By Anthony’s own admission, the game is something of a gambit. It can be misunderstood in any number of ways—written off as a vanity project, dismissed as ‘just another walking simulator,’ or simply seen as something too personal to have broad appeal. And he had no illusions about its seeming niche appeal. Even if the finished product was poignant and worthwhile, it would not necessarily be sellable. The early reception from fans has been deeply encouraging, however, and now Valley of Shadow is on course to debut in 2023. And if it succeeds, it could kindle interest in a relatively untapped narrative genre for video games.

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Exposure and Closure

Anthony expressed the wish to see more autobiographical video games, from many perspectives and from every walk of life. Thanks to a positive early showing at AwesomeCon in 2019, he now knows that the genre is ‘marketable,’ despite his own cynicism toward economics. Even if the game lacks the near-universal appeal of Super Mario, it is still a viable enterprise. But there is another very good reason why autobiographical games have been vanishingly rare to date:

As a developer, allowing players to look into their childhood and literally explore their home, exhuming personal family memories is an unparalleled act of exposure. In that sense, Anthony’s Hemingway quote couldn’t be more apt. The script for the game is his life story, such that it orbits around a life-altering traumatic event. Finding a way to make that experience compelling is a challenging balancing act. Synersteel must strike the perfect balancing act between raw realism and palatable escapism, while also weathering the personal toll of dealing with those topics.

Home, Sweet Home

Like many games, Valley of Shadows changed drastically throughout its development. Beginning as a colorful open-world fantasy game, Anthony realized that the things he was bringing to the game were shaped by his trauma, and his attempts to reconcile his grief.

The hub he settled on was a 3D model of his family’s childhood home. It serves as not only a mooring, but a lens for the way the player approaches the game. As Anthony, players will need to explore the eponymous valley, retrieving artifacts from his actual past (clips from actual VHS tapes, photographs, and more), which help structure the story. While many games use collectibles to deliver lore, Valley of Shadow may be the first digital title to incorporate real-life autobiographical content via artifacts.

Childhood Magic

It is also important to note that just because the game is rooted in reality doesn’t mean there is no room for magic. The game tasks players with solving puzzles in a frosty, perilous valley using magic. Players have a number of magic spells at their disposal that will be familiar to any fan of Dungeons & Dragons spell-casting.

Valley of Shadow’s fantasy setting may seem like an awkward choice in an autobiographical, serious game. But tropes of magic and heroism are a major part of growing up, particularly in the 80s (D&D, Ghost Busters), 90s (Power Rangers, Sailor Moon, Pokemon), and 2000s (Harry Potter, LOTR films). The fanciful environment in Valley of Shadow stands in for those cultural touchstones and guiding forces; it is the escapism that the Vaccaro brothers grew up on. The setting explicitly covers the aspects of childhood that the artifacts cannot.

Valley of Shadow is currently projected to launch in 2023 for PC.

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