Dear Esther To Get Commercial Release

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Dear Esther To Get Commercial Release

Postby ad_hominem on Tue Feb 15, 2011 6:49 pm

The Dear Esther team, the guys behind the Source mod whose screenshots have had us all drooling for months on end, have announced that they're now planning on releasing the game commercially. Initially intended to be a free remake of a 3-year-old mod, Dear Esther will now be getting a full release on Steam.

The groundbreaking game, which replaces traditional FPS gameplay with the exploration of a desolate island, a deep and emotional story and a stunning soundtrack, will be launched on Steam later this year. Over the last twelve months, the award-winning mod (Indiecade 2009, Mod of the Year 2010) has been re-developed by Robert Briscoe (Mirror’s Edge) in collaboration with the original creator, Dan Pinchbeck.

The re-make features a completely new environment that pushes the Source engine into uncharted territory; a re-orchestrated soundtrack by composer Jessica Curry, new areas to explore and an expanded story.


There's plenty of information on the mod available at the official site, and PC Gamer have today released an interview with the original creator, Dan Pinchbeck, where they talk about the decision to move towards a commercial release.
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Re: Dear Esther To Get Commercial Release

Postby LordDz on Tue Feb 15, 2011 8:14 pm

The decision = Cash.
What else to it is there? :D But I'll prolly buy it too.
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Re: Dear Esther To Get Commercial Release

Postby Habboi on Tue Feb 15, 2011 9:49 pm

I can't imagine it being more than a pound cause surely it doesn't last longer than say 15 minutes? I never played the original mod so I'm just guessing but how long can he make it last D:
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Re: Dear Esther To Get Commercial Release

Postby Woe Kitten on Tue Feb 15, 2011 11:33 pm

Good on them: with the quality of work they have on show they certainly deserve it. The interesting question for me is does this strengthen or weaken the modding community? In one way it makes us all look good because so many professional games and companies are popping up out of the modding community. On the other hand hardly anyone knows that that's where they came from and it's a big drain on our talent pool.

That's something for a different thread though. All there is to say here is:

Congratulations!
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Re: Dear Esther To Get Commercial Release

Postby marks on Wed Feb 16, 2011 1:26 pm

Woe Kitten wrote:Good on them: with the quality of work they have on show they certainly deserve it... Congratulations!

100% agree.
Woe Kitten wrote:The interesting question for me is does this strengthen or weaken the modding community? In one way it makes us all look good because so many professional games and companies are popping up out of the modding community. On the other hand hardly anyone knows that that's where they came from and it's a big drain on our talent pool.


How is that a bad thing?
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Re: Dear Esther To Get Commercial Release

Postby Jike on Wed Feb 16, 2011 5:42 pm

At first I was pissed cause of the mod TURNING commercial.

Then I read this: http://www.littlelostpoly.co.uk/devblog/?p=640

Now that sounds somewhat different for me and I now fully stand behind them. It seems the sudden "commercialization" (indie-ization) struck myself as much as it struck the creators themselves (read the blog post, you'll understand)
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Re: Dear Esther To Get Commercial Release

Postby joe_rogers_11155 on Wed Feb 16, 2011 10:00 pm

@ woe kitten: I think the developers that really matter (valve, crytek, epic) are aware of the modding community as a source of their talent. companies like activision seem to have less of a notion...or if they are aware, then they are stubbornly ignoring it. activision is so large due to a kind of "brute force" approach of collecting a mass of bodies from universites and weeding through them, whereas the modding community is hand-picked from by the good companies i mentioned.
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Re: Dear Esther To Get Commercial Release

Postby srredfire on Thu Feb 17, 2011 1:00 am

I fully support this. It always irritates me when people get angry at indie devs who decide to put a price tag on their work. Usually throwing around things about selling out, and what not. But come on, a good handful of work done by indie devs is REALLY good, dare I say a lot of the time better than commercial.

Supporting these developers should be the first thing we want to do, instead of bashing them. It's good to see this going along this path, you can tell how much work has gone into this project, it'd almost be unfair to ask for it for free.
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Re: Dear Esther To Get Commercial Release

Postby Wazanator on Thu Feb 17, 2011 1:52 am

I don't mind them going indie, but I don't see the game making a lot of sales. Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't following the same plot as the original mod? I don't think I could bring myself to buy a game that I've already played just so I can see better graphics (which look stunning).
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Re: Dear Esther To Get Commercial Release

Postby cheesemoo0 on Thu Feb 17, 2011 2:35 am

Honestly not many people have played it even if they are involved in the modding scene. I haven't played it myself, because it looks like ass. Plus they aren't sticking strictly the same plot as the first. They are adding some stuff here and there.
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Re: Dear Esther To Get Commercial Release

Postby no00dylan on Thu Feb 17, 2011 3:25 am

I'd play it just for it's beautiful level design.
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Re: Dear Esther To Get Commercial Release

Postby Gary on Thu Feb 17, 2011 7:03 am

Meh, from what I've seen I wouldn't pay for it. I don't buy games only for their design or graphics. The mod/game doesn't really get me excited, I mean, it looks cool and all graphically and I would of downloaded if it was free, but I don't pay for tech demos.

At least now that it's licensed, hopefully he will add some much needed graphical features. Cause even though pictures might look good, doesn't mean it will look half as good in gameplay.
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Re: Dear Esther To Get Commercial Release

Postby JLea on Thu Feb 17, 2011 8:13 am

hahahah that's so ridiculous. doesn't the mod last like 15 minutes or sometihng? how is anyone going to play that and go "yeah, that was worth $5 or whatever i paid for it?"
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Re: Dear Esther To Get Commercial Release

Postby Jike on Thu Feb 17, 2011 12:49 pm

Gary wrote:Meh, from what I've seen I wouldn't pay for it. I don't buy games only for their design or graphics. The mod/game doesn't really get me excited, I mean, it looks cool and all graphically and I would of downloaded if it was free, but I don't pay for tech demos.

At least now that it's licensed, hopefully he will add some much needed graphical features. Cause even though pictures might look good, doesn't mean it will look half as good in gameplay.


In the link I posted, they say Valve were amazed by the work, so that's gotta mean something! :)
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Re: Dear Esther To Get Commercial Release

Postby Woe Kitten on Thu Feb 17, 2011 3:15 pm

It's not a tech demo... Dear Esther is a ground breaking piece of art. If you only play games and don't care about art you probably won't like this but then your life is missing out.

Now when I say this is a ground breaking piece of art I don't mean that it has good graphics, I mean that it's a deep and engaging experience that will make you think, feel and perhaps change the way you see the world. If you aren't willing to pay $5 for that then I feel sorry for you.

It also has the best graphics I've seen from the source engine by a country mile.

Also @ Marks: good point really I posed my post more as a question than a statement. Maybe it isn't a bad thing at all.
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