Dear Esther to release on Steam February 14

Dear Esther, the ghostly indie game with a story based on exploration in a first-person perspective, will be released on February 14.

Developed by thechineseroom, the game's creative director Dan Pinchbeck, announced the release date on the game's official website.

In the game, players will try to uncover the mystery of a mysterious island, how they got there, and who they are. Fragments of story will be randomly uncovered, and it is up to the player to figure out if what they are seeing is real, or if it's an illusion. Along the way, they will try to find out who Esther is, and why she chose to summon you to the island.

You can look at various screens of the environment you will be exploring through the official site, and we have to say that we've personally been looking forward to it's re-release for quite some time.

Pinchbeck will also be hosting a GDC 2012 lecture titled Dear Esther: Making an Indie Success Out of an Experimental Mod. In it, Pinchbeck will talk of his experience working on his critically acclaimed Source engine mod and will pick apart the relationship between mechanics and the game world. He will also be “pondering some of the less-explored realms of game design and interactive storytelling.”

Dear Esther was originally built using the Source engine, and originally released in 2008 as a mod for Half Life 2. In 2009, it was picked up by game artist, Robert Briscoe, for a complete overhaul of the visuals and level design. In 2010 Valve granted a license to make Dear Esther a completely independent release.

The game will be released on Steam, and will run you $9.99.