That was really awesome!It's interesting though, with it not being a game and hardly being an interactive story how well it's being received by the game press
.
Which goes to show, uniqueness makes for a breath of fresh air from all the usual games .
Thank you for Dear Esther Robert, I've played it 3 times now and don't feel like playing any more, but I want every person I know to play it so we can talk about it!
Inspiring work and meaningful experience. Well done.
Just finished it and it is a unique experience, stunning music and visual.
Never played the Dear Esther (the first one) and i kinnda figured out whats going on when i saw
person silhouette far away, in the damaged boats area
great stuff !
Just bought / played it : that was a nice interactive movie, as someone said very curious 'on how game press and players received it" and how cinema prass could receive it !
This is a great experience that deserve to be known 
But yeah, 10$ is a bit expensive for a 1h30 journey.
Congrats on the feat, congrats on the sales
PS : my best part was the last chapter, when i was climbing to the Light ! So epic !
idk, movie tickets are about the same price, and about the same length. i haven't bought/played it yet, but i'm assuming it'll be a similar experience for similar funds.
I finished it in 77 minutes and apparently missed
2 Ghosts
. I was exploring every nook and cranny as well though. The only thing that annoyed me was how slow I moved. In some areas I'd of appreciated to just be able to move along a bit quicker. I really wanted to go inside the boat, too.
As for the price, £6.99, what's the fuss? People are such tight arses when it comes to games like this one; but will happily fork out £10 - 15 to watch some guy punch special effects.
I compared it to buying a piece of art in a shop or something. Art is bloody expensive, and often looks like shit. I guarantee 20X more artistic effort has gone in DE, than a gash drawing of a farm house with a price tag of £50 on.
I think art can't (or should not) be buy, but that's my vision. Only rich people get art in their giant house.
When i pay 10$ for a movie, i know there is a ton of person behind it. And the price is bound to the real cost, even if the producer and director earn more than the 14st costumier assistant :^p
I don't know how many people were involved in DE, but i bet less than 20 people. Clue is that the game made profit in 6 hours of sales.
But I'm not taking off the awesome work. 
But yeah, 10$ is a bit expensive for a 1h30 journey.
$10 x 6 = games these days
1hr30min x 6 = 9 hrs
not that i think it's really quantifiable in those terms, but just sayin'
Quote from cincinnati$10 x 6 = games these days
1hr30min x 6 = 9 hrs
not that i think it's really quantifiable in those terms, but just sayin'
That's why i prefer to compare to a movie, because it's more a interactive movie than a game to me.
And the comparison seems impossible: one side is an independent game with little means and another, because it is well MW3 is a game with far more resources and people behind.
And price is never an indication of quality or duration
I think that with a game cheaper, like 5$, more people would have bought and profit would have been the same.
Except I'm not a publisher or steam, so, I simply think as a Player. 
I think art can't (or should not) be buy, but that's my vision. Only rich people get art in their giant house.When i pay 10$ for a movie, i know there is a ton of person behind it. And the price is bound to the real cost, even if the producer and director earn more than the 14st costumier assistant :^p
I don't know how many people were involved in DE, but i bet less than 20 people. Clue is that the game made profit in 6 hours of sales.
But I'm not taking off the awesome work.
wait, so artists should NEVER earn money? i'm pretty sure robert worked to the point where he deserves to get paid for the work he's done on DE. i can't imagine he got paid during the time spent on working on DE, so i'm assuming the costs that were covered were for whatever aux. costs associated with the project.
That's why i prefer to compare to a movie, because it's more a interactive movie than a game to me.And the comparison seems impossible: one side is an independent game with little means and another, because it is well MW3
And price is never an indication of quality or duration
I think that with a game cheaper, like 5$, more people would have bought and profit would have been the same.
Except I'm not a publisher or steam, so, I simply think as a Player.
More people worked on MW3, but the audience is far greater.
8 euros is a fair price imho.
The 6 hours of sales covered the investment cost by that indie game fund, which meant that all subsequent income would go to the devs and not have to be used to return the investment. Robert has worked on this for quite a while and his "profit" is actually the salary for his hard work.
Quote from Senturawait, so artists should NEVER earn money? i'm pretty sure robert worked to the point where he deserves to get paid for the work he's done on DE. i can't imagine he got paid during the time spent on working on DE, so i'm assuming the costs that were covered were for whatever aux. costs associated with the project.
I absolutly not said that. Of Course. Cause i buy it because i thought that this hard work must be award and also because i've started to make art for video games because Robert Briscoe was doing such amazing things with Source Engine, following his work because I wanted to get to this level.
I do not question the game or the work, only the price guys. 5$ is nothing, but for me, its kind of 2 meal in my week. Anyway, congrats on DE !
And price is never an indication of quality or duration
then don't say
10$ is a bit expensive for a 1h30 journey.
I just finished it moments ago, and I have to congratulate you Robert on shipping this project. The art is absolutely stunning. The art direction itself is one of the best in recent memory all games combined, and the craftmanship put in these few levels was just staggering.
Dear Esther is not a game. I went in half expecting that, the other half expecting the unexpectable. I came out 90 mins later very much coming out of a daze, drawn like a firefly forward in each level. I never had fun. Fun is not a word that should be used to describe this experience. I just dreamt someone else's dream with my eyes wide open.
And i made the mistake to play this after playing dead space 2.
Have to restart my experience this week.
i dont mind games being short these days as long as they are awesome.
trying to calculate an appropriate dollar/per hours of entertainment ratio can never work once you go down that rabbit hole with a game it tells me that you dindt rellay enjoy it to begin with. i base this on the fact that if i think back on some truely great games:
half life god of war psychonaust ico+sotc resident evil 4 uncharted portal
i wouldnt have felt ripped of even if each one of them cost me over 1000 bucks.
now what reall scares me about dear esther is that everyone says there is no interactivity in it ... i like interacting with things i am actually fearing that i would enjoy it more if i watched an hd play through on youtube but robert wouldnt get anything out of that from me ... which makes me moraly torn.
Quote from Warbyi dont mind games being short these days as long as they are awesome.trying to calculate an appropriate dollar/per hours of entertainment ratio can never work once you go down that rabbit hole with a game it tells me that you dindt rellay enjoy it to begin with. i base this on the fact that if i think back on some truely great games:
half life god of war psychonaust ico+sotc resident evil 4 uncharted portal
i wouldnt have felt ripped of even if each one of them cost me over 1000 bucks.
now what reall scares me about dear esther is that everyone says there is no interactivity in it ... i like interacting with things i am actually fearing that i would enjoy it more if i watched an hd play through on youtube but robert wouldnt get anything out of that from me ... which makes me moraly torn.
Watch a hd play through on youtube and if you feel like it was worth your time then buy it on steam, but don't play it...
So yes i bought it and played just 15 minutes ago, it was amazing Robert !!!! I really hope you'll continue on that path, you can't imagine how happy it makes me to see stuff like this ! Many people won't appreciate the experience or find it too pompous,(something i can totally understand) but to me it is worth every dollars i put into buying it. Personally i literally had a lot of fun, just because of the intuitive process of linking elements to find out the meaning. Like a dog gnawing on a bone to break it and find the substantial marrow.
So what i understood of the "game", this is only my own interpretation, maybe it was not intend this way (and i'd really love to hear the meaning you wanted to convey Robert !!!! 
) don't read it if you didn't played the game yet!!!! or you will be contaminated by my own interpretation ((((((SPOILERS)))))) :
Basically this is the journey of a man in his mind and memory just before his death. (The hospital bed on the highway and the heartstarter near the boat )
The island is the ego, his self, rocky and unmovable; but still filled with lots of wrecks that are his past memories, and as he travel to death, he explores those reminiscences of his life. The player has the help of a flashlight to lighten those memories in decomposition.
The ocean is the void ( what you could call the death), in the middle of which the ego (island) lies, and as time pass the island is slowly being worn by the ocean. If you go into the water, everything goes to black and a voice tells you to come back ( getting to rediscover all your memories and your mind before death )
The caverns are the unconscious, you can tell it by the drawing of synapses, electronic circuits and chemical elements drawn on the walls that symbolize the complex inner work of the brain, and also with the contrasting complexity of the composition and the huge architecture reminding cathedrals helped by candles to symbolize its spiritual (infinite and thus non accessible) nature. The player also loose his flashlight once being thrown into the hole of the unconscious as way to tell that he can't no longer guide himself in these caverns. The waterfalls and the holes in which you fall also symbolize the force of the unconscious that is too strong for us to resist the flow ( i especially like that part when you let yourself floating in the water to find some paper boats which had the same destiny ).
Lighthouses could be dreams or the highest points of the ego, you start from an old small lighthouse to go to the modern huge lighthouse that is the highest point of the ego (the island). I guess the idea is to go the highest point of yourself to have a complete view over all the island (the ego) and thus the idea of get to completely know yourself before death. In that idea, i love your use of verticality, especially the part where you climb that sinuous path to the house silhouette in gloomy sensual and warm light (like a dream) and once you get there, everything is already in ruins, echography photos are already worn and the eggs are already opened. Thus saying that the journey doesn't stop there as you go down the path to the ocean, then you have two paths, either a little bay to go into the ocean (death) or find a cross shaped boat wreck and then fall into the cathedral of the unconscious . (beautiful part)
The phosphorescent paint may be the way to lighten those hidden parts of the mind but i'm not sure.
Candles i guess symbolize spirituality and are present in the last part, they guide you when before you only had your flashlight. Also night fall and everything becomes much more obvious in terms of orientation when you climb to the lighthouse in contrast to the start of the game where you have to guess where to go on yourself. Like if everything was all clear.
Well all in all it was amazing Robert, i enjoyed it to the best; amazing art, best environment narration i've seen in a videogame of my life, great idea and maturity. HIGH FIVE
I can't remember when it was te last time I experienced something so incredibly beautiful and inspiring. This is definitely one of the most wonderful "games" ever.
I have to say that I don't pay too much attention for narratives (I should give it another try), but the art and environment were perfect. I got really attracted since the main menu screen where players see the shore in motion, to the end of the game.
The slow walking speed gave me a bit of frustration early in the game. Sometimes I got confused of where I should go, specially on a section of the shore
where we see a kind of passage blocked by some rocks, to the right
. I tried to go there because I thought that path continued my moving flow and because there was a wind blowing in that direction.
The game description made clear that Dear Esther is not gameplay-focused. It's really interesting to notice that even in a medium where there were no interaction and gameplay - not a game, in a sense -, I got a LOT of wow moments. This was caused by the magistral art combined with the well executed sound design. Every place was wonderful, but the caves were... the most beautiful place ever. I took some screenshots to use as a personal wallpaper to look at it and get some inspiration.
The car accident mixed with underwater "memories" was really well thought out
. The lighting work is incredible and creates some really deep atmosphere!
Apparently, I missed the ghosts and couldn't get into the boat, despite the dialog tell something about an entrance.
I have to play it more. Thank you for providing such a great experience. I'd love to see more experiments like this one.
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