Dear Esther
Half-Life 2 mod | Released Feb 15, 2011
A deserted island... a lost man... memories of a fatal crash... a book written by a dying explorer. Dear Esther is a ghost story told using first-person gaming technologies. Rather than traditional gameplay, the focus here is on exploration, uncovering the mystery of the island, of who you are and why you are here. Fragments of story are randomly triggered by moving around the environments, making every telling unique. Features a stunning, specially commissioned soundtrack. Forget the normal rules of play; if nothing seems real here, it's because it may just be all a delusion. What is the significance of the aerial - What happened on the motorway - is the island real or imagined - who is Esther and why has she chosen to summon you here? The answers are out there, on the lost beach and the tunnels under the island. Or then again, they may just not be, after all...
A quick update...
Just wanted to make a quick update to let you know things are progressing nicely with DE. The lack of updates lately was due to me taking a month off over the Xmas period, but I have since been working hard towards getting you something nice to look at as a reward for hanging around...
Posted by chineseroom on Jan 24th, 2010
(I just want to point out for everyone that the post below and what you are seeing is Robert Briscoe's work, not mine - credit where credit is due! - you can also check out progress on his dev blog - www.littlelostpoly.co.uk/devblog )
Just wanted to make a quick update to let you know things are progressing nicely with DE. The lack of updates lately was due to me taking a month off over the Xmas period, but I have since been working hard towards getting you something nice to look at as a reward for hanging around. Anyway so as soon as the alpha build of the first level was completed I set straight to work on the second level. What you see here is pretty much only a few weeks work which is kind of exciting, now I have established a base set of textures and props I’m finding myself being a lot more productive! Anyway what you see here is the shipwreck from the first part of the level with added sand dunes and significantly larger ship wreck and debris as well as a small winding cliff path:
Please note this area is still an early WIP.
This was a particularly tough area to create. Most of my time was spent researching and developing the look of the sand dunes before I came up with something I was satisfied with. The ship was also a big challenge and something I think still needs work. However overall I’m pleased enough with how the area looks right now and will be moving on to the second half of the map.
That’s all for now, I will post an update when I have more to show!
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Half-Life 2Developed By
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Released Feb 15, 2011Mod Watch
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****, you call that a WIP?
If that's a WIP, I can't even imagine how awesome the finished product would be.
Yeah Really.
Not to mention "Early WIP"
Stole the words right out of my mouth man...
WOAH wtf? Holy **** is that source?
Haha be careful Bluedrake. Last time I saw a comment with this exact sentence in it, it was downvoted 15 times until it was buried, with three angry replies. The ModDB community is very protective of their Source Engine.
Because aged as it may be, Source is VERY capable for what it is. Don't underestimate da Source. o_o
It's the game engine that keeps on giving.
This looks great! It would be great if you (later on) released some tutorials addressing how you create your terrain. I cant speak for everyone but it seems as if many of the displacement tutorials give very basic and unrefined results. Again that's just for me, but a tutorial would be great because everything has been amazing.
(buried)
I know, especially since Cryengine 3 is a gazillion times better
Even I downed this one...
I find CryEngine really hard to work with and incredibly difficult to scale.
(Personally my favourite is UE3, however, Source is easiest to mod for me and kinda easier to install mods)
Source will live for a long time.
see what ya done Kaneda13? :DDD
buried ;)
btw this looks very good but it's a pro who works on it so :DD
source is very scaleable thats what makes it so great, if your computer can do it source can pretty much handle it.
The source engine is more powerful then a lot of people think. I'm not going to vote your comment down though, because it really is stunning. It requires true talent to create something like this.
yea, people are doing awesome things with source lately, Raindrop, Nuclear Dawn, and more. Well, may the source be with you, always
"If you only knew where I've been and what I've seen!?"
Source is more capable of being awesome than you.
Absolutely brilliant!
"A quick update"
I cant even imagine how long it took to make! Truly spectacular. :D
I bow down to your skills
May I join you?
Nice to see things are progressing smoothly!
This isn't a 'quick update', this is the true update I've ever seen in this mod.
Its work like this that bring me down, its just unreal. Stunning.
yep that is tight. nice work.
I cannot wait for this update its gonna make my favourite mod even better! I also hope you fix the problems with the narration being overpowered by the music.
How the hell is one guy making something like this on Source and Valve is making the levels as detailed as before? This images make Source look fantastic!!
I thought it was another guy - not chineseroom - who was overhauling the visual for DE? Am I mistaken, then?
Yes, it's Robert Briscoe who is doing the rebuild - just using my account to post updates on progress... he gets ALL the credit for what you are seeing.
That is true. The mapper working on this is a professional level designer who is doing this is his free time.
I would never expect less than this from this group. Utterly stunning !
I am stunned, that's amazing!
That's sexy. Will it be released soon?
The map looks perfect.
Jesus christ! its looking fantastic!
Everytime I see these, they look even better, even if they are the same ones!
These are AMAZING maps!
Wonderful sand dunes, it's funny how much a bit of geographical study pays off, these would be the best sand dunes i've ever seen in a game, well done, it's almost photo real.
What I really would like to know is how you managed to create those waves, that's what intrigues me the most in these images.
Okay, so this is pretty amazing. At first glance of the second picture on, my immediate thought was "where was this photo taken?" Only for half a second though, as it quickly dawned on me that what I was seeing was crafted by unmistakably gifted hands. Your work in these "WIP" photos is phenomenal. Really, I cannot fully comprehend how much effort you had put into building these environments. I guess you really took those criticisms of your mapping seriously... A tense grip of anticipation has manifested in me as I wait to see the finished product.
Dear god. I came everywhere.
Man, I've already played Dear Esther, but I want to play again!
Heh, I'd like to see valve match this!
Holy ****!
You are a very skilled photographe.... Wait, that's a game?!
At first sight of the first image of the alpha build, I thought I was looking at a photograph of what it should look like in game. Then I realized that IS in game! Amazing, great work!
Infinitely better than the original. This time the maps will match the quality of the voice acting! keep up the good work.
The before and after is possibly one of the most impressive things I've ever seen.
I'm really suprised at this. I thought this was technically possible in Source, but it sure as hell wouldn't be easy to do.
Kudos to you lads, this is above and beyond what a lot of people are creating.
I can feel the cold sea breeze and smell the salty air just by looking at this stuff. Really impressive work.
Where's my scotch? XD