Dear Esther

[Sotha]

I happened to skim moddb for TDM progress and noted that one award was given to a HL2 mod remake called Dear Esther.

 

Decided to download the older 2009 version of the mod and see what kind of mod is a mod which sparks a remake creation within a year of the original one.

 

Just finished it and I don't know what to think about it.

 

Simply put: Boring walking around on a deserted island. But then the voice acting and the story...

 

Let's rephrase: Boring walking around on a deserted island facilitated by the obsessive need to hear the next story fragment loaded with emotion and atmosphere. Yep, that's it. Oh, and the music was really enjoyable.

 

I would like to recommend our best FM makers have a look at this, if you have time and energy. If we could somehow learn from this and create a TDM FM with such a story, atmosphere and voice acting (without the boring aimless walking and low amount of interactivity) that would be total kickass.

 

(In order to get to the next fragment faster and to avoid frustation due to slow walking I'll give a hint: You can move a lot faster by bunnyhopping in a rhythmical fashion.)

I got the mod here:

http://www.fileplane...Esther-Mod-v1.1

[STiFU]

For all of you who are too lazy to reinstall HL2 (like me) or simply don't want to buy it: Here is a youtube playthrough.

[Tels]

For all of you who are too lazy to reinstall HL2 (like me) or simply don't want to buy it: Here is a youtube playthrough.

 

Uh, I guess the dreary-drunken-lazy-stoned voice-over isn't part of the game? And it totally obscured whatever voide was in the game? And after fast-forwarding a but through the youtube video, I couldn't see anything interesting, and hear nothing except the guy rambling on a bit in a directionless sense. Is there a better video of it? (no, I don't own HL2).

[lost_soul]

An island FM would be cool, but they're pretty hard to make in a convincing manor. How do you blur the water in the distance against the skybox? I remember some T1 FMs that were set on docks and they didn't look good because the water was unaffected by lighting in that game. In the distance, you would just see bright water meeting a dark sky.

 

I suppose now you could just have no lights in the distance, so it fades to black, or use fog to hide the horizon.

[Radiatoryang]

Not to toot my own horn, but it's great how often DE pops up everywhere -- I've written at length on the topic ( http://www.blog.radi...ive-choice.html ) and apparently me and the creator of this mod, Dan Pinchbeck, are "frontiersmen" of the mod scene (http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/alt-mod-scene-article).

 

Fortunately, I'm on the "interactivity matters" side of the "art game" divide, so it seems like we all agree here, but DE is definitely great in how it breaks so many rules and provokes a reaction out of you.

Edited December 20, 2010 by Radiatoryang

[Serpentine]

Personally I found it below average, while I'm not some action junky and I don't mean to say that it's by any means terrible. Even my favourite authors(i.e books) have books which arn't quite as interest holding as others.

 

While I understand it was a personal project, almost all of it is wasted by the author oozing smugism and tryhard everywhere.

 

I'm known to be harsh and filled with irrational dislike for some people

[demagogue]

Funny this comes up today since I was just scripting an Interactive Fiction type of FM for DarkMod. (I script a lot more FMs than I can make, but go ahead and make a map and write a script anyway. But this one is pretty solid I think, so it would be good if it does get made sometime.)

 

To me this kind of mod was a natural extension of Interactive Fiction (IF) into an FPS engine and only a matter of time. I'd scripted some of my own years before Dear Esther, but didn't have the platform to do it (Dark Engine isn't really good for it, though Darkmod would be, which is why I started adapting so many of my ideas to it since 2005. Worth noting that the other game engine/editor I feel most at "home" with after TDM-Dark Radiant and Dromed is TADS for IF). So anyway, when DE came out I knew immediately what it was doing and how to place it and that it was doing the same kinds of things I was already scripting. In IF-terms, it's heavily on the interactive-novel end, more so than even something like Photopia, but of course it points to more interactive styles, which would definitely be my preference -- Losing Your Grip or Anchorhead are more like the IF-ideal I'd shoot for. Anyway, it's a good inspiration piece if you are interested in FP-IF.

 

Edit: @Radiatoryang, looking at your links, it looks like you're doing a lot of the same kinds of things I've been thinking about too. Very interesting.

 

Edit2: Re: your blog entry on interactivity & choice, I've described my theory a number of times here & at TTLG that the core of designing meaningful interactive experiences, or anyway a good way to think about it, is in engineering a convincing modus operandi and the free space to pursue it within the game's mechanics. What is his/her most basic motivation to act in the world; what mechanic gives him space to freely "progress" towards or away from it; etc. Freedom & interactivity only has as much meaning as the PC's MO gets operationalized, no more, no less. E.g., if the mechanic is to shoot guys or run past them to get through a rail-shooter, then effectively your MO is to conquer or progress through space. But the full description of what it is to operationalize an MO would take way more words than this little post. One kind of gameplay that interests me here, though, is NPC-oriented gameplay, like the old C64 game Shogun's goal to gain followers; then your "space" of freedom gets into NPC interests, prejudices, and motivations and things open up significantly (when done well).

 

BTW, look at the TTLG thread on "flawed protagonists" to your point in your blog entry about the importance of games giving you space to make "losing" moves for your own ends, another place I went into more detail on my ideas. Of course, some IF is pretty good with flawed protagonists and space for losing moves. There's also a point to be made somewhere here about "ritual" gaming and meta-gaming, like the phenomenon of ghosting in Thief or DarkMod FMs, a kind of self-imposed ritual where people can even flaunt the mechanics of the game itself to make progress on the larger "game" they're really playing, and some other possibilities that that opens up.

[Sotha]

The benign headache is meaning I'm finally forming an opinion.

 

DE is a work of art. It is not entertaining in the same way like common game or a movie. It is like you go to your local art-gallery and look at the weird works there. It is like some strange painting, not directly entertaining, but curious and requires time to immerse in. Once you examine it at your own pace, you find interesting details or a peculiar feeling.

 

Yep, it's an virtual painting. Playing it caused similar experience for me as examining "The Hands Resist Him" painting for a long time: first glance gives you something, then longer examination brings forth more weird details.

 

@Radiator*

I do agree with the choice-thing. That is the important thing in TDM FM design. Player should always have plenty of choises to do: where to go in which order (a map gives the player means to make an intelligent decision)? Lockpick door or hunt for keys? Use equipment here or save it for later?

[Aprilsister]

I liked it.

 

Wasn't the "greatest thing ever", but compared to -- lets' look at a description of a new game I just came across, entirely typical:

 

"'Pound of Ground', story driven crazy shoot 'em up with red car and LOTS of zombies. The game combines action

elements - a wide range of advanced weapons..."

 

DE is much more engaging.