2Oer6gbsU

[@TESkyrimizer]

Loved the talk but something struck me half way in. He sounds really similar to Yanderedev.

[@astro_case]

I'm sad that "In The Valley of the Gods" will probably never see the light of day :(

[@mikvance]

Game design is a science and these people have mastered it. Fake gamers calling it a "walking simulator" are clearly too dumb to understand the intention of the game. Wonderful presentation.

[@CPorter]

One of the things I wished he would have spoke about, among several, was the current plan or attitude towards getting Campo Santo back into the Community. I'd like to beleive that Sean, as well as everyone from the company regrets the "incident" that happened back in the Fall of 2017, but for the most part, everyone has moved on from it. Though there's one reminder that's ever present. That being the complete lack of commenting on their channel and reviewing of Firewatch itself on steam. Though there seems to be some hype around In The Valley Of Gods, I don't like the company's chances by shutting out the community. It's time for that to change. As for the game itself, something that I haven't seen anyone touch on is, the game has the ability to "decay" with time and play. I got 60 hours of the game, playing through it multiple times and attempting speedruns before. The game clearly was not meant to be played more than 3 or 4 times through.

[@matthewdaub]

What was the incident?

[@joseluispcr]

Your time was 00.00 but I beated you by one second

[@PhantomWowfull]

Now looks like a bad version of Valheim graphics (joking obv)

[@gamongames]

if you need to previously write a defense to a comment that basically tells people to low key ignore it, maybe the comment isnt worth it

[@damonsteward8609]

The developers of this destroyed their own reputation when they were set to go higher than any other, I was going to buy this game.. But didn't after they acted the way they did

[@DOSRetroGamer]

What did they do?

[@arthursimsa9005]

Wtf are you raving about?

[@geizkafahriza4127]

@@DOSRetroGamer it was pewdiepie dmca takedown I think