Petaluma native’s video game ‘Firewatch’ tops the charts

With an unconventional story about a middle-aged man grappling with his wife’s early-onset dementia, “Firewatch” is one of this year’s most unlikely breakout video game hits.

With relatively little marketing, the game - which was co-created by Petaluma native Jake Rodkin - sold 500,000 copies in its first month and became the top-selling game on video game download store Steam. It’s garnered glowing writeups in mainstream outlets like the New York Times, Slate and the Boston Globe.

“Firewatch” has captivated critics partly because it’s among an emerging genre of video games that’s accessible and easy to play. Rather than die repeatedly at the hands of hordes of relentless bad guys, players wander the wilderness as Henry, a man who’s taken a job serving as a fire lookout in Wyoming. The bulk of the gameplay is taking in your surroundings, and communicating with another character via a handheld radio as “Firewatch’s” story unfolds.

There are emotions, drama, and a plot line that tugs at the heart strings.

“I think, in a certain way, ‘Firewatch’ is a gigantic choose your own adventure game,” said Rodkin, 35, whose San Francisco video game studio, Campo Santo, created the game.

The game opens in 1975 in Boulder, Colo., with you playing the main character. You’re at a bar with friends, drinking, when all of a sudden, you meet Julia.

The bulk of the game occurs 14 years later. After you, Henry, find out Julia, now your wife, has early onset dementia, you decide to spend the summer working for the forestry service as a lookout in a fire tower. It’s a relatively new niche within the gaming world, because the game aspect of it is that you play as Henry, and you have to decide how things turn out.

You’re grappling with real-life issues and taking in dramatic scenery. Because of those traits, it’s accessible to an audience that might be turned off by the skill required of popular “Call of Duty” or “Grand Theft Auto” games.

“There’s no violence or combat or anything, so we hope that people who don’t have those skills can still play the game, and that it’s appealing to them because of its setting and its characters,” said Rodkin, whose parents, Rich and Susan Rodkin, still live in Petaluma.

Rodkin and his Campo Santo co-founder, Sean Vanaman, met while working for Telltale Games in San Rafael. There, they oversaw the first season of a similarly accessible, critically acclaimed adventure game based on “The Walking Dead.”

Rodkin said he first got interested in video games while at St. Vincent de Paul High School in Petaluma, reading “early Internet video game websites,” and writing for them from his dorm room when he got to UC Santa Cruz.

Through that, he became introduced to people who make video games. Rodkin got into the work through his design abilities, starting out at Telltale.

Vanaman grew up in Wyoming, as did one of the other designers for “Firewatch,” so the idea of a main character being out in the middle of the wilderness sprang from there.

“I think that’s just been in Sean’s head since he was a kid,” he said. “We had a general pitch, that you’re someone who takes a job at a fire lookout tower, and then weird stuff starts happening to you.”

So what’s next?

“We honestly don’t know at this point,” he said. “We’re just starting to talk about it.”

Campo Santo spent a little more than two years on its first project, beginning in December 2013, and finally releasing it this February. While Rodkin wouldn’t say what the budget for the game was, he said the small team had hoped to break even after a few weeks or months.

“To break even in a day was completely beyond anyone’s expectations,” he said.

“Firewatch” is available to play on PC via GOG.com and Steam, an iTunes-like store that sells downloads of PC games. It’s also available as a download on PlayStation 4. It sells for $19.99.

You can reach Staff Writer Christi Warren at 521-5205 or christi.warren@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @SeaWarren.