Dear Esther remake to get commercial release news

Not sure if your being sarcastic but from the original author's (Dan Pitchbeck) comments it certainly looks like he will be getting a cut of the profit and is involved in the project in someway.

We've posted about the change and how we feel about it over at Mod Sentry Modsentry.com

yea i was a little, so how about Valve, they getting any money for the eninge your using (not that they need it)

"Briscoe and Pinchbeck first showed the rebuilt mod to Valve in 2009 and they were impressed enough to grant a Source license for a full independent release."

They are licensed by Valve to use the engine commercially

i hope you find enough people to sell it too, (who havent played it)
Maybe i will try it sometime when it is cheap :) (knowing whats coming and all)

You need some help :)
Get your facts right before you open your mouth...

It`s better tip for you.

Fuuuu

Sheeeeeeee....T!!!

I believe I've read about 4 or 5 comments now, that go "But NS2/Orion/Raindrop/Etc did it too, noone complained then?" and to that, I'll say this:

No, noone complained. Why? Because they were never promised as mods, starting off. They were never labeled as remakes of a mod, showing dozens and dozens of pictures, in order to reel people in.

NS2 started right off with saying "Hey guys, we are doing an Indie now" same goes for Orion, going "Orion is actually a project that has an insanely long story, we are going to release 3 games!" It was all about *brilliant* PR strategies.

Here, we've followed a game for god knows how long. We've not been promised anything, so we are not allowed to rage, make no mistake. Still, we are allowed to be disappointed, in a poor choice of presentation, when we are told that everything we've seen .. A game which we voted 2nd place in the freaking

*UPCOMING MOD OF THE YEAR AWARD* - Keyword here being "Mod"
(Nevermind that the editors also gave it the *Editor's Choice Award* for UpcomingMOTY..)

*Sigh* Before this, I was a definite player .. Yes, I would have contributed, had you needed this kind of help, but this is just 'meh' behaviour to me.

[EDIT]: Gah, fail reply system.

Sorry, but Orion was originally promised to be a free mod.

True and now its not even on the source engine anymore
Pffft

It's "no one" not "noone"

Orion wIS free, and once they changed engines- announced it'd be better and cost money.

NS IS free. NS2 is a sequel to an existing game, and since it is on their own engine, they announced very early it'd cost money.

The main problem here is the "all of a sudden" announcement. That's why most of these people are ****** off. They were waiting for their free government **** *** robot, and then a month before release were told it'll cost money.

Well you can't blame someone for trying to capitalize on their work. Just be grateful that they released a mod first, and gave you the ability to play it for free.
I see a commercial release as a step forward as now they can fund a team to produce more high quality content. Just don't lose your mod roots and creativity!

This person I agree with

Just don't lose your mod roots and creativity!

lol.

Sorry, I don't see the humor in that. Mod teams have a different mindset than commercial teams, and this is what I mean by that! I would hate to see something like Dear Esther get crushed in mainstream game mechanics to make a buck.

god forbid anyone makes any money right? it's not like they worked hard on it or anything.

I for one, have no problem with paying for quality work, and will be purchasing this piece of fine work for sure.

This however does not mean I am not disappointed, with as corrosive said "being strung along". I mean in all honesty, everyone here had the mindset they were getting it for free. I can understand if the developer did not realize the likelihood of this until recently, but chances are he knew about this a good while ago.

It's not the community that's greedy, it's the company. Modding in it itself is free, that's what is beautiful about it. People doing work with the payment only being the appreciation and recognition of others. Your logic is essentially:

Generic company "Hey guys, want something for free?"
Random community "Hell yeah, that sounds great"
Generic company "I've changed my mind, it's going to cost you"
Random community "Oh, no thanks then"
Generic company "Y R U SO GREEDY"

Why?

Yeah sure, it's the "company"'s fault. The self-entitlement of some of you people is astounding.

My god people. Stop complaining because you aren't going to get this for free. The authors are pouring a ton of work into it, if you had any talent you'd want to capitalize on it too.

You describe the problem almost well Corrosive, but it's a bit more complex then that, but I have to agree with you more then with Minuit.

Neither the company or the community is really that greedy. Our live is based on money, we all know that. I can understand if some modder (group) spent so much time in there work that he/she/they decide(d) to go indie. If I suddenly get the game engine which I've developed a game for a long time I would surely think about to sell my game too.
The real problem comes up around this announcement. The most important thing about a mod apart from indie that it's free if you own the original game. Some people like me can't really afford buying games all the time, so mods are a really good way to get more games for the price of one.
Believe me when I say I would love to pay for Dear Esther, but I can't because I need all my little savings for other things. I think that is mostly the case with other people here. It's not because we are greedy. I would buy all the good games in the world if I could, but I can't. That is why I feel sorry that this mod will become an indie, but I hope it still fulfil there expectations and will get them some money.
But since I'm a student who doesn't have a full- or part-time job or rich parents I can't afford it, no matter how much it will cost.
(The USD-HUF or GBP-HUF ratio is really bad nowadays anyway.)

Allow me to counter your argument:

Play the free version then.

EDIT to my last post:
But I would still help translating the subtitles to Hungarian if the devs haven't forgotten about my mail, be it a mod or indie...

Counter argue:
Dear Esther have a free version yes, but I wasn't really pointing to this mod in particular, but of all the mods that would go indie. See Raindrop for example.

Correct, and I'm in the same boat. I do feel bad that guy got buried.

I'd buy it for just a very few dollars, but if I'd have known the mod was gonna cost money from the time they started making it, I wouldn't be so upset. DE has been a reason for me to point at my PC and say to others "see sometime the best things in life are free."

They deserve the right to make money off of this, but based on how many people here are responding negatively, they might not make as much as you'd think, mostly due to poor timing. If that is the case, expect a price drop within 6 months.

But it is no longer a mod, its a game, the mod is the one you can get for free. They arent ASKING you to buy it, so its not a market trick or anything, your getting butt hurt over the fact that a good looking game has to be paid for, its going to be very affordable, they said. And Valve has something to do with it too, have you done research? Apparently not if you think this was all a marketing trick, sorry friend, check out the actual web page of these guys before you blow out everything from the top of your head.

This project looks astonishing, and has obviously been given a great deal of care and attention (read : many, many hours of work). Don't feel like rewarding that kind of talent? Good. Then don't play it.

All these whiny, entitled responses are casting the community in a very bad light.

Just gotta join in. Seriously, this is an awesome project! Stop whining! I didn't see this much negativity when Orion said they were going commercial.

It's not whining, rather then the same old story like it was back in kindergarten where the kids with the well-earning mommy and pappy get all the good and shiny toys while the rest of the kids who can't afford these have to share what they have or make.
We wouldn't mind it that much if you rich kids don't always rub it under our nose. There is a reason why we hate that they announce something free will cost money. We understand the developers, and wish they have luck, but still hate it. Imagine something you got for free all along now suddenly going to cost money (like Youtube for example) you would be mad too, even if it's just 5$/year. Oh of course you can use a trial to watch 10 videos... well gee, thanks a lot. Now we feel suddenly better...
I think Minuit wouldn't get such a big karma now if they quickly announce that Cry of Fear will cost you money.

So really we should stop with the "You are greedy";"Stop whining"; etc. comments because for some people this hurts even though they would surely pay if they could, and it will really make you look like a smug a******

I seriously say that there should be an indicator here on moddb in the sidebar under the Release date (for example) that says: "Chance that this mod will go commercial:" with options like "Highly unlikely" "Yes" "If I get a chance, but surely I won't", etc.

Tl;DR version: I'm not against Dear Esther going indie and priced, just want to stop this war about priced and free things.

Jeez, we are probably talking about 3,99 Dollars! Get it from your mothers purse you stupid kid and stop WHINING!

If sega is selling their genesis games on steam for 4 dollars, then what are they going to charge for dear esther hmm?

If your so poor why is it that you can afford a computer to play games on and internet?

Ahh, everybody just read between the lines. Wasted my time again...

I also find it very sad how the dumb kids, pretending to be mature, vote down all the argumentative comments about why some people feel screwed with and why however it is legit for pinchbeck to earn money.

Then on the other hand the "stop whining"-comments become the most popular...

That's cause people want karma. I was gonna say "no one complain", but I was already 50 something comments behind. I understand people may feel cheated about having to pay, but hey, how are we supposed to get new developers?

rest assure you will NOT be paying 40 bucks for this, not even close :) - Rob

I can't agree more. ;)

I never saw any "We promise to never ever go commercial" statement, so what are you on about? A really polished project getting a license must be like a dream come true to them.
Your words make you sound like someone jealous, I bet you are too.

Promise? Who needs a promise? "Moddb" rings any bells? I was following a mod, not a game.