Firewatch just turned five this month, and now you have a new and extra-accessible way to access dozens upon dozens of stories from the creation of the modern classic.
Firewatch first came out in February 2016, and an update in September added in the Firewatch Audio Tour; essentially a developer walkthrough mode which added in a series of self-guided tour stations throughout the game that dispense cassettes that you can play to hear more than 80 stories from the developers about how they made the game. Up until now, the only way to hear these stories was to go back and play the game, but now Firewatch publisher Panic has marked the game's fifth anniversary with a fully transcribed ebook version of the Firewatch Audio Tour.
🔥 Five years ago, we published Firewatch. It changed a lot of things for us. We were lucky to be a part of it.To celebrate, we've finally transcribed the built-in Firewatch Audio Tour — packed with development insight — into an 175-page PDF book. Enjoy. https://t.co/au23lzatFoFebruary 17, 2021
Inside its pages, you can find revelatory and amusing snippets about the making of Firewatch. Here's a sample from the book, with writer Sean Vanaman detailing the origins of Henry's beloved pet turtle, Turt Reynolds - or whatever you decided to name it.
"You can definitely launch this turtle right into the lake and hopefully Henry will say something about it if you do. Which is one of my favorite moments in the game. And then I think Turt Reynolds, the name you can choose for him was a bad joke made by a guy who shares an office with us. Zach Johnson of Kingdom of Loathing, he came out and said, what about Turt Reynolds? And we all groaned and then I wrote it down."
The Firewatch developers recently shared some unseen art and a hidden arcade mode for the game - or at least one version of it.
