Dear Esther - Kicking the source engine back into the fight!
polycounter lvl 8
[ame="
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3bPjEbenew"]www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3bPjEbenew[/ame]
So I just sumbled across this, while I haven't heard anything about it before, my first thought was that this game looks gorgeous!
Appearently the game won "Best Upcoming Mod" from ModDB last year and Valve appearently liked it enough to grant the studio behind the game an full source engine license so they could release it independtly on steam.
There's some more info at Joystiq
http://www.joystiq.com/2011/02/12/dear-esther-hl2-mod-remake-to-be-commercially-released-this-summ/
and on the games own site:
http://dear-esther.com/
and their moddb profile:
http://www.moddb.com/mods/dear-esther
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3bPjEbenew"]www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3bPjEbenew[/ame]So I just sumbled across this, while I haven't heard anything about it before, my first thought was that this game looks gorgeous!
Appearently the game won "Best Upcoming Mod" from ModDB last year and Valve appearently liked it enough to grant the studio behind the game an full source engine license so they could release it independtly on steam.
There's some more info at Joystiq
http://www.joystiq.com/2011/02/12/dear-esther-hl2-mod-remake-to-be-commercially-released-this-summ/
and on the games own site:
http://dear-esther.com/
and their moddb profile:
http://www.moddb.com/mods/dear-esther
Replies
Thought Portal 2 was doing that... nice mod though.
His work constantly inspires me. Since I saw his HL DM maps, playing Mirrors Edge, and now this.
Found this on Steam's store page, looks like it's finally coming out
Kicking the Source engine back into the fight? 'Fraid not. I can only imagine how much pain Briscoe had to go through to get it this good.
On a side note, I don't know how to feel about Valve invariably trying to hire Robert (if they haven't tried so already). One one hand, it's Valve; on the other, we may never hear from him again with their development style.
I understand it's a storytelling game, and that revealing gameplay or story details could spoil the whole experience, but... Nothing? Really?
I just don't get the hype. Is it the fact people are surprised Source looks good in 2012? Or perhaps it's the mystery of the whole thing that draws people in?
Honestly, I'm really happy for them making it onto the store, really confused about the game itself, and a little annoyed this is the Source mod Valve decided to notice. There are dozens of solid Source mods out there that have dedicated teams pouring their sweat and blood into their mods day and night, non-stop, for YEARS, and they struggle to get a headline on a random blog. These are solid games that were released for free and updated for years I am talking about and yet, almost no one knows about them. But Dear Esther can do an environment fly through with a monologue, reveal absolutely no information, and become the talk of the town?
I guess this will be a day one buy for me, because I really want to know what the hell is going on.
But hey, you can always play the original if you want a taste of the gameplay sans the eyecandy.
this is funny because
a) the 'experimental' indie crowd all know each other basically, and
b) we all played and loved this mod back when it had it's shitty looking placeholder levels.
It's basically a story told through sound cues of a dying man stranded on a island, while you explore the landscape.
Tah-dah! The video worked.
Also I kinda like the fact the trailer doesn't show much/anything. Too much is spoilt in modern trailers for films, games and TV.
Just shows you don't need bump mapping and fancy shaders everywhere to create something this outstanding. Robert Briscoe has done a truly remarkable job on this, Vavle should be looking to recruit him.
I recommend this to anyone who wants to play something different than the traditional shooter and ofcourse if you like anything related to environment and lighting.
I guess the term Environment Porn would be appropriate.
If you have any kind of appreciation for environment art then it's totally worth the price of admission.
....
hahha but well done, this is pure art!!
Overall, really really good.
The only gripe I have with it was that the ending was done badly, a fade to black is fine, but then to not dump you back at the menu, even after 20-30 seconds? That's poor.
I believe (could be wrong though) they offered him a job but he turned it down?
The fact he shipped a full game title will mean each game studio will hire him now without saying we'll see first.
I don't think I played a game in long time which felt so natural, I think if the game had some sort of exploration thing going on, for example walking into old house reading a bunch of documents, it would add more immersion, but I definitely liked the bible bit when you walk along the cliff then you walk down to the stones and see bible on the ground, so there is story telling bit. I mean more interaction would be great but this otherwise will break the story since
Damn I pressed quote instead of edit
The environment was gorgious. A lot of tricks to get this stuff to look right but it all turned out so well done.
Finally bought it last night, and my word it is beautiful. I think if anyone ever asks me why I want to be an environment artist I am just going to sit them in front of that game. It is, in my mind, the pinnacle of environment art.
wow anti-hipster and hipster in one post. I loled!
Played this yesterday, very soothing and nice experience.
I haven't really paid attention to this outside this thread and the art blog so I don't what's been discussed/revealed story-wise but
ooh! I like this! I also figured
"I have heard it said that human ashes make great fertilizer, that we could sow a great forest from all that is left of your hips and ribcage, with enough left over to thicken the air and repopulate the bay."
"This cannot be the shaft they threw the goats into. It cannot be the landfill where the parts of your life that would not burn ended up. It cannot be the chimney that delivered you to the skies. It cannot be the place where you rained back down again to fertilise the soil and make small flowers in the rocks."
"Headlights are reflected in your retinas, moonlit in the shadow of the crematorium chimney."
"Of fire and soil, I chose fire. It seemed the more contemporary of the options, the more sanitary. I could not bear the thought of the reassembly of such a ruins. Stitching arm to shoulder and femur to hip, charting a line of thread like traffic stilled on a motorway. Making it all acceptable for tearful aunts and traumatised uncles flown in specially for the occasion. Reduce to ash, mix with water, make a phosphorescent paint for these rocks and ceilings."