Tag Archives: Dear Esther

The British Academnt Games Awards have announced its nominees for this year’s award ceremony, and Thatgamecompany’s critically-acclaimed Journey is leading the pack with eight nominations. We’ve got the full list of nominees here.

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Mirror’s Edge and Death Esther lead artist Rob Briscoe has teased his ambition for a new project that he visualises as a horror take S.T.A.L.K.E.R, but without weapons. Check out his teasing thoughts below.

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OnLive is closing out its free Indie Weekend Giveaway promotion by handing out PoP – Methodology Experiment One, Lume, Dear Esther, and Defense Grid Gold for free. To get the games free of charge, you’ll need to visit OnLive’s Facebook page click a link or two, and follow the instructions to redeem your free game. Thanks, Eurogamer.

Thechineseroom’s Dan Pinchbeck has announced on Twitter that unusual atmospheric adventure Dear Esther has passed a 250,000 sales milestone. “We always said we’d celebrate if we shifted 20,000,” the modest indie noted.

Dear Esther launched in mid-February, was profitable in under six hours, and shifted 50,000 copies in its first week. Pinchbeck is now working on Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs for Frictional Games.

Thanks, GameInformer.

Thechineseroom has announced on its website that Dear Esther has now hit 100,000 downloads. The milestone follows the recent release of a Mac version and a Steam discount yesterday.

Dear Esther has now launched on Mac following a previous release on PC. To celebrate the Apple release, which now comes with SteamPlay support, the game is half-off as part of Midweek Madness until tomorrow. You can pick it up for £3.49.

If you head on over to Bandcamp, you’ll be able to download Jessica Curry’s soundtrack for thechineseroom’s Dear Esther. It will run you ₤4.99 and contains 17 tracks. You can also have a listen to the soundtrack samples on the site as well. The soundtrack is also available through iTunes and on Amazon UK for £5.99 or £0.69 per track. Thanks, absolutezero.

Dan Pinchbeck, creative director at thechineseroom said during his lecture at GDC that when developing Dear Esther, the team found that when you over stimulate the player with a buoyant atmosphere, it can cause over stimulation and “kill” the atmosphere.

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The annual Independent Games Awards presented a wide spread of genres and styles with this year’s winners.

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Dan Pinchbeck of Dear Esther developer thechineseroom has been announced as the main speaker for the next GameCity Nights event in Nottingham on March 29. Pinchbeck will talk about past work including Esther, as well as upcoming projects from the studio, including Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs. Also attending will be State of Play’s Luke Whittaker to talk about the developer’s Sheamus McNally award nomination for Lume. You can get tickets here for £6.

Indie darling Dear Esther managed 50,000 sales in launch week, developer thechineseroom has revealed.

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Frictional Games has revealed the title of its next release, but Internet sleuths think they’ve uncovered much more.

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Within five and a half hours on sale, Dear Esther has sold enough units to pay for its development. In less than 24-hours, the game has sold 16,000 units on Steam, and has afforded thechineseroom the opportunity to recoup its financial backing from the Indie Fund and skirt to the top of the Steam’s sales charts. The game, originally a mod for Half-Life 2, was released on Valve’ service yesterday for £6.99/€7.99/$9.99.

I don’t care if you don’t think it counts as a game, this Dear Esther trailer wins my Video of the Day Award.

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

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A second round of lectures for GDC 2012′s Main Conference have been announced, and the set includes a look at the crowd system in Hitman: Absolution, a talk from WB Games Seattle, and a session from Dear Esther’s creator on indie success.

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The latest update on the Dear Esther blog puts the much-anticipated re-release down for January or February through Steam. Originally released as a Half-Life 2 mod and now lovingly recreated in the Portal 2 engine, Dear Esther is a strange, explorative experience coupled with jaw-dropping visuals. You can check out screens of the new build through the link above, and even grab a little sample of its soundtrack.

Thanks, RPS.