Indie Gaming: Finding Entrepreneurial Success in Video Games by Brian Bies

Author:Brian Bies [Bies, Brian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: New Degree Press
Published: 2017-04-25T07:00:00+00:00

The Story of Sean Vanaman, Co-Founder (Campo Santo)

Sean Vanaman is a game designer and writer, and he previously worked for Telltale Games and Walt Disney Company. Sean Vanaman made a name for himself while he was at Telltale Games, an American independent game developer and publisher founded June 2004. While at Telltale Games, Sean was the project lead on Poker Night at the Inventory (2010) and The Walking Dead (2012). In addition to being the project lead, Sean was also the lead writer for Telltale’s The Walking Dead. The Walking Dead, an episodic interactive drama and graphic adventure video game, a game based on the TV-series, has won over 80 Game of the Year Awards and other accolades since its initial release in 2012; it won Game of the Year in 2012 at the Video Game Awards. Clearly, Sean had played in the big leagues and had wildly succeeded.

But Sean Vanaman left Telltale Games to co-found Campo Santo, a San Francisco based independent video game development studio, in 2013; the company currently has 11 employees. Sean Vanaman on his decision to leave Telltale and co-found Campo Santo, wrote in one of Campo Santo’s first blog posts:

“Deciding to found and then actually create a video game studio has felt like a mix of buying a winning lottery ticket and taking a brushed detour that results in a near mess with the pedestrian.”

He goes on to say:

“Some of us want to tell stories, some of us want to build systems and some of us want to create beautiful looking worlds.” He writes, “But we all want to make something.”

Sean’s reason for leaving his successful career at Telltale Games and co-found an independent studio harkens back to his desire, along with his colleagues, to “make something.” Considering Sean is a writer, an especially creative role within the video game industry, which is largely creative and entertainment driven, this makes logical sense. But what is truly striking about Sean’s passion for making games and pursuing the path of an independent games development is that Sean is leveraging his expertise and talents as a writer and experience in the industry. Prior to leaving and co-founding Campo Santo, he worked at Telltale Games, a developer and publisher that found a niche in acquiring rights to franchising games within larger brands (The Walking Dead, Borderlands, Game of Thrones, Minecraft and many more).

Sean was a writer for Campo Santo’s first game Firewatch, which was released in 2016. Firewatch, a first-person mystery adventure game, focuses on a national forest fire lookout named, Henry. It was set in 1989, after a major fire happened in Yellow Stone in 1988. Firewatch went on to be nominated for a number of Joystick Awards and Video Game Awards, and the game won the award for Best 3D Visual Experience at the Unity Awards in 2016 and Best Indie Game at the 2016 Golden Joystick Awards. Firewatch was hailed by critics for its engaging narrative and sense of realism, despite the stylized level design and art design for the game.

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