Dear Esther developers Q+A

[DiMenezes]

I've just finished your game after seeing yesterday a recommendation on Youtube and while I thought I might be interesting I had no idea of what was to come. I simply loved it!

For the questions:

1. Given the good reception Dear Esther seem to be having, have you considered other platforms? I would surely like to recommend your experience to friends who don't have good enough PCs and since the Source engine run well almost anywhere, a PSN or XBLA release could do some good.

2. What inspired the cave moment? The colors used, the sound of water, the music, everything was fantastic! I wonder if particular scene in a movie, book, etc had some sort of inspiration.

3. I don't know if you would like to answer this as it may be part of the experience leaving it open for debate but I'll at least mention it. What is the purpose of the many chemistry formulas we see in the game?

4. How was the processes of changing Dear Esther from a Half-Life 2 mod to a full game?

I think it's all I have in mind.
Thank you guys from the chinese room for this excellent and unique experience!

[Igloogreenhouse]

Q: One of the biggest concerns with Dear Esther amongst fans and reviewers was the lack of interactivity in the game. Although there's no doubt that the visuals and storyline were completely and absolutely astounding, many felt as if the player had no chance to "participate" in the world. Are you, and how do you plan on involving the player in your immersive and engrossing storylines in possible future titles? Where do you think the line falls between gameplay and narrative?

[FrostyTheUnbald]

I deleted my questions after finding this:
http://www.thechineseroom.co.uk/Pinc...ytelling08.pdf

It has answered every question for me.
Congratulations. You should be proud. It appears to me that you have succeeded fully with every goal.

[EDG]

What does the morse code in the "This Godforsaken Aerial" music track mean? All I've got so far is that it might be "B6C B6C" or "B6NN B6NN" (see http://forums.steampowered.com/forum....php?t=2549454 ) but I can't find any info on what that could mean. The lack of spacing in the code makes it hard to figure out what is in the message.

[Belgium]

Hi Dan, i've been following the development of Dear Esther for years now, as well as independently following Rob and the Indie Fund. It's great to finally experience the culmination of your combined talents!

On that note, could you elaborate on the team's experience with the Indie Fund as backers for Dear Esther? In what ways do they stand out against the traditional publishing/funding model, and what opportunities were afforded to the project once it became a commercial venture, compared to when it was simply an experimental academic mod?

On to a more practical question, have thechineseroom considered allowing for the recontextualisation of the experience of Dear Esther by having alternate performances of the very excellent narration provided by Nigel Carrington? Perhaps through encouraging a variety of pro bono performances from the player community itself, with distribution through ModDB, or even the Steam Workshop?*

Thanks for answering our questions, and for the wonderful game!

*Edit: Just for clarification, I was thinking of how, for example, a narration by Judi Dench would allow for a subtly different interpretation of Dear Esther's narrative. Perhaps this might contradict authorial intent, but the game seems to embrace a multitude of different readings - so I thought that having different performances would not be too out of place. Also the strength of the script is very appealing as a performance piece to be re-interpreted and studied many times over.

[Irongiant666]

Originally Posted by Belgium

On to a more practical question, have thechineseroom considered allowing for the recontextualisation of the experience of Dear Esther by having alternate performances of the very excellent narration provided by Nigel Carrington? Perhaps through encouraging a variety of pro bono performances from the player community itself, with distribution through ModDB, or even the Steam Workshop?

I've been thinking the same thing, but to follow up that question with another - was Nigel Carrington always the first choice to narrate for Dear Esther?

As an aside, I cannot imagine any other actor who would be better than Nigel - his narration is flawless. Having said that, I can think of an actor who could be just as good, and that is Joss Ackland. I would love to hear him provide the narration as his voice is also excellent.

[Eldop]

Hi Dan,

I actually created a forum account because I was so interested in posting in this thread. Please note that I really liked the game, and I apologise if I come across as very critical, I just wish to ask some good questions.

1. Dear Esther made a profit within 6 hours, correct? Can you tell us (or give an estimate) of how many copies you have sold?

2. I personally feel that the $10 / £6.99 price point was too high for the game, particularly given its short and non-interactive content. It could be argued that its rapid profitability was due to this high pricing. What was your reasoning in setting its price point here?

3. Did the making of this mod involve any fun trips to the Hebrides?

[Remer]

1. Why did you decide to use the Source engine to create Dear Esther?

2. During my first playthrough I came across a series of stones in a small valley. Impossible to pass up, looks almost like Stonehenge. Anyway at the base of the center stone lay a bible and a chemistry book side by side. During the rest of my numerous playthroughs afterward, the chemistry book lay alone. No bible to be found. Why is that?

[Therion_Prime]

Did you have a good laugh while reading the interpretations in this or other forums?

[DirectVic]

Hello Dan,

1. Does the dev team know what the aerial is, and if so, can you tell us?

2. Can you give us a rough estimate of the randomized elements that can be present in each new playthrough?

3. Is a possible remake of Korsakovia on Source a possibility, as distant as it may be?

4. Who is the carbonized man using the HL2 charcle model?

[chrisgoodhew]

Quite simply the most beautiful and most moving gam...no pc experience i've ever had. My machine managed it at top graphics settings and made me fall in love with my pc (and pc entertainment in general) again!

[thechineseroom]

Originally Posted by Boff

.
You guys stated as long as the launch went well, you'd look into getting some macs to test with and start optimising.

How is that looking with regards to the post launch schedule with fixes, patches, optimisation and language packs.

We're going to start the Mac port as soon as we're back from GDC - it'll take a couple of months probably. So we're hoping for a late Spring release for that.

[thechineseroom]

Originally Posted by Irongiant666

a) I've seen you mention that there are 'contradictions' within the game narrative - are ALL of the contradictions deliberate, or are any accidental?

b) Regarding the translation patch, will the translations ONLY be for the subtitles, or do you plan on bringing in foreign language actors...

c) Have you watched any of the walkthroughs (with commentary) on YouTube?

d) If you are allowed to say, how many copies have been sold to date? Selling 16,000 in 5.5 hours on the first day implies that it's sold a lot more since then. Maybe 50 to 100,000 ?

a) There's probably some accidental ones in there, because it's such a complicated script. But to be honest, that's fine, as the core is this fracturing world and mind. What was amazing about the original mod was people were finding things in the story I hadn't really thought about. That's one of the reasons we added more script to the game, to respond to that.

b) It'll be subtitles only. Managing multiple language new voice acting is way more work than we have the resources to manage, to be honest.

c) I've barely had a chance to keep up with emails over the last week, but they are on my list to go through, probably once the dust settles from GDC!

d) See the new blog post over at www.dear-esther.com. We can confirm we sold just over 50,000 units in the first week. Which was kind of nice

[thechineseroom]

Originally Posted by Nickq2007

1: Will the Dear Esther soundtrack be released on Steam? I could buy it on Amazon easily enough, but would prefer to use Steam if that'll be a possibility.

2: Would you ever consider returning to Korsakovia? It seems that source updates have killed the mod. It would be a shame to let the amazing content and concept of that game die off. I'd definitely buy a remake.

1. What we're working on is selling Dear Esther direct from our website, and we'll make the soundtrack available for download there first. Then we might move it to Steam later on. Still in discussion...

2. Probably not at this point. Korsakovia was a cool mod, but it'd need a more or less total design overhaul to get it even close to game quality - not just art, but design and everything. However, if horror is your thing, you might have heard about this little game we're doing next.... http://www.joystiq.com/2012/02/22/am...hine-for-pigs/

[thechineseroom]

Originally Posted by NeilF

1) Do you envisage any future DLC's for Dear Esther? - ie: Expanding the islands areas/story to explore?
2) What are your (other) future plans? - ie: Another similar (grander?) sort of project? Or something completely different?

1. No, I don't think so. It's quite a complete experience, and I'm not sure we could add significantly enough to the game with DLC to justify asking people to pay for it...

2. We've got two games in the pipeline at the moment. The first is Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs. The second is Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, which will be an openworld, pure-story game. We see that as the kind of spiritual successor to Dear Esther. Check the studio website http://www.thechineseroom.co.ukfor updates, which I'll be doing hopefully next week.