Former Walking Dead, Mark of the Ninja designers form new indie studio

Campo Santo is a new indie development studio formed by former developers from games like The Walking Dead and Mark of the Ninja .

. The San Francisco-based studio will work on a as-yet untitled project for PC, Mac, and Linux, according to its official blog.

Sean Vanaman, who along with fellow Campo Santo team member Jake Rodkin helped write and design The Walking Dead, reports in the new developer's inaugural update that founding a game studio is "like a mix of buying a winning lottery ticket and taking a brash detour that results in a near miss with a pedestrian."

"As we talk to our friends and industry colleagues about 'doing something indie' with us, there's a shared pragmatism informed by years in the industry that melds with the lingering youthful enthusiasm that got us into games to begin with," Vanaman writes. "Some of us want to tell stories, some of us want to build systems, and some of us want to create beautiful looking worlds, but we all want to make something. The stultifying difficulty of making a good game is instantly tempered and then squashed."

Rounding out the team are Nels Anderson, who was the lead designer on Mark of the Ninja, and Olly Moss, an artist who has worked previously with Lucasfilm and Sony, according to the Campo Santo website. The developers will be partnering with Panic, Inc. to make and distribute their first project.

The enthusiasm in Vanaman's Campo Santo origin story is palpable. Details are scarce at the moment, but since one of the best calling cards in game design is your previous work, it's safe to say we'll be keeping an eye on what the team at Campo Santo will come up with, as more information surfaces.