The Chinese Room (UK)
Title Dear Esther
Description A deserted island… a lost man… memories of a fatal crash… a book written by a dying explorer. Dear Esther is a ghost story, told using first-person gaming technologies. Rather than traditional game-play the focus here is on exploration, uncovering the mystery of the island, of who you are and why you are here. Fragments of story are randomly uncovered when exploring the various locations of the island, making every each journey a unique experience.
Dear Esther is a pure-story game that immerses you in a stunningly realised world, a remote and desolate island somewhere in the outer Hebrides. As you step forwards, a voice begins to read fragments of a letter: "Dear Esther..." - and so begins a journey through one of the most original first-person games of recent years. Abandoning traditional gameplay for a pure story-driven experience, Dear Esther fuses its beautiful environments with a breathtaking soundtrack to tell a powerful story of love, loss, guilt and redemption.
Dear Esther was launched on 14th February 2012 and has received substantial critical acclaim, including several international awards. The game has sold over 450,000 copies since release. Our marketing budget was £400 and the word was spread by avid fans who became passionate advocates – pushing sales far past our initial expectations.
Dear Esther is a rare thing - an uncompromisingly experimental game that has secured a cult following and populist appeal.
Project Website http://dear-esther.com
Technical Data Platform Mac PC Requirements Minimum: OS:Microsoft Windows XP / Vista / Vista64 Processor:Intel core 2 duo 2.4GHz or higher Memory:1GB XP / 2GB Vista Graphics:DirectX 9 compliant video card with Shader model 3.0 support. NVidia 7600, ATI X1600 or better (Pre-Sandybridge Intel graphics chips
Group Type Company The Chinese Room
Website http://http://dear-esther.com/ Twitter twitter.com/#!/danpinchbeck