Anybody remember In The Valley of Gods? It was a game announced way back in 2017 from Firewatch developer Campo Santo. The game was billed as a first-person adventure where you explore ancient ruins in the Egyptian desert with your former partner Zora. The trailer showcases the two of you sneaking into a temple with a 35mm camera to watch the sunrise through a narratively-important statue (I assume).
But then Campo Santo was purchased by Valve in 2018, and by December 2019 everyone had been reassigned to help on other Valve projects, which at the time meant Half-Life: Alyx and Dota Underlords. Both of those games are great Valve products and all, but it sort of makes you wonder what happened to In The Valley of Gods?
In an interview with Polygon (and a nod to GamesRadar), Campo Santo co-founder Jake Rodkin said that the game hadn't been canceled, but blamed "Valve time" for the delay. "In The Valley of Gods development is on hold—but it certainly feels like a project people can and may return to," he said. "And when that happens, we’ll find an exciting way to let fans know."
In The Valley of Gods initially had a release window of 2019, but that was changed to "TBD" when the game was put on hold. Now, however, the release window on Steam has changed yet again... to December 2029.
That’s a laughably long way away, but the fact that it changed at all means someone at Valve cared enough about In The Valley of Gods to remind everyone that it still exists somewhere. Maybe it’s in a filing cabinet, maybe it’s in Gabe Newell’s Steam Deck as an ultra-pre-alpha build, but it’s there. Waiting. Much like the secrets of the ancient Egyptians. Hopefully, we won’t have to wait until 2029 to actually experience it.
One Valve game that was canceled was an early build of Half-Life 3. That's according to sources speaking to Valve reporter Tyler McVicker, who said that the project was canceled in 2015 due to conflict with management and a push to VR hardware.