Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Touched By The Hand Of Mod: Dear Esther

By RPS on May 15th, 2009 at 2:45 pm.


[Friend of RPS and General Editor of Resolution Magazine, Lewis Denby, had a revelation about games through Half-life 2 mod Dear Esther. We thought it'd be an idea if he told you all about it.]

Gaming revelations arrive in the unlikeliest forms. Through the thick, sodden haze of British autumn, peeking out past the thrill of zombie infestations and post-apocalyptic wastelands, I discovered a tiny little gem that totally defied my expectations. I’ve sat on this for too long. I want to tell you about it. I need to tell you about it.

Truth be told, though, I’ve no idea where to start. It’s difficult to know how to begin a piece like this, a piece in which you know you’re going to effuse wildly about something few will have heard of and less will have tried out. I’ve written and re-written this opening countless times, discarding each and every one. Too gushing. Not gushing enough. Too vague. Too pretentious. Nothing works, and everything descends into incomprehensible nonsense or obscure cultural reference. None of us want that. So let’s keep it simple:

Last year, a Half-Life 2 mod changed my outlook on games forever.

In a way, that it would be this sort of amateur creation to have such an effect makes sense. The mod scene has the potential to be a land of limitless creative opportunity. You’re not restricted by publishers’ requests, or the demands of your perceived audience, or your own barely competent technology. You’ve an enormous blank canvas to paint on, and all that holds you back is your imagination. But that’s the thing. Most of the stuff out there is bland. A quick trawl through ModDB.com is likely to throw up an endless stream of level packs without context, stories without character. The terrorists are invading. Or is that the aliens? Often, it’s hard to tell and even more difficult to care, which is why Dear Esther is one of the most poignant and important freebies out there. If you’ve a copy of Half-Life 2 on your Steam account – and, let’s face it, you really should have – you owe it to yourself, and to the exciting future of gaming, to download it.

Dear Esther turned me into something of a fanatical child. I was so taken by it that I drafted a thousand-word interpretation of the story and emailed it to the creator. Every time it crosses my mind, I scour the internet for people’s responses to this glorious masterpiece, reading through forum threads and blog posts and whatever else I can feasibly locate. Sometimes, I’ve been delighted that others share my views. Other times, I’ve been horrified by people’s remarks. One player, on a forum I can’t remember, gave tips for speeding the game up. “Bunny-hop around the island,” he said. “It totally destroys the atmosphere, but it’s more fun.”

If you’re looking for fun, I’ve no idea why you’re playing Dear Esther in the first place. This is fearless, classical tragedy. It ends with the sound of a heart monitor flatlining, for goodness’ sake. Lead designer Dan Pinchbeck describes it as “an interactive ghost story,” but the inevitable connotations of that are misleading. This isn’t about bumps in the night or any other hackneyed horror archetypes. It’s deep, heart-tugging, emotional trauma. Dear Esther is indeed ghostly and ethereal, but it’s all thematic notation. Really, the only horror is in realising how truly heartbreaking this tale is.

Some people will tell you it’s not a game. Depending on your definitions, maybe it isn’t. You play as… well, that’s never revealed, and since it’s all in uninterrupted first-person, you’ve no way of finding out. During your time on what initially appears to be a remote Hebridean island, a disembodied voice will read fragments of a series of letters, written to a woman named Esther who we’re never introduced to. And you’ll explore, climbing higher and higher up the mountain in the centre, piecing together the proverbial puzzle and trying to establish, often in vain, just what this place is.

And that’s it.

I’m doing the fanboy internet-browsing thing again. Here’s a comment I like: “it’s an unremarkable island full of something strange.” It goes some way to hitting the mark of describing what Dear Esther is all about. At first, it’s just an island, seemingly uninhabited except for a few specks of wildlife. But as you progress, and as you become filled with the melancholy of this nameless man’s memoirs, you begin to notice things. Obscure patterns carved into the cliff face. Paper boats dumped on a beach. A tiny figure up ahead, peeking through the mist for a split second before darting out of sight once more. You never fully learn what the island is, but there’s more to it than first meets the eye – and, by the finale, you’ll have cooked up a tantalising set of theories, each barmier than the last.

This unrelenting ambiguity arises from a particularly clever mechanism within Dear Esther, one that randomises which parts of the script you hear at a given point. “The gulls do not land here any more,” the opening gambit might inform you. Or the narrator might say, “I sometimes feel as if I’ve given birth to this island.” None of it links together in any coherent way, and as the author succumbs to dilerium, so does his writing. His notes become hazy half-memories, contradicting one another and escaping reality. We hear of a tragic accident on the motorway near Wolverhampton, but it blurs and intertwines with a broken leg on the island. We’re told of a driver, accused of being drunk but, in spite of his wrecking guilt, still feverishly protesting his innocence. He becomes a syphallitic shepherd who died decades ago. We’re told tales from the Bible. We see them scrawled on the rock, painted over with complex, obsessive chemical equations. It’s the story of a terribly disturbed mind, and the horrendous inevitability of his demise – and it’s horrible.

I love my Marios and what-have-you as much as the next person, but I still feel games have an incredible untapped potential for negative emotions. Some have tried – Braid stands out for having a bloody good go – but we’re still a little too comfortable with enjoying everything we play. Any stretches of sadness in this medium tend to be restricted to self-indulgence or vapid tearjerker fare, and even they invariably make way for happy endings and bunny fluff.

Dear Esther rejects pretty much every notion of what videogames should do, and instead presents a profound look at what they /could/ be doing. They could be telling stories that, while unforgiving and upsetting, exist within a format that no novel or film could ever reproduce. Stories that take clever audiovisual amalgamation for granted and go the extra mile, allowing the player to explore a tangible world that they would never otherwise be able to visit. In a sense, Dear Esther is pretty much non-interactive: nothing you do changes the course of the fiction, and there’s no element of challenge to speak of. But in another, far more accurate sense, the interaction is totally key. It’s your journey – whoever “you” are – and the intimacy heightens every emotion censor in your poor, overloaded brain. After watching me finish Dear Esther, my girlfriend asked me what it was I’d been playing. I turned to answer her, only to find I couldn’t speak. No words arrived. None mattered.

This is a mod.

And that’s kind of relevant, for two reasons. Firstly, we don’t want to pay for this kind of thing. Hell, look at The Path: people are upset that even exists, let alone that its developers had the guts to charge seven quid for their remarkable efforts. But this is the sort of thing I’d love to pay for. It seems illogical that we’ll all happily splash out fifty pounds for the same old story of science-fiction revenge, yet aggressively avoid anything that encourages us to engage our brains and challenge ourselves a little. Dear Esther was created on a shoestring budget for a research project. It’s painful to think such a thing needs that sort of academic justification just to get made, but I’m gleefully pleased that it did, whatever the reason behind it.

But more importantly, Dan Pinchbeck isn’t a game designer, or a professional writer. He’s a talented researcher and lecturer, but game design isn’t his job. For all intents and purposes, this is an amateur creation – an amateur creation that genuinely left me entirely speechless.

Oh, it’s terribly broken. You’ll get stuck on scenery, and might even fall out of the game world once or twice. Voice clips will trigger over one another, even if you do resist the urge to bounce moronically around the world to kick the pace up. And it is really, agonisingly slow. Too slow. It might all put you off.

But a little birdie tells me Dear Esther could be receiving a complete overhaul later this year; might be rebuilt from the ground-up, removing its fundamental flaws and technical inconsistencies. This is a truly exciting prospect, and leaves me more watery-mouthed than any other upcoming release you might care to mention. As it stands, Dear Esther is a remarkable piece of blemished beauty. To experience something so stunning, but something more complete… I’m not sure I can effectively convey my joy in mere words.

There’s a section towards the end of Dear Esther where the narrator repeatedly refers to the conversion of Paul on the road to Damascus. As you climb the mountain, the spellbinding music driving you upwards, you read Biblical verses scrawled on the walls. You reach the top, and turn a corner. The word ‘DAMASCUS’ is carved in enormous, chunky lettering ahead of you. Your destination.

I’m converted. I’m not sure how, why or what to, but it’s there.

Give it a go. It might convert you too.

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133 Comments »

  1. 15/05/2009 at 15:01 hydra9 says:

    I can’t wait to play this. Installing HL2 now.

  2. 15/05/2009 at 15:01 Dracko says:

    Dear Esther is good stuff, no doubt.

    The problem with The Path wasn’t so much that it was trying something different. It was that it did it badly and while deliberately – condescendingly even, if you note its creators’ interviews – ignoring what makes games work and compelling in the first place. The reason people pay for sci-fi shooters or the like is because they go in expecting fun and entertainment (I doubt a lot of them genuinely go in for the story).

    But something like Dear Esther is notable not just because you don’t take a heavy risk indulging in it, as you don’t have to commit cash to something you won’t necessarily realise you don’t want to support until far too late, but because it employs the medium to a fine degree. The point that it uses the Source engine well isn’t even relevant: It’s a functionally well-designed mood piece, which acknowledges its flaws and thanks to the wonders of online distribution, realises it can improve itself to be even better.

    Something that mainstream developers can’t necessarily afford to do – though they should know better, no doubt – but that a small indie developer like Tale of Tales shouldn’t dismiss because they think they’re on to something by ignoring why they’re using this particular medium in the first place.

    And I’d certainly argue that the reason negative emotions are mainly tearjerker nonsense is because those are exactly the wrong kind of negative emotions to focus on. I’d suggest you try out something like Silent Hill 2 or even Drakengard to see that disturbing material needn’t come to the sacrifice of what makes games work in the first place: Their visceral intensity and ability to transport us directly into strange worlds not necessarily constrained by any recognisable logic.

    And intelligent, thoughtful material needn’t either, and can still be playful – why do people hate play anyway, as if you couldn’t learn from it – just look at something like Windosill or *gasp* Marathon.

    But then again, I’d say people who do that, indie or not, are working in entirely the wrong medium, and should really stop bringing it down because they hate what it is and want it to be something it most clearly isn’t.

  3. 15/05/2009 at 15:08 Hides-His-Eyes says:

    I played experienced this when it first came out. It’s amazing and you should all give it a go.

    I’m not even sure what happened, actually. Or… Yeah.

    Just go download it now, then come and cover this comment page with ellipsis like everyone else will be. When you’re not sure where to go, near the start, the answer is to get over the rocks and across the top of the cliffs by the beaches (i got stuck there and had to ask google)

    apart from that, it’s all pretty self explanatory, insofar as it makes no sense whatsoever. It’s like… you know when you read a book about a crazy person? You know they’re crazy because the narrator tells you, and so you get a glimpse into their madness.

    This game mod is like being a crazy person, without the benefit of someone’s omniscience.

  4. 15/05/2009 at 15:14 sbs says:

    I played that back when that fine gentleman Cargo Cult mentioned it on his blog thingie. This mod is pure, unadulterated atmosphere, and I urge anybody who has HL2 to play it. Light some candles, fetch some tea, and enjoy.
    In fact, I think I will play it again tonight. Maybe spawn a buggy for the longer walks, too, because I feel crazyyyyyyyyyyyy

  5. 15/05/2009 at 15:23 Duncan says:

    Well reading this has freaked me out before I’ve even installed it as my fiancee’s name is Esther… :-o

  6. 15/05/2009 at 15:23 Chris Evans says:

    I initially heard about this through Dark Rock Games who helped Dan Pinchbeck work on Dear Esther though I never actually got around to playing it.

    I think I shall have to give this a whirl, really good read from Lewis.

  7. 15/05/2009 at 15:24 phil says:

    This THIS sounds exactly the sort of game we need, a true alternative to adolesent power fantasies. Role playing a hopeless dying madman. David Lynch, meets Kafka meets actually wandering around and interacting with a nightmare. Playing this tonight. Possibly playing Eternal Sonata immediately afterwards as a constrast.

  8. 15/05/2009 at 15:26 pepper says:

    Definitely sounds interesting, but bad emotions have been used before, anybody remember the godly game SWAT 4? The Children of Taronne level did a outstanding job of actually hitting you at a point when you dont expect it.

  9. 15/05/2009 at 15:31 Joe says:

    Played it when it first came out and it is very, very good indeed. I was kind of drawn through the same as you, but I liked the end most of all. The final ascent up the mountain, the turn of the corner, the sudden swell of music and the feeling that somewhere inside the character and yourself a little dam of something important had just started to overflow was actually quite remarkable.

  10. 15/05/2009 at 15:33 Dracko says:

    phil, we really don’t need anything other than good, smart game design. The lack of that is far more criminal than any adolescent power fantasy and it’s probably not accidental that they’re usually the ones that come up with solid design choices.

    Because they’re focusing on making games, not writing novels.

    Be careful, pepper! A game can’t be entertaining as well as disturbing! You wouldn’t expect a book or a film to entertain while teaching, would you?!

  11. 15/05/2009 at 15:33 apnea says:

    A really, really great mod. Left me scrambling for more info on the creator, the script, the soundtrack, anything.

    Seeded it to some other gamers who, while not big on the artsy games scene, were spellbound too.

  12. 15/05/2009 at 15:35 Kast says:

    The whole experience (which I played through a few times when it first came out) is greatly aided by some excellent voice acting and music which really does drive you onwards.

    Though you can get lost a few times on the island, it’s not really detrimental to the experience (where’s my thesaurus?). You can download the tracks from ModDB and listen to them whenever. Actually, I think I’ll go do that.

  13. 15/05/2009 at 15:39 danielcardigan says:

    The guy doing the voice over was great.

    Don’t think I got as much out of it as you other people, though. When I finished it I had to reload in case I’d missed something but I hadn’t. Reminded me of the ending of Life on Mars TBH. Oh and Denby – spoilers much? On yer bike!

    I was playing it during my current all-games-are-crap mood, though. Really outstanding voice over work though.

  14. 15/05/2009 at 15:44 pepper says:

    Be careful, pepper! A game can’t be entertaining as well as disturbing! You wouldn’t expect a book or a film to entertain while teaching, would you?!

    Entertaining and distrubing are one and the same if you would ask me, i think most people are frightened by the fact that they could enjoy a horrific event.

    I’ve seen teachers whom where very and entertaining, some writers also know how to write about a subject and entertain the reader whilst he is enjoying himself.

    So yes, i think one can enjoy himself whilst playing a disturbing event or game, of course these boundaries differ per person.

  15. 15/05/2009 at 15:49 Lewis says:

    @danielcardigan

    I don’t think anything’s spoiled there. Which bits did you reckon were pushing it? It’s not like there are any “I’m your father” twists in the tale, or anything.

  16. 15/05/2009 at 16:12 Jubaal says:

    Could any kind soul please let me know how I actually get it installed and play it. I’ve downloaded it, but there is no automatic installer and no instructions on where you need to put the files. Any assistance is much appreciated.

  17. 15/05/2009 at 16:16 ...hmm... says:

    tried to download this a few months back and that failed.
    might give it another go.. is there any date on this whole overhaul thing or is it really just hyperbole? is it best for me to wait?

    TELL ME INTERNETS

  18. 15/05/2009 at 16:19 abhishek says:

    Jubaal: I haven’t tried it yet but I would imagine it’s simply a matter of extracting the mod into your sourcemods folder (which would be \Steam\steamapps\SourceMods). After that, restart steam and the mod should show up on your games list.

  19. 15/05/2009 at 16:21 Lewis says:

    @Jubaal

    Plonk the foler in Steam/steamapps/sourcemods, reboot Steam, and it should appear in your Games list. EDIT: abhishek beat me to it.

    @…hmm…

    Errrr… I don’t know how much I’m allowed to say. It’s all a bit up in the air, from what Dan’s told me.

    I’d play it now, as if it happens, it’ll be a while yet. They’re currently finishing off their new mod, Korsakovia, and then are hoping to set about on the remake afterwards. Providing they’re “allowed” to, given that their mods are supposed to contribute to game design research.

  20. 15/05/2009 at 16:24 Jubaal says:

    Thanks Abhishek & Lewis, I’ve actually already tried that but it doesn’t work. Thanks for the help anyway. It seems to be missing a .exe which I would think isn’t right!

  21. 15/05/2009 at 16:26 Vandelay says:

    I played this a while ago too and had similar experience. Certainly a unique thing in the world of video games. I only played through it once, but I think multiple plays would probably be beneficial, so I may have to go back to it again.

    SPOILERS

    As well as the climb up the mountain side mentioned in the article, I also loved the piece where you find the woman inside a small building. Every few seconds her eyes would disappear, allowing you to see right through the eye sockets to the wall behind her. Leaving the building and returning would make her vanish. Particularly creepy as I had become convinced that I had imagined the brief glimpse of her going over a hill.

  22. 15/05/2009 at 16:27 phil says:

    @Dracko – “Good, smart game design” without an original or compeling story, or indeed much overall thought, can give you stuff like Dark Sector. An original and compelling story, with somewhat shoddy, off putting design, can give you Pathologic.

    Given the choice I’d have both quality play mechanics and a stimulating plot, though if I was forced I’d play something a bit broken and new over a solid, dependable tale of a man with super powers, a hood and a nemisis sporting tentacles.

    I agree game developers shouldn’t be novelists (though PS:T could compete in many terms with the best in fantasy fiction); developers have the potential to tell stories in entirely different ways. Big stories, small stories, absolutely any story, though most seem stuck telling the same ones for the moment.

  23. 15/05/2009 at 16:33 Frank Austin says:

    So, you won’t tell us what we play as, but you will tell us how the thing ends? Your spoiler priorities are all messed up, man.

    (yes, I know it’s not revealed.)

  24. 15/05/2009 at 16:36 ...hmm... says:

    @Lewis

    thanks a bunch for responding; i was possibly being a bit lazy, just checked the moddb page. Ill retry downloading this soon :) good article btw

  25. 15/05/2009 at 16:49 Marty Dodge says:

    Very interesting this sort of thing is being done in mods. There is hope for game story-telling after all. And to think this is “merely” a mod.

  26. 15/05/2009 at 16:50 futage says:

    @phil

    “I agree game developers shouldn’t be novelists (though PS:T could compete in many terms with the best in fantasy fiction); developers have the potential to tell stories in entirely different ways. Big stories, small stories, absolutely any story,”

    I can’t wait till we finally fucking realise that narrative is not central to what games are. I also can’t wait till we (gamers) rid ourselves of this naive, adolescent and painfully basic model of what art is/does and stop applying it to games when imagining how they could be art.

    I suppose it’s a problem with the media and public in general, this lack of understanding (and education) as to what art is. This misbegotten notion that that which is linearly emotive, depictive or expressive is art. Rather than that which is explorative and incomprehensibly dynamic (which, frustratingly, games always were until we tried to make them like films and push them into this teenager’s idea of what art is).

    We’ve seen the A-Level emo-kid’s sketchbook version of ‘games as art’ enough, now I think. We’ve seen the Michael Bay of games. The Scorsese of games. Even the Bergman and De Sica of games.

    But where’s the Dziga Vertov of games? The Rodchenko of games? The Malevich? The Duchamp and Bueys? Schwitters and Tzara?

    They’re right there, in the essence of what games are and do. Until people fall back onto this lazy, facile, imbecilic model of what art does and use them to, yet again, “tell stories”.

    There’s nowt wrong with stories but, fuck me, there’s so much more these things can do – and do more naturally.

  27. 15/05/2009 at 16:55 Pace says:

    I was also intrigued by this mod for a while, but eventually I just got confused. It definitely had that ‘ambiance’ thing going on, but the story telling went a bit too heavy on mystery for my liking. Towards the end I just felt lost. (I mean, I’m all for being cryptic, but this was just too much.)
    I like that these sorts of things exist, but they’re just not for everyone. Funnily enough, my experience with this mod suggested to me that The Path probably wasn’t for me either.
    (and here’s another review you may have missed.)

  28. 15/05/2009 at 16:58 graham says:

    A nicely written article by Lewis.
    Gaming needs more discussions and stories of the journeys we embark on and not just news. The 21st century has been characterised by rolling news.
    That said I am fairly unlikely to play/ experience this as I have such a list of games to get through but reading about it is just as important. Good work.

  29. 15/05/2009 at 16:59 The Hammer says:

    People can’t prefer that they do get told linear stories in their games? That sounds fairly like ideological warfare.

    And games which tell gripping narratives can’t coexist next to games which don’t want to?

  30. 15/05/2009 at 17:00 Dracko says:

    phil, Dark Sector was pretty good for what it was, though. The story was simple and suggestive, and was mainly boosted by the bizarre creature and level design, just the way they should be, and other than that, the voice acting was good. And I certainly wouldn’t say its design was without its flaws. I got it cheap and I don’t regret it.

    And besides anything else, the sooner developers realise that the events you’re actually playing are integral to the narrative, the story even, the better.

    Cutscenes are so last millenium.

    While we’re at it, they should also realise level design is a narrative structure too. This was essential to the 8-bit and 16-bit generation, and it hasn’t changed now.

  31. 15/05/2009 at 17:12 Super Bladesman says:

    That Windosill was a very interesting tip too – thanks Dracko.

    I’m also going to give Dear Esther a go for sure!

  32. 15/05/2009 at 17:28 Rohit says:

    I do remember bunny-hopping in this mod.

    At least I finished it.

  33. 15/05/2009 at 17:44 Irish Al says:

    Reminds me a lot of certain parts of Clive Barker’s Undying.

    Not being able to run is maddening.

  34. 15/05/2009 at 17:46 Psychopomp says:

    Downloading now…

  35. 15/05/2009 at 18:20 phil says:

    No one was talking about games as art – For my money they’re not. Fairly pithy summation of why not here: http://worldofstuart.excellentcontent.com/artsem.htm

    As games as art is not a particularly interesting debate to drag up and we’ll just end up throwing tedious art thoery links at each other, so let’s move on (that said, who do you think gaming’s Bergman is?)

    Yes, “telling stories” could be seen as reductive, almost a limitation on what games are and what they do, providing we limit ourself to only consider only how story is traditionally parceled out. That wasn’t what I meant. We shouldn’t focus on the words, cut-scenes and static pictures to the exclusion of the overall experience.

    Darko, I agree that ‘narrative’ is what we experience playing any game level, a match of pong had a story to it.
    The scene of exploration, the stress of combat, a feeling of isolation and the postive reinforcement that comes with ‘success’ – all those things can be essential to a games story. Dear Esther looks like it is telling a story that is a country mile away from the standard game narrative – which I think we can all agree is a very good thing.

    And Dark Sector, pretty good, really? It felt like someone had cut and paste the design docs from three other games then blanded out all the original ideas.

  36. 15/05/2009 at 18:26 Thirith says:

    @futage:

    Games don’t have to be narratives – but they can be, and some people enjoy narrative-based games a lot. What’s wrong with that? I find the majority of ludologists quite narrow-minded and boringly prescriptive in their ideological “Games shouldn’t ape other genres!”

    @everyone who’s played Dear Esther: should I download the mod now or should I rather wait until the re-release is out?

  37. 15/05/2009 at 18:28 Dracko says:

    No one complained when Dead Space did that too.

    Hm, Thirith. All games are narratives. I’m not sure what you’re talking about.

    And what’s this about complaints against aping genres? I honestly don’t recall that ever happening. I mean, sure, way back in the days before the crash, games had to invent themselves, but now most every one of them when not referencing older games are referencing tropes in horror, action, historical drama, etc.

  38. 15/05/2009 at 18:32 Eli Just says:

    Played this when it first came out, and it’s really great. Everybody should give it an hour and I think you will get something out of it.

  39. 15/05/2009 at 18:33 Lewis says:

    @Thirith – I fear I’ve made the re-release sound a little too concrete. If you wait, I’d wager you’ll be twiddling your thumbs at least until the end of the year, if not – y’know – forever.

    @loadsofpeople – The main thing that’s interesting about Esther is how far it strips back the interaction while still having your control be important. cf. Fahrenheit, in which it sometimes feels like you’d be better off just watching a film. Here, though, the fact that you are there, exploring this place, is what seems key to the atmosphere.

    That, and the incredible music, script and voice work.

  40. 15/05/2009 at 18:37 Dracko says:

    Yeah, that pretty much nails it: Atmosphere is one of the major things games are expert at providing, but it still feels underused for the most part.

  41. 15/05/2009 at 18:39 futage says:

    @phil

    I was talking about games as art because because this game is not a game (as the original post acknowledges) and is art.

    I’ve not played this game (there’s another level on which of course it is a game – it shares the superficial form) so I can’t comment on it specifically and it does look quite interesting, for what it is. But most of the games which have walked this line recently have been both bad games and bad art. Like Jack Vettriano or something.

    I don’t agree with much of the article you linked – the author sets out a very personal (and limited) definition of what art is and then says games cannot be that. I agree with his opening statement, particularly: “Why do we care whether videogames are accepted as art or not?”, though. I think it’s concerns like that which lead us down the wrong ‘Paths’.

    I don’t think the question as to whether games can or cannot be art is a valid one. I think they are art already. And we’re looking in the wrong places in order to try to ‘make them into’ art – angsty emotionality, linear narratives and adolescent-sketchbook aesthetics.

    I agree with what you say about all games involving narrative but I don’t think this is something worthy of much note. You could say the same about much of human activity – watching/playing sport involves a narrative, going for a walk, baking a cake.

    Games are less reliant on narrative than most other time-based cultural forms. Game narratives tend to be weak because they don’t need to be strong – as you’ve at least implied, the strong part of game narrative exists in our heads (where I’d rather think of it as a dialogue than a narrative). Strong narratives in games usually come at the expense of those things which are unique to games – the dynamic dialogues, relational/contextual symbologies and truly complex ‘narratives’ (if we must call them that).

  42. 15/05/2009 at 18:50 futage says:

    Oh and also @phil…

    The Bergman thing. What I really meant was that there’s already stuff which does stuff in games equivalent to what Bergman did with film. I mean, we’re at that level, we need to take the next step.

    @Thirith

    I’ve got no problem with narratives in games or narrative-focussed games. I’ve got problems with people who sacrifice the game for the narrative to make bad art.

    I feel that games do narrative about right already (when they do narrative) in the mainstream. The most ‘artful’ games tend to be the ones recognised, again in the mainstream, as great games. Games like Half Life (a weak narrative, but one perfectly suited to its form). The mainstream, in this instance, ends up being more sophisticated in its appraisal because it doesn’t blind itself with a juvenile and regressive idea of what art is.

  43. 15/05/2009 at 18:54 Dracko says:

    futage, the sooner we all move away from the foolish notion of art in the first place, the better off we’ll be. There’s been no such thing since the Industrial Revolution.

    I mean, who would argue chess is art? It’s a game. It’s accepted. There’s nothing wrong with playing. I wish people would stop thinking there was, because I think that’s really the core of the issue.

    Trying to justify games as arts wreaks of self-doubt anyway, and it amuses me to no end that gamers still stick to it without even having much of a cultural background to discuss art’s history in the first place.

    Just because Mummy and Daddy don’t like games doesn’t mean they’re not worthwhile!

    Beyond that, I agree with most of what you say in your latest post: Trying so hard to make “art” leads to disingenuous, characterless nonsense that relies far too much of trying to be anything but a game.

  44. 15/05/2009 at 18:56 Small Ivory Knight says:

    I don’t have Half Life 2, but I do have Team Fortress 2, which is Source as well. Would it work? Or should I go buy HL2, which I’m not certain will work on my overtaxed laptop.

  45. 15/05/2009 at 18:59 Thirith says:

    One interesting thing that games can do with narrative is make you into an agent, or at least give you the illusion of agency – and this can create a strong feeling of involvement and complicity. If done properly, this is quite potent.

    Out of interest: which games do you think do “stuff equivalent to what Bergman did” or to Scorsese?

    @Dracko: in what way (except the most academic/theoretical) is Pong a narrative? Or Colin McRae Dirt? Or Unreal Tournament? In what ways is it useful or interesting to examine them as narratives except in the most abstract, formalistic way?

  46. 15/05/2009 at 19:03 futage says:

    @Dracko

    Except the first paragraph, I agree with everything you’ve said there.

    The fact that I would argue that Chess (or rather a particular game of chess, for the participants) is art probably explains my disagreement with the first para.

    I think art, and the language it’s generated, is useful for talking about this stuff (but, like you say, it requires a degree of education).

    Also agree about no art since the IR, as it happens. That’s to say, it’s a useful and valid way to look at things.

  47. 15/05/2009 at 19:04 Lewis says:

    Drako: what’s wrong with something striving to be art instead of striving to be a game?

  48. 15/05/2009 at 19:05 futage says:

    @Thirith

    Narrative isn’t necessary for agency (depending on how far you want to stretch the idea of narrative). I’m the agent in Space Invaders, Tetris and racing games.

  49. 15/05/2009 at 19:06 futage says:

    @Lewis

    The problem is that games are art already and that striving causes them to sacrifice exactly that which made them so. If games strove more to be games, they’d be better art.

  50. 15/05/2009 at 19:09 Lewis says:

    I meant more: what’s wrong with someone wanting to use a 3D engine to create something that isn’t what’s typically considered a game?

  51. 15/05/2009 at 19:19 futage says:

    @Lewis

    Depends what you’re trying to make, people make architectural visualisations, simulations, explorative interfaces with 3D engines and there’s nothing wrong with that. You can use eggs and flour to make a cake or use them to make a sauce, but you’re fucked if you try to make a spade.

    There’s no problem with innovation, the problem is with misuse. Trying to push the boundaries of games as a form is great. Throwing out what has been learned in games over the past 30 years and thinking that filling the void that leaves with angsty nonsense is just dumb like a cake-spade.

  52. 15/05/2009 at 20:58 Stupoider says:

    Oh wow. That was quite a breath-taking post. :o I guess I have no choice but to download and try this mod!

  53. 15/05/2009 at 21:03 Larington says:

    Umm, I’ll have to give this a try after I’ve finished all my assignments, hopefully by then I will also have forgotten the ending.

  54. 15/05/2009 at 21:27 Lewis says:

    Trust me, that’s really not a spoiler.

  55. 15/05/2009 at 21:29 dhex says:

    i look forward to giving this a whirl. nice piece.

  56. 15/05/2009 at 21:35 Muzman says:

    Kind of interesting how aspirations to “art” typically bring out people refuting the notion even exists or can be defined. But fail to be “game” and you’re screwed because we all know exactly what that is.

  57. 15/05/2009 at 22:05 negativedge says:

    More PC types need to play Silent Hill 2, which effortlessly did many of the things people are hoping to see in games like The Path and Bioshock back in 2001.

    Hi dracko.

    wait whoa I see dhex! dhex come home

  58. 15/05/2009 at 22:06 PaulMorel says:

    a nice mood piece, but personally, my reaction to the game was, “meh.”

  59. 15/05/2009 at 22:20 Thirith says:

    @futage: What’s your take on adventure games? I’m asking because I think that purely in terms of gameplay, they’re pretty primitive – yet a fair number of gamers have found them compelling exactly because of the way they marry gameplay and narrative (or, perhaps more interestingly, narration).

  60. 15/05/2009 at 22:31 Dracko says:

    Lewis: Striving to be “art” means making bullshit concessions, mostly, just so you get the recognition of an elite.

    But I guess Man strives to be Judged. :(

    And what’s wrong with being a game? What’s wrong with exploration and curiosity? Isn’t that what play is all about and isn’t that what your piece is praising in this mod, warts and all?

    The moment someone says they want to “stir up” the medium by making “art”, the only proper response is to ignore them. Or if you’re feeling benevolent, tell them to try and make a game first. It’s not like those don’t take blood, sweat and tears to craft.

  61. 15/05/2009 at 22:32 Andy says:

    has anyone got a decent link? Filefront will only give me 30k/s and twice its died at 50% with no resuming :’(

  62. 15/05/2009 at 23:05 Stupoider says:

    Oh, RPS.. That was beautiful.. <3

    The idea of it. It was amazing. I never imagined a game so simple would’ve been so effective at encapsulating the player (or audience? It certainly felt like an interactive film).

    Kudos to the voice actor. I haven’t heard voice acting so chilling since War of the Worlds.

  63. 15/05/2009 at 23:28 phuzz says:

    I remember sitting, staring at the screen for about 10 minutes after it had finished the first time I played this.
    You really should download it now.
    Go on, the sniper/spy update isn’t going to be for a few days yet, and it’ll take less time than a campaign in L4D.

  64. 15/05/2009 at 23:39 Helm says:

    This sounds like something to try. Thanks for writing this and doing it well.

  65. 15/05/2009 at 23:50 futage says:

    @Thirith

    I’d agree with what you said right there about them, I think. Right down to the narration idea being interesting.

    I think the really good adventure games show that a linear plot/narrative doesn’t necessitate linear gameplay. The game isn’t the narrative, like.

    Love Broken Sword and Longest Journey, me.

  66. 16/05/2009 at 01:01 Über Nerd says:

    I always thought it as an interactive letter. Not that I ever got to hear all of it without opening the files. I always got lost around the cave with whispers. All it needs is moar landmarks to attrack attention.

  67. 16/05/2009 at 01:19 IvanHoeHo says:

    It’s a nicw mood piece, but I didn’t get much else from it beyond that.

    Definately looking for a higher quality encode of that soundtrack, though – both in-game and in a soundtrack format. It seems strange to me why the team (and countless others) would commission for such beautiful music, only to destroy it with this terrible compression. I mean, it’s not as if they were constrained by disk sizes with this distribution method. Is it something to do with the limitations of the source engine (or just engines in general?). When I set a games’s sound quality to high, I usually just assume that it is at a quality comprable to 320kbps mp3s, at least, if (probably) not “lossless” – even though I’m usually too busy to notice these things.

    Last time I was this disappointed was when I downloaded the BG&E soundtrack, only to find it in crappy 128kbps mp3 format – exactly like the ones I ripped from the game files themselves.

    Sorry to go off topic like this, but at least I’m not one of those bitching about game as art! *bolts*

  68. 16/05/2009 at 01:39 Sum0 says:

    I really don’t know what to make of this. To begin with, I was a little bored. The question “Why bother making this a game?” came to mind. If it’s just images and voice-over, why not make it a movie?

    And then I hit the caves. I love caves. I’ve only been through two caves in real life, but I love them for the majesty and warmth of ancient rock mixed in with the coldness and the darkness and the fear. Games never do caves well. But this game had some great caves.

    And that kind of sucked me in. The reason this is a game and not a film is because games do atmosphere and being-there so well. By the time the end rolled around, I was certainly impressed.

    But my word, isn’t Source looking old? Oh, I know graphics don’t matter, and I wouldn’t dream of bashing the maker for going with HL2 as the base of this mod, but this sort of game is about breathtaking looks, and if it was done in CryEngine it could be truly jawdropping.

  69. 16/05/2009 at 02:13 Melf_Himself says:

    “You never fully learn what the island is, but there’s more to it than first meets the eye – and, by the finale, you’ll have cooked up a tantalising set of theories, each barmier than the last”

    Sounds like it was inspired by a certain irritating yet addictive TV show…

  70. 16/05/2009 at 03:41 LemmingLord says:

    I’m with the minority of posters here in that while I enjoyed the atmosphere, I hit my ‘mystery limit’ and stopped caring when I realized that I was only going to be teased for the entire story. Maybe it is just my puny mortal brain, but I can only hold so many conflicting threads in my mind, and when none of them are going to be resolved, I just get bored. It seemed like it was going out of its way to be ‘mysterious’, rather than being confident in the story and letting it be intriguing to the player, it felt like the author was just being oblique on purpose. Great atmosphere, and I absolutely love ambiguous storylines, but the whole thing just seems pointless, slow, and irritating. There are some pretty serious game design issues as well, especially when you can walk for a few minutes, get lost, and then start being hurt by the magical killing sand, forcing you to reload. I should not be pushing F6 continually in a narrative ‘game’ like this. I also tend to agree an earlier poster, who wondered why this needed to be a game- I was wondering the same throughout. A great experiment, and I’m certainly glad that it exists, but it was just too slow, too pretentious, and had too many bugs to work for me. Excellent voice acting, though.
    (By the way, who was the person at the end? Ester? Or is it just another pointless mystery that I won’t care about enough to solve?)
    Edit: http://www.hylobatidae.org/modmatic/?action=articleinfo&id=19 This basically sums up what I was trying to say in a coherent and well-written fashion.

  71. 16/05/2009 at 04:43 Geoffrey says:

    I thought it was pretty amazing. Atmosphere was fantastic, I was only killed by the guardians once, and learned my lesson (if it’s not easy to get there, then they probably didn’t intend for you to try; a hard habit to break, given that people designing game-games do that sort of crap on purpose). For those looking for a second playthrough to nab some new random comments (I went through twice, and it was fascinating hearing… not quite the same thing. But still the same thing. Rocks = alternators. Exactly.), or just finding it a little slow, but don’t want to “bunny-hop”, just crouch. You’re more likely to end up with overlapping dialogue, but only two or three times.

    I, for one, am thrilled they made this, and look forward to seeing what they do next. Thank you Mr. Denby and RPS for introducing me to it.

  72. 16/05/2009 at 05:01 dan says:

    WHY would you give the ending away?!!

    THANKS!

  73. 16/05/2009 at 05:25 Sam Combs says:

    I’ll have to give the mod a try now, I’d seen it before but not with such a compelling recommendation.

    @futage: This is probably a bit of a derailing, but what makes a game of chess art? Or, even better, if you had a concise definition of what you consider art?

  74. 16/05/2009 at 05:52 Pantsman says:

    I think we can resolve the whole “games as/are/should be art” discussion by acknowledging that this thing is not a game at all, not in the usual sense. It’s an interactive computer-generated experience, which is what the term videogame has come to mean so it tends to get called that, but it’s still not a game at all. What it is is something marvelous.

  75. 16/05/2009 at 06:41 Vinraith says:

    What a peculiar contradiction. So well done from a music/atmosphere/writing/narration perspective, yet so horribly frustrating from a level design (for lack of a better term) and glitchiness perspective as to render its good aspects completely moot for me. I can’t appreciate an atmosphere or become involved in unraveling a narrative when I have to reload this often, nor when I spend so much time just trying to figure out where the hell I’m supposed to be going. I’m glad so many of you enjoy it, but ultimately the thing’s just too infuriating for me to sink into it the way one would need to to really appreciate its better aspects.

  76. 16/05/2009 at 07:25 MadTinkerer says:

    “You play as… well, that’s never revealed, and since it’s all in uninterrupted first-person, you’ve no way of finding out. During your time on what initially appears to be a remote Hebridean island, a disembodied voice will read fragments of a series of letters, written to a woman named Esther who we’re never introduced to. ”

    It is pretty mysterious for the most part. I think the deliberately sloooow pace is to force you to pay attention to the narrator and think hard about what is being said.

    (I would have preferred they allow you to sprint. Limited sprint power would prevent you from skipping over the dialogue, but would allow you to shorten the pauses between bits.)

    SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    I interpreted it thusly: You are Esther. You are in a coma and you are hearing (Paul is it? Whoever wrote the letters.) read out loud his letters that he wrote to you. The visuals are dreams / hallucinations based on your own memories and what’s being read to you.

    The biggest clues to this is:

    The general dream-like atmosphere with odd events like people walking away from you in the distance.

    When the narrator mentions “here are all the letters” and you see a bunch of paper boats in the water. Also, other instances where the narrator mentions things you are seeing, but talks as if you are not at the place he is describing. The most explicit one for me was him pointing out a visual metaphor of the letters but talking about them as if they were literally where he is (and not where you are).

    Listen to the bit at the end. The narrator is distraught. Someone is dying, and the Narrator adresses you as Esther directly instead of reading a letter. You hear the beeps (not just the narrator’s voice, but the beeps of the heart monitor). Everything fades to black.

    Paul has literally been reading his letters to you, Esther, the whole time. He probably hopes you’ll wake up if he reads them. Unfortunately, you never wake up, and succumb to death at the end.

    Due to the slow pace, I’ve only played through it once, but with this in mind, I’d keep an ear out for clues as to whether Paul might be responsible (or at least feel responsible) for Esther’s condition.

    Other questions I have: was Esther ever really on Paul’s island, or were the visuals constructed entirely from what she imagined from his letters? This might already be answered, and I should probably play through it again.

    END SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!

  77. 16/05/2009 at 08:46 Azradesh says:

    Um….yeah…..wow…..this is something good. I really don’t know what to say about it except that it’s good.

  78. 16/05/2009 at 09:12 Lewis says:

    For the people who are getting lost a lot: there are quite a few direction markers carved into the rock, etched into the ground, etc. Arrows disguised in the artwork. Or birds flying overhead in the direction you should be going. Try that.

  79. 16/05/2009 at 14:13 cHeal says:

    The voice actor sounds like Richard Burton in The War of the Worlds Musical. It was interesting, not that spellbinding for me personally and as noted agonisingly slow. Didn’t really get any particularly coherent story from it, except that I was following in somebody elses footsteps, and that he went mad presumably attempting to investigate this Jacob fellow and there was somebody else in between but I didn’t really see his place in the story.

    Really loved the black figure who would appear every so often, that was fantastic.

  80. 16/05/2009 at 16:27 Fenchurch says:

    @MadTinkerer

    SPOILERS

    Ah! Very insightful! I hadn’t considered that possibility but I think you are right!

    I assumed that it was the reverse; that you as the player were on the cusp of death and when he was saying “Come back” in that cracked, plaintive voice towards the end it was a plea for Esther to be at his side.

  81. 16/05/2009 at 16:57 Geoffrey says:

    !!!SPOILERS!!!
    @MadTinkerer and Fenchurch:
    I think not, except for one thing. Paul was indeed responsible for Esther being made opaque. My reason for saying “No” to your theory is a particular piece of dialogue I received when I made it into the little cove/pool that is originally visible from the first shack’s window, but not immediately accessible (as Lewis points out, follow the bird).

    Personally, I interpreted the whole thing pretty literally. The only thing I’d leave without a supportable theory is the black figure. Hallucinations from the infection and the diazapam (btw, in the context of the story, the slow movement makes a lot of sense. Sprinting would hurt too much), the ghost of Donnelly, the ghost of the narrator. All seem possibilities to me.
    /!!!SPOILERS!!!

  82. 16/05/2009 at 17:11 Sunjammer says:

    Just finished it. It’s pretty staggering really, and i don’t think it’s a puzzle for us to decipher. I don’t think the cast correspond directly to real world characters, i don’t think there’s anything beyond a grieving man and his emotions.

    The #1 thing i came out of it thinking was, this is one hell of a great way to experience an audiobook. It’s really like an illustrated short story than a game, and it really made me feel things i didn’t expect to feel. I can impart a lot of those feelings onto the excellent, almost Murakami-esque writing, the wonderful voice acting or the beautiful soundtrack, but it did have a “learning curve”, or rather an indoctrination curve. I spent the first few minutes looking for things to do, puzzles to solve or otherwise MEANING, but as soon as it simply became a question of moving forward and observing the world around you as things are slowly given meaning and context, coming to the point on the cliffside, looking down and seeing the chemical diagram in the cliffs below, everything just resonated with me on an instinctual level.

    Perhaps it requires that you are capable of getting enjoyment out of allusions. It painted images in my head that were far more vivid than the rather crude (but entirely appropriate) visuals. I didn’t get any creepy, lynchian psych-horror feelings out of this at all. I thought the whole thing was sad, and intensely melancholy.

    Escing to the menus made me almost embarassed to see this kind of content saddled with a game engine that is entirely designed ground up for shooting at enemies. The difficulty screen in particular was cringeworthy within this context.

    I need a hug now, where’s my girlfriend at.

  83. 16/05/2009 at 18:31 Zaij says:

    Alright, well here’s my interpretation. I may have gotten some names mixed around because I haven’t played it in a while, but here we go. A lot of this is going to be disjointed and random musings, but bear with me [spoilers]

    You are Paul.

    Esther died some time ago in a car accident which you initially assumed was caused by Donoly(Donovan? Actually, it may have been another name, I don’t remember.) in a drunk driving accident. In one scene you talk about Paul and donovan meet up and D seems very nervous, but you say you didnt come for an apology or to lay blame.

    I see this story about coming to terms. This entire story is like the thoughts running through Paul’s head as he’s lying in a hospital bed. Within this story there are five sub-stories, as well as musings by the character.

    1. recounting the story of the cartographer. [refers to how unreliable he was (as in an unreliable narrator - the cartographer) and this is what he sees himself as, which is why he's trying to work this stuff out again]
    2. recounting how he had kidney stones once [I think this is particularly relevent - in a hospital then, in a hospital now (you hear the flatline at the end)]
    3. recounting the accident and Paul’s search for answers as to it’s cause. [This eventually leads to his conclusion that it wasn't donovan and also serves as the main drive for thinking about esther]
    4. His trip to an island with Esther. [Hence why this is played out on the island]
    5. the syphilis guy/hospital thing [this is Paul, he may not have syphilis but he has some shit that's eating him up inside, cancer or some such]

    So Paul’s thinking is disjointed and goes off in tangents (as does everyones) while he’s lying on his deathbed in a hospital trying to get to grips with esthers death, he remembers the good times, the ways he tried to deal with his grief, etc.

    It’s 3:30am here and I can’t be bothered writing anymore, but I’ll try and put the rest down tomorrow.

  84. 16/05/2009 at 22:51 tsoyptc says:

    Like Jubaal (waaaay above) , I’ve tried downloading both V1 & V1.1, extracted each (in separate trials) into my Steam/steamapps/sourcemods folder, closed and exited Steam, then re-booted Steam, and cannot get either to appear in my games list. Starting to feel as dumb as a post, but really want to check this mod out.

    Like Jubaal, I note that the only .exe file in the zip is the uninstall app, and I now have a horrible suspicion that its not possible to play this game if I don’t already have Half-Life installed (which I don’t, and can’t at the moment afford to buy).

    Halp? What am I missing?

  85. 16/05/2009 at 23:10 Lewis says:

    You will indeed need Half-Life 2 installed – it uses a lot of the game’s content.

  86. 17/05/2009 at 00:03 Slippery Jim says:

    Gave this a go this evening, got to say I’m intrigued to say the least. I agree some better visual would have benefited the game experience, but I loved the voice-acting, the deep microcosm, the unfathomable story.

    I do believe that more “experiences” like this would be great, at least two a year! I also think that there should be variety, for instance, some more obvious and decodable, some just weird tangles of storytelling.

  87. 17/05/2009 at 00:08 Dolphan says:

    Firstly – wow. Put me in the ‘completely bowled over by this and sat staring at the blank screen at the end with a lump in my throat and butterflies in my stomach’ category.

    Secondly – I think the mystery/ambiguity aspect is incredibly well done. It’s not just an incoherent mess, as attempts at this sort of thing often are. There are coherent elements in there [SPOILERSISH], the shepherd, the author, the hermit, the car crash, the kidney stones, the white lines. It’s left up to you how they tie in to each other, if they do at all – whether you are the narrator, whether the island exists, whether the narrator dies there or in a hospital, exactly how the crash happens. The underlying themes and emotions, on the other hand – the communication of loss, guilt, loneliness, mortality – don’t depend on any single background narrative, or on any linking narrative at all. It’s a mood piece, sure – but in the best sense of the term. Just enough story, just enough concrete for you to build on, but not too much. If it told you exactly what happened, it couldn’t have the same impact.

    All purely subjective, of course ;)

  88. 17/05/2009 at 00:28 Dominic White says:

    While the ambiguity is an interesting element, I’d love to see a tweak that lets you force it to stick to just one story for a playthrough, so you only hear the story-snippets from a single thread. All of them seem to tie into the theme of the island pretty well.

  89. 17/05/2009 at 00:34 Lewis says:

    If anyone’s interested, and doesn’t mind elements being hugely spoiled, there’s a postmortem available to read here (.pdf).

  91. 17/05/2009 at 06:10 HP Hovercraft says:

    I don’t own HL2 (though I have purchased and downloaded Portal), and I was still able to get Dear Esther to appear in my games list by unpacking it into Steam/steamapps/sourcemods (though Steam required a download of something called ‘Source SDK Base’ before I could launch it).

    From this I assume that this mod is “play”able with any game that uses the Source engine, not just HL2. It’d be interesting if someone who (unlike me) actually knows what they’re talking about could confirm this.

  92. 17/05/2009 at 11:40 Dolphan says:

    Does it run?

    Not entirely sure how all this works, but SDK Base is a ‘game’ that exists as a basis to build Source mods on – the fact you have to install it to run Dear Esther suggests the latter is built on it and not HL2. Dunno if that means you don’t need HL2 for the models etc though.

  93. 17/05/2009 at 14:38 Fenchurch says:

    @Slippery Jim

    That’s very nice. :-3

  94. 17/05/2009 at 14:55 VelvetFistIronGlove says:

    I just played this through. Wow, a really well-told story. I had a strong sense of déjà vu throughout, which added to the uncanny feeling.

  95. 17/05/2009 at 20:00 HP Hovercraft says:

    @Dolphan:

    Yeah, it ran beautifully. If there were models or textures missing, I certainly didn’t notice them- and there were many items strewn about that I know didn’t come from Portal…

  96. 17/05/2009 at 20:15 Lewis says:

    The redevlopment I mention: http://www.moddb.com/mods/dear-esther/news/dear-esther-complete-overhaul

    Headed up by Mirror’s Edge level designer Robert Briscoe. Sounds pretty exciting, don’tcha think?

  97. 17/05/2009 at 22:22 Arvind says:

    I played this mod a while back, on a friend’s recommendation in steam chat. I must say, it is very atmospheric, and achieves its aim very well, glitches and my confusion notwithstanding. But somewhere along the line, I don’t agree that games should be going in the direction Dear Esther is taking.
    I’m all support for immersion, atmosphere, storytelling of the highest quality, but one thing that in my opinion should be fundamental to games is preference to action rather than narrative. Being an indie myself, I feel the problem with the industry these days seems to be that we are falling over ourselves to prove that games can be art, almost as if we suffer from an inferiority complex. And the solution seems to be copying other artistic mediums rather than realizing it is the difference that makes us special. It might be a personal thing, but while games like Esther are a breath of fresh air, I won’t want to breathe it all day long.
    Despite my complaints, it’s a brilliant piece of work, and an incredibly engaging experience. I would have loved it better as a novel though.
    A must download for all the arty types and the cool alternative crowd ;)

  98. 17/05/2009 at 22:43 Dracko says:

    Lewis, congrats on that, man. I look forward to seeing the result.

  99. 18/05/2009 at 03:34 Diapason_Normal says:

    I’m going to grab this tonight! Sounds really interesting.

    I’m also going to give my $0.02 on games/art. What constitutes art to start with is a hairy subject. A pile of bricks at a constuction site isn’t a work of art, but what happens when that same pile of bricks is moved into a gallery and exhibited? I’m not putting any value judgement on either of those piles (I’ve also seen the reverse; famous art displayed outside of a gallery and gone completely unnoticed), but demonstrating that often ‘becoming’ in Art has to do with the object ‘becoming’ itself only with context/concept.

    The other important part of art being Art is perception. Games that become close to being considered Art are almost always games that force the player out of thier comfort zone, causing them to engage rather than just interact on a predefined superficial level.

    No body really considers Doom art because we’ve all played the typical FPS shooters so much that they fit into a tidy self sustaining concept/genre. I think most of us can pick up a FPS finish the game without having any need to interpret or consider the underlying concepts. Even Bioshock with its rich underlying concepts doesn’t involve anything other than ‘Huh, thats pretty interesting’ moments while playing. However, if you were to take all (or even just most) of the combat out of the game the experience would be completely different.

    Dear Esther as art and the source of this debate comes from being presented with a game that doesn’t conform to our preconceived notices of ‘what a game is’ and evokes unexpected emotional resonance. When this happens, and we can’t relate it to previous experiences with games, the invariable result is a debate on ‘Games as Art’ VS ‘Games is games and arts is arts’.

    Anyway, my opinion is that games are an exciting and young medium for both entertainment and art. And that art was always there, sometimes it’s hiding behind the couch, though.

  100. 18/05/2009 at 05:52 Vinraith says:

    @Lewis

    Thank you. Armed with that knowledge (and being in a better mood to try something like this) I played through it and found it very affecting. It’s remarkable the level of emotion evoked by an interactive experience that is, in essence, barely interactive. Quite an achievement, I’m glad I gave it another shot.

  101. 18/05/2009 at 23:14 amoe says:

    this is just amazing and worth playing it

  102. 19/05/2009 at 10:19 alpha45 says:

    I just downloaded it yesterday and I have to say… wow. While you can’t really the consider it an interactive game, the pure experience just blows your mind. It’s like a sort of novel/game combo, that lets you fully experience the story and atmosphere. Apparently the problems with the map have been fixed in version 1.1 , and now there appears to be a system in place to prevent you from going off-track. If you go into an area you’re not supposed to go to, you hear a whispering voice calling you, telling you to come back. If you don’t you start to take damage and eventually die. One bug though, the figure you occasionally notice in the distance but disappears when you get close; it didn’t disappear when I was just at the end of the mountain path, so I could get close up. This looks like a bug, but turning a corner and suddenly seeing it within arms reach scared the crap out of me. It’s a HL2 model, one of the females, and it’s been colored black to give it a shadowy look, and it doesn’t move at all.

  103. 19/05/2009 at 17:25 Solar says:

    Thank you for this recommendation. Touching and very well done, especially the music, narration and ambient sound effects. ‘come back, come back…’

    Agree with Sunjammer about the difficulty screen, threw me a bit, but soon ignored it. Great to see the game inspiring more art, nice one Slippery Jim.

    Looking forward to Briscoe’s rework.

    The narration was superb and put me in the feel of a similar ‘game’ I played long ago Ceremony of Innocence, based on the art of Nick Bantock, with narration by Paul McGann, Isabella Rossellini, and Ben Kingsley. It’s not a plug, just the quality of script and acting are very similar. The title itself is more an interactive picture book so don’t expect the free-roaming, exploratory feel of Dear Esther. I’d say Dear Esther is a more immersive and a faster paced (if that’s possible) experience overall but the relationships of Ceremony are more detailed.

    Have fun out there

  104. 19/05/2009 at 19:57 chris says:

    now… whats so interactive about this storytelling ? u just walk a path with no alternative choices, listening to a triggered soundsource. i stumbled across this article and was curious about this mod, since all of you guys find it so fascinating, so moody and inspiring. i think the music and voice is nice but thats about it. i found myself constantly jumping to speed up the long walks, curious about the ending and got dissapointed. there are people voting this for mod of the year, but why ? im not a mindless fps player, but i found this very, very boring.

    cucu

  105. 21/05/2009 at 20:52 ACS says:

    Frustrating. I was just listening to the last piece of music from Dear Esther, and there’s more than just the beep-beep-beeeeeeeep of the heart monitor at the end. At the beginning, you can hear (very faintly) the breath-click-breath of mechanical ventilation, and as you approach the aerial, you can hear the (quite loud) sound of surgical suction.

    Plus, there’s all that whatnot about restarting Paul’s heart 21 times, and the waiting room with all the chemical drawings (which you’re now seeing on the north side of the island) in the hospital where Esther died. Presuming you’re either Paul or the narrator, who is in the hospital here, and what are they dying of?

  106. 26/05/2009 at 12:42 vanarbulax says:

    Hmm don’t share quite the enthusiasm. While it does make great use of sound (and by that I mean excellent) it is very linear and very slow. Oddly enough while it is linear it’s also very easy to get lost sometimes. At the beginning it thought “go back” was just haunting atmosphere considering that visually I was following what seemed to be the right path. I hated how it killed me if I went to far, it killed the sense of exploration, even punished you for it. While I wouldn’t really “recommend” it due to the lack of choice and large amounts of unneeded slowness (yes walking along one long path is not atmosphere or exploration) it did bring up some interesting ideas (why don’t more games use haunting voice-overs in game?). Personally for this type of somewhat bizarre, tragic, story driven game I preferred Photopia for many reasons I’m not going to go into on a comment.

    Also a pet peeve of mine is when your never sure if something has actually ended or not. I know it’s not a big deal and I get why you want to fade out subtly but at least shove me back to a menu after 15 seconds.

  107. 26/05/2009 at 20:52 Lewis says:

    Photopia has some of the best writing I’ve seen in, well, anything.

  108. 29/05/2009 at 08:51 undead dolphin hacker says:

    As much as I end up enjoying “negative” stuff like this, it stopped impressing me a long time ago. These are the Haunted Houses of gaming — you walk in the entrance and proceed to parade through disturbing images, scares, and/or gloom. You can’t touch or alter anything. Maybe you navigate a mirror maze or some other kind of rudimentary challenge. And then walk out the back.

    Assuming it’s effective, the feeling of emptiness (because that’s what we’re all talking about when we say “negative”) lasts as long as it takes to find someone that will listen to you share that feeling of emptiness. And then it’s gone. And, coincidentally, not that impressive anymore.

    It’s cathartic in a masturbatory sense. And that’s what makes me find “games” like Dear Esther, The Path, All Our Friends Are Dead, and Don’t Look Back to be so… unworthy of respect.

    “Games” like this essentially abuse the medium to get in a couple emotional sucker punches. I find them only a step above those cheesy Shockwave Flash things where you’re supposed to be finding the secret image or something when suddenly a decaying head flashes in front of you accompanied by an earsplitting scream.

    Taking interactivity with all its potential and reducing it to a diversion to leave its audience emotionally vulnerable is kind of tacky. Dear Esther and its ilk are gaming’s penny dreadfuls. Guilty pleasures, sure, but holding them up as something that can “change our outlook on games forever” is ludicrous.

    You “played” the “game.” You felt empty because, essentially, the “game” was empty. You said it yourself — you needed to tell us about it. You were compelled to scour the internet, to write a thousand words to the author in hopes you could get an answer and make the empty go away.

    But is there anything to Dear Esther besides emptiness?

    Here’s the thing. Emptiness is cheap. Real cheap. Go Google up that picture of the barrel of dead, euthanized cats and kittens. Go watch some of PETA’s shock videos. Go to 4chan’s /b/.

    The mark of a good “negative” game is whether there’s something left after the emptiness is gone. After you’ve analyzed and shared and explained and understood and professed and gotten every drip of catharsis you can out of it, are there any other emotions left? Any themes or conflicts? Is there even a game left? Is it a good one?

    Ico is still discussed and routinely cited more than seven years after its release. Shadow of the Colossus is over three years old and gets the same treatment. Hell, Silent Hill is over a decade old and is still presented as one of the crowning achievements of “negative” emotional impact in interactive medium.

    And of course there’s Braid and Pathologic and arguably Dwarf Fortress and really we could get into interactive fiction namedropping if you wanted to look at the heavy theme/light gameplay side of “negativity.”

    I’ve said enough.

  109. 29/05/2009 at 09:33 MD says:

    That was really well said, undead dolphin hacker. (And I’m not just saying that because any sentence featuring your username is inherently hilarious.) I have often thought along roughly those lines, though I suppose my thoughts tend to be rather more simplistic.

    To me, the ultimate test of an emotionally upsetting work of art is not how sucessfully it provokes sadness or fear or loneliness, but what it does with that power. Upsetting the viewer is not a worthwhile or ‘impressive’ end in itself. Feeling sad or lonely or horrified or crushingly afraid of death is easily achieved, (I manage quite fine on my own in that regard, without even trying), and more importantly those feelings are not intrinsically worthwhile — in fact, they’re rubbish. What matters is where that depth of emotion takes you, and in the case of art, the insight that it offers. Making me think about, say, the nature of existence, is no great feat. Adding a spark to those thoughts, be it a flash of insight or simply a fruitful new angle of approach, is the crucial next step that often seems to be missing.

    Personally I prefer to be uplifted, but if an artist wants to take the sad route I’m up for that too, provided they are leading me to a meaningful destination.

  110. 29/05/2009 at 09:36 Lewis says:

    @undead dolphin hacker

    I don’t think I said it changed your outlook on games forever.

    If we’re going for Pathologic as a negativity-in-gaming example, I rambled for a coupla-thousand words about that over at Eurogamer the other week, so I’m on your side with regards to that.

  111. 29/05/2009 at 16:35 BlazerKnight says:

    Although I downloaded this when I first read the article, I didn’t try it until today. I think it’s better to experience it as an explorable story than a video game. And ignoring its technical flaws, it tells a disjointed, haunting, intriguing tale. Nobody said that all games should move in this direction. It’s a unique experiment of game engine as storytelling medium. You either have a beef with its execution, in which case wait for the remake (looks like it has high potential), or with the story itself, which is your personal taste in genre.
    Now that’s aside, my thoughts on the plot itself (SPOILERS): The island is not real. There are several hints to this, the most glaring one being the cars in the cave (took me completely by surprise yet fits in perfectly), which ties in with the references to a car accident. A lot of this repeated mental imagery (parallel white lines in the cliff, parallel vapour trails of planes) makes me think that the whole island is a manifestation of a dreamer’s subconscious. The characters are intentionally ill-defined, but I’m guessing that the 17th century cartographer Donnelly is a projection of the narrator, while the goatsherd Jacobson is a projection of Paul, who killed his wife Esther Donnelly in a car accident. The fact that Donnelly is trying to research Jacobson is a metaphor for the narrator meeting up with Paul to understand his wife’s death. Granted, it’s not a coherent, easily understandable story, and not everyone will enjoy it. But open your mind, have some patience, and you might get something out of it.

  112. 29/05/2009 at 20:31 undead dolphin hacker says:

    Lewis, I originally had a paragraph in my post that made it clear I wasn’t out to offend or belittle you. I think your reaction to Esther is perfectly valid and really rather common for these kinds of… let’s call them “experiences.”

    I guess what I wanted to do in regards to your reaction is point out the hyperbole in it, and use that as an example as how these “penny dreadfuls” are actually rather vapid when the giddiness of finally feeling empty about something wears off.

    Like it or not, instant information has made us into very skeptical, cynical, and jaded people. A heart only has so much blood to bleed. When you hear about the upteenth family murder or kidnap/rape or African genocide, you just stop caring. You can’t care anymore. We’d all be barmy if we reacted appropriately to these atrocities.

    So when stuff like Dear Esther comes along, we love it because we can finally feel bad again. We’re giddy. We wallow in the misery; we savor every drop. And that’s great. It’s cathartic. Therapeutic. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with it, indeed it’s my opinion that it’s healthy behavior. Sooner or later you have to take the (emotional) garbage out.

    That all being said, taking one of these things and saying “look what games can do” is like taking a self-help tearjerker and saying “look what novels can do.” It’s like taking those aforementioned PETA snuff movies and saying “look what film can do.” Yeah, technically you’re right. But putting these one-trick ponies up on a pedestal implicitly devalues works that manage to do more than make you feel empty.

    There’s also the whole kid gloves/favortism for amateur work going on, but that’s been discussed to death on this site, and really it’s a secondary issue at best.

  113. 30/05/2009 at 09:13 Noise says:

    @undead dolphin hacker
    I agree with your overall view of this particular mod, I felt like what I just experienced was empty, and not in a good way. Were you saying Pathologic and the others where examples of good negativity or not?

    It does have great voice acting and pretty good music, and I do get the feeling that though the way the narrative is written and delivered is deliberately ambiguous and incoherent, the writer did actually have a specific intention in mind. I haven’t read the script pdf or whatever. In this way it’s simply an example of above-par storytelling for a game, which is not saying much at all.

    This mod is an alright bit of storytelling but barely interactive and not really a game. Where games do have untapped potential I think, is firstly that storytelling can be emphasized through immersion – games are arguably the most immersive storytelling medium; and secondly that interactivity itself can be used as a device for experiencing something. By that I mean non-linearity can add a lot to storytelling, if the story is tailored to it.
    Pathologic is a reasonable example of that I think.
    Braid melds game mechanics and narrative together, which is excellent. And Dwarf Fortress stories write themselves – also impressive.

    I got a bit rambly there.

  114. 30/05/2009 at 17:03 Lewis says:

    I find the assumption that something built in an explorable 3D engine has to be wildly interactive to be a little flawed, to be honest. A lack of interaction doesn’t equate to emptiness, and I don’t think comparing it to vapid tearjerker stuff is entirely fair. It’s much closer to an abstract art-house movie, and few people consider those to be manipulative fluff. Just my tuppence on it, anyway.

  115. 31/05/2009 at 09:26 Cirdain says:

    Anyone. And I mean everyone who likes this. Will probably like the series of unfortunate events books.

  116. 11/06/2009 at 21:52 what says:

    My favorite part was when I saw esther on the cliff, and I walked up to her slowly, making sure that I was facing her head on the entire time, but there was a small dip, I looked down to make sure I wouldn’t fall, and she was gone

  117. 13/06/2009 at 00:38 Naismith says:

    On the advice of the fine folks at RPS I gave this mod a spin. Unfortunately, I can’t say I enjoyed it nearly as much as many here did. It’s entirely possible that I just didn’t ‘get’ it, but it seemed a story written by someone who didn’t understand or even want to follow the typical stages of a story. There’s no strife, unless you count the histrionic writings of the narrator, a character who unfortunately I cared little about. I know that sometimes writers will shroud their characters or story in secrecy to entice others. In this case, it just didn’t work, I just couldn’t find myself caring about the characters, the story, or any of it. I bunny-hopped my way through, hoping for something to hook me. The diagrams in the carvings becoming more complex intrigued me at first, but even that faded away as I learned it was nothing more than set dressing and not important at all. The storyline as it was rambled far too much and simply did not even try to hook me. The ending, as it was, was so vague as to leave me disappointed.

    In the end, I would hardly suggest downloading and playing this. If you’re of a very open mind, and greatly enjoy ‘art films’, check on youtube for someone else playing through it. There’s little to no difference. This doesn’t need to be a mod, it might have met more success as a 15 minute flash video.

  118. 16/06/2009 at 12:16 Lewis says:

    Oh, my, this is still going.

    Naismith – sorry you didn’t enjoy it. The advice wasn’t really from RPS, so don’t let my guest-ramblings taint your opinion of the fab four!

    I talked for a while in the article about why I thought Esther wouldn’t have worked as a film, or as any medium in which the reader isn’t key. Even though the interaction is limited, it’s all about the sense of being there, something even the finest film struggles to achieve at times.

    Having played through this five or six times now, I’ve a pretty solid idea of the story, but even first time through I think the ending’s anything but vague. It’s pretty clear what happens to the narrator, I’d say. The rest is ambiguous on purpose: composer Jessica Curry revealed to me recently that Pinchbeck didn’t even tell his team what it was all about.

    And no, I don’t think he did want to follow the typical stages of narrative. The whole exercise was about throwing away that rulebook and seeing how people responded to it. Inevitibly, it’s not going to please everyone… but I think the people who do like it will be thoroughly blown away. It’d divisive. There aren’t enough divisive games around.

  119. 16/06/2009 at 20:57 EyeMessiah says:

    I just got around to playing this. Really great stuff. I was baffled for about 10 minutes then completely absorbed until the finale. Reminded me very, very much of some of JG Ballard’s short fiction. The narrator even mentions “terminal beaches” at one point. I was half expecting to come across a drained swimming pool. I’m glad a played this tonight instead of buying Prototype!

  120. 17/06/2009 at 01:27 Velvet Fist, Iron Glove says:

    I said it gave me a strong sense of déjà vu throughout–oddly enough what it somehow reminded me of was a black and white 8mm film I saw in an art gallery years ago. This is odd because that film consisted of nothing but footage and sound of a lighthouse lamp revolving for eight minutes.

  122. 29/06/2009 at 13:42 vanarbulax says:

    Gah there’s no edit button and it’s to late here. Anyway Reverie is the mod on that list I was talking about.

  123. 02/07/2009 at 00:12 Alex says:

    Finally played this. Very cool, atmospheric, and I wish I’d played it earlier!

  124. 22/07/2009 at 20:54 T. Slothrop says:

    @futage

    The Malevich of games is the original pong. Irreducible suprematism.

    Also, everyone on this thread is wrong. No, nope, no reprieve for you my chap, or you. Especially not you. I mean that kindly and respectfully as the terms ‘art’ and ‘game’ and ‘experience’ have incredibly nebulous and contested definitions that can be modulated to justify one’s argument.

    ART IS DEAD, LONG LIVE KING PENGUIN!

  125. 22/07/2009 at 20:58 T. Slothrop says:

    Also an addendum; the writing and acting in this mod is incredible.

  126. 25/08/2009 at 15:07 The Unbelievable Guy says:

    Honestly, I see why people would love this, and I admire the direction it’s trying to take. But unlike Lewis, I don’t want more games like this, or the Path, or that awful mawkfest Passage.

    I can’t really pinpoint my own reasons for feeling like this.
    Possibly the indie art game crowd is right, and I’m an emotionally dead shell of a man. Perhaps I’m not quite as deep as I thought. Perhaps I just prefer the gleeful heart of a mod like Research and Development to the impenetrable cloud of pretentiousness that hangs over things like these. But I think it’s because, as Noise states, there needs to be something more.

    I remember, after Dear Esther, I felt sort of melancholy. Then I played Radiator: Handle With Care. I was left feeling both sad and uplifted, knowing that I had destroyed a relationship, but also that I had set two men free from each other. And then I remember thinking; between this game and that one, the one which gets a glorifying essay, the one which changed Lewis’ views on gaming forever, is Dear fucking Esther? The harsh, beautiful gauntlet of emotional truth is inferior to the depressing Scottish island simulator? What the hell is up with that?

    And I got lost near the start, which pretty much killed the entire experience for me as I bunny-hopped about in a vain search for the right path. Very much a game design flaw. And that may be another problem. Like the Path, this game/experience/interactive film/hatstand has been poorly designed. It shouldn’t be glazed over, the design is awful. And don’t say it isn’t really a game, because it fucking is and even if it isn’t experiences and interactive films and hatstands all need proper design. Sacrificing game design for story as an example of what games ‘could be’ is like shooting yourself in the left foot instead of the right and calling it an improvement.

    Sorry for the nerd rage, but I needed to express how this game made me, personally, feel.

  127. 03/09/2009 at 20:42 Lewis says:

    Just spotted this comment. I think Handle With Care is absolutely brilliant, and have been considering scrawling a load of words on that for a while now. I wrote this long before the Radiator series was even announced, though, let alone long before I’d played those brilliant games.

  128. 26/09/2009 at 05:08 Anonymous Poster says:

    If you’re looking for fun, I’ve no idea why you’re playing Dear Esther in the first place.
    That is easily the quickest I’ve been turned off from a mod in the last year. Good job.

  129. 10/10/2009 at 21:53 Igor Hardy says:

    I found the experience atmospheric, but other than that there was almost nothing to it. The way the story was presented made me rather quickly lose hope that it can actually be put together into something coherent. It was clear that solving a riddle wasn’t the narration’s point, the point was creating a notion of an unsolvable mystery – the oldest and most annoying trick in the book.

    At least it all ended in a rather uplifting manner.

  130. 14/10/2009 at 09:25 Xander says:

    I think I might be an unusual case because I played The Path before this, and The Path fucking floored me. It got to me on a deep, emotional-gut-punch level. I engaged with the game, and I let it ask very uncomfortable questions about myself, and it stuck around in my head for weeks afterwards.

    I just played Dear Esther and I feel absolutely nothing.

    It felt like a Half-life 2 mod with some triggered narration. I felt as though I was reading somebody’s short story — and by ‘reading’ I’m referring not just to the narration but to the piecing together of clues from the environment. And it wasn’t a very good story, because I knew exactly where it was going. Sure, it tried to do the whole ‘unreliable narrator’ thing, but then it basically jumped up and down and shouted ‘I’m an unreliable narrator! Don’t trust me!’.

    Some of it is definitely comes down to The Path having an unfair advantage because it’s NOT a mod — it’s a fully grown, from-the-ground-up experience. From the menus to the graphical style to the controls, it’s all working towards the same design goal. Poor old Dear Esther had to make do with the Half-life 2 framework that was already in place, so we get chunky footsteps, a flashlight, bunny-hopping and horrible electronic noises when you press the ‘Use’ key. It was mood-breaking, but I could have ignored it for the sake of a brilliant story. This wasn’t a brilliant story.

    It comes down to this: I can’t remember a single line of carefully-scripted dialogue from Dear Esther 2 hours after playing, but the images from the inside of Grandma’s house are permanently burned into my mind. I think the two games are more different than people acknowledge, and they’re both trying to accomplish different things, but The Path is just a more powerful and significant work of art.

  131. 27/06/2010 at 00:43 Sam says:

    What about Thief 3? Shalebridge cradly was pretty messed up, I won’t deny being completely unnerved and terrified for the whole level. It was a masterpiece really.

  132. 08/08/2010 at 04:31 SteveZombie says:

    I’m sick of people new to good storytelling overreacting to this. “Oh this is the future of videogaming”, “This changed my outlook on what videogames are capable of forever”, shut the hell up. This is nothing more than a shallow, mediocre backstory restricted to the form of utter nonsense by the author’s inherent lack of literacy skills, wrought in the horrendous form of a half-baked HL2 modification, and prettier maps aren’t going to save the upcoming remake if this ‘unique new narrative’ remains as it is.

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