Dear Esther v1.1 (fixed)
Jan 22, 2009 Full Version 36 commentsUpdated Dear Esther with fixed link to level 4. This fully replaces v1.0, please delete that and unzip this into your SourceMods folder
Dear Esther
Half-Life 2 mod | Released Jun 19, 2008
Dear Esther is part of a research project, creating experimental game mods, based at the University of Portsmouth, UK. The aim was to use Source to create something radically different from normal: an interactive story that dispensed with traditional gameplay and focused instead on an open-ended, semi-random narrative.
More information about the mod and its aims, and the overall project can be found on the website. Also look out for two more mods coming soon: Conscientious Objector (Doom 3) and Antlion Soccer (Half Life 2 Deathmatch)
Thanks for looking - any feedback would be fantastic.
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Latest News: ModDB Halloween Extravaganza!
32 comments by Henley on Oct 31st, 2009 digg this super bookmark
Ghosts, Zombies, Vampires and other monster boggiewoggies. Halloween is a great time to get into the scarier movies and games to give yourself a good fright. Last year on ModDB I created a video for the top ten voted spooky mods by our community, it had some interesting results to say the least with the popular but not always scary mods took the cherry. This year we will do something a little different, I have compiled a list of singleplayer mods (because we all know being alone in the dark really sets the mood) for different engines that you should check out if you want to get your spook on.
Mistake -1 (Half-Life)
Mistake -1 is the prequel to 'Mistake' and tells the story of Steve Rick, a patient from the Andrew Parker asylum, who harbors a dark secret. A very spooky mod that uses the Goldsource engine very well. Creepy lighting and visual map changes creates something very unique and exciting.
Hollow Moon (Unreal Tournament 2004)
You arrive to the moon research station to work as heavy machinery engineer. From now on you are on your own. Created as more of an experiment for different means of showing audio-visual styles Hollow Moon boasts no environmental sounds, but what is produced is a thick atmosphere that few games or mods can come close too.
Paranoia (Half-Life)
You will play the role of a Russian officer of the secret service. Your first impressions are that this mission will be just like any other, but you really have no idea what nightmares future events have in store for you. Paranoia is one of the very best mods to come out of Half-Life for both engine expansion and content. A must download!
Curse Episodes (Half-Life 2)
Curse episodes is an Egyptian themed action/horror/puzzle/exploration FPS where the further you creep into the world of Curse the harder and more frightening the entire experience gets, its up to you how you want to play. A very unique and very amazing mod worthy of your attention and bandwidth!
Dear Esther (Half-Life 2)
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. If you want a very spooky interactive ghost story Dear Esther should be the mod for you, highly recommended by all the staff here on ModDB.
There are hundreds more mods and games out there that will help create a fantastic Halloween experience for you all, these are just some of the truly stand out mods that deserve to be the major source of your ghostly ahhs and eeiies. Hope you have a very frighting Halloween!
Latest Video
Latest Downloads
Dear Esther - Soundtrack
Jul 11, 2008 Music 17 commentsJessica Curry's soundtrack for Dear Esther: 8 tracks as MPEG4s.
Dear Esther script
Jun 30, 2008 Guides 14 commentsThis pdf contains the script for the interactive story Dear Esther, as requested...
Dear Esther.zip
Jun 27, 2008 Full Version 12 commentsZip file for the Dear Esther mod. Unpack it into your source mods folder, restart Steam and it will show in the games list.
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Half-Life 2Developed By
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© 2002 - 2009 DesuraNET Pty Ltd. All Rights Reserved. 1627 modders online.
© 2002 - 2009 DesuraNET Pty Ltd. All Rights Reserved. 1627 modders online.
A masterpiece, I actually applauded after the game had ended.
This mod is kind of confusing to me, how do I get passed the very beginning?
Follow the seagull. Look for clues in the environment - they are there...
I have never seen a more depressing mod.
Sound 10
Atmosphere 10
Action 0
I just finished this and had to come comment. I thought it was great, wonderful story, good voice acting, and beautiful environments. Just a couple of things on your mapping though, use the smoothing tool on displacements, it'll look even better, when using decals be sure they are sized appropriately so they are not cut off at the edges, and last you may want to check your boundaries, I was able to get to a few places where I could see the edge of the map. Oh and I don't know if you're supposed to be able to, but I jumped down the chasm in the second area, it was great. Anyway, beyond all that, this is definitely one of the best single player Source mods I've played, well done.
You finished it jkruse05? How on earth did you finish it? I wandered around aimlessly for 10 minutes (WALKING, mind you) only to jump off the edge of the map (an area I knew I shouldn't be in) and into part of the water that meets with the sky box. chineseroom, you really need to work on guiding the player through the environments a LOT better. Also play test it. Don't expect players to know ANYTHING about where to go or what to do. You have to tell them. And I don't mean literally "tell" them, I mean hint to them using visual clues. When play testing, do what you don't expect the player to do, like try to get out of the level (as I accidentally did). My biggest recommendation: there are plenty of Level Design books on amazon, please buy one.
well... getting out of the level - that's always going to be an issue for the first couple of run throughs, patching that up again now... it was playtested, btw, and like plenty of people who downloaded it without a problem (see the comments here), most folk didn't have too big an issue finding their way about. Just a little patience - it's much slower than a normal FPS. Yeah, it is disorientating at first, that's kind of the point. What's interesting is that the navigation hints are there - in a more or less completely deserted environment, you think the flight paths of the birds are accidental?
Level design is as much about short-term goal resolution as longer-term navigation. If this was a standard mod, with standard goals and sequences, yeah, it would suck. But clearly, it's not - there are no immediate conflicts to take care of. So one of the normal means of getting a player around an environment - like orientating them around target points made explicit by a stream of bullets or zombies - don't really work... Basically, we didn't use any 'pushes' to get the player around - it's all 'pulls' - and in places, yeah, that struggles. But that's interesting in itself...
cheers- hopefully the displacements and decals will get sorted out this time around. Oh, and I've got plans for that chasm...
12/10
i only found some misplaced rocks and a backdoor inside the mountain (under the mountain), no invisible walls or anything worth of mentioning.
story is incredible, really impressive and voice acting is amazing.
but one question was on my mind since i entered the caves... did i miss something or are electric circuits and LED -TOTALY- out of context? :S
+ are there gonna be any new levels or similar mods from your hands?
hi, and thanks - if you could do me a favour and let me know exactly where you found the backdoor that'd be really helpful. In terms of the diagrams - it depends on which version of the story you get. There are a few places where he talks about them, but as it's randomised, they may not have got referenced in your version. There's a few of the drawings, etc, which are picked up by only some of the voice-over. The script is here to download if that'll help - otherwise, try giving it another run - you should get a different version of what happened/is happening...
In terms of another level - depends. Trying to finish off Antlion Soccer at the moment and re-do a new version of this, then there is something in the works, but won't know about that until Sept/Oct probably.