This is going to be awesome

Campo Santois a new San Francisco-based studio formed by talented people you’ve hopefully heard of before: Sean Vanaman and Jake Rodkin ofThe Walking Deadand the stellarIdle Thumbspodcast; Nels Anderson ofMark of the Ninja; and Olly Moss ofa bunch of artI want to buy. If not, you ought to go play their respective games. We’ll wait.

“So why are we doing this? To be honest, it’s because we think we’ve found the right group of people to make the first reason not just worth enduring but actually thrilling,” writes Vanaman. “As we talk to our friends and industry colleagues about ‘doing something indie’ with us, there’s a shared pragmatism informed by years in the industry that melds with the lingering youthful enthusiasm that got us into games to begin with. Some of us want to tell stories, some of us want to build systems, and some of us want to create beautiful looking worlds, but we all want to makesomething. The stultifying difficulty of making a good game is instantly tempered and then squashed.”

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The company’s first game will be targeting Windows, Mac, and Linux. It’s “both backed by and made in collaboration with” the Portland, OR-based software company Panic Inc. “It’s an unlikely partnership that means we get to conceive of, make, and distribute a video game the way we want to and the way we know how, with no per-prescribed set of rules or formula for how it’s done,” continues Vanaman. “Did we win the lottery? (It feels like it) Are we about to hit an old lady with our car? (I hope not). The shock is the same either way.”

These guys right here. I’m beyond excited to see what they can come up with.

John and Molly sitting on the park bench

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Lightkeeper pointing his firearm overlapped against the lighthouse background

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Edited image of Super Imposter looking through window in No I’m not a Human demo cutscene with thin man and FEMA inside the house

Indie game collage of Blue Prince, KARMA, and The Midnight Walk

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