Dear Esther

[cowsmanaut]

http://www.littlelostpoly.co.uk/devblog/

pretty nice graphics in this little mod.

oh and be sure to check the other posts at the bottom to see more of his outside graphics, it's not just caves

[Rasmus]

Very nice! But I'm not completely sure of what it is I am looking at.. Is it a games graphic engine he has upgraded or what is it?

[beowuuf]

If it's the game I think it is, it's a mod for the half life 2 source engine, and the game sounded weird (in a good way), more like a silent hill type affair than half life. Did not realise it was still being expanded!

[Rasmus]

Brrr, never played silent hill.. Resident Evil was scary enough for me, and even then I never played it without a friend around

[cowsmanaut]

There was a game which was a mod for the source engine which from what I read, is a soul of some guy going through this journey which has mystery elements.. I suppose on his way to the great beyond.. Not sure exactly how it's supposed to play out. But anyway. The graphics were not that fantastic. Sort of limited and bare minimum sort of thing.. he has screen shots of them in the posts there. So what he's done is gone in and upgraded all of the textures and environmental geo as well... also he's added in lighting and water effects to make a mod which SHOULD be a visual experience into what it was meant to be. Kind of an interactive story.. with cool visuals

[cowsmanaut]

you can see more of his videos on it here
http://www.youtube.com/user/brisck1?feature=chclk

[Rasmus]

I agree with that the graphic isn't fantastic, but the only reason I would have too say that is because the levels are handmade in a 3d program instead of being done in some kind of level editor, that makes the demands a little bit higher I guess.. But I still like the atmosphere alot
I have to check out the videos later, can't reach them from where I'm sitting now..

[beowuuf]

Yeah, that was the one I thought it was. Cool!

[Trantor]

Rasmus, if Resident Evil is too scary for you, steer clear of Silent Hill. Resident Evil uses shocks to induce fear; once the shock is over, the game will remain relatively harmless until the next shock. Silent Hill's horror is of a much more psychological "what the hell is going on here?!" nature, it is far worse (for me at least).

[Gambit37]

Wow, that's really spooky -- I just found out about Dear Esther today (both the original and the work in progress remake.) I wonder if Cows and I followed the same link from somewhere else...?

I agree with that the graphic isn't fantastic, but the only reason I would have too say that is because the levels are handmade in a 3d program instead of being done in some kind of level editor

Not true. The game is developed using the Source (Half Life) SDK and Hammer level editor. The original version of Dear Esther (from 2+ years ago) was created using the older version of the engine/editor. The new remake uses the latest version of Source which is graphically superior, as you can see the in before/after screenshots on the guy's website.

[Rasmus]

Trantor, I havn't tried silent hill yet, but since everybody says that it is worse than Resident Evil I havn't had the guts to try it yet But I must say that I prefere psychological horror than shocking horror.. The thing I hate the most isn't the supprice, but waiting for the supprice.. My nerves goes crazy

Gambit, well level editing isn't my best side. Have only tried DM editors, and some strategy editors like Heroes, C&C etc. I must try out some of the modern 3d editors and get some insperation, I think that would be real good for my gamedevelopment..
If I would be able to create something like this new mod in a editor, then I would never leave the computer

[cowsmanaut]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cI9cVDVGBL8&feature=fvsr

you can watch him making it in the source engine.. some of the items would have had to been made inside a 3D app, that's certain.. props and such.. like the boat, cans, shed, etc. he also had to make his own textures and virtual, displacement maps, he also updated shaders and added a few new abilities to the engine to allow for some other things. It appears as though code is not an issue for him..

Gambit, the link to a youtube video was sent to me via a facebook friend.. I followed from that to his blog and found the rest, then subscribed to his channel for future updates

[Gambit37]

Yeah, I just saw your Facebook link, but I'd definitely been looking at his site many hours before I saw that. Not sure how I found it, so it was spooky that you posted about it!

Anyway, I d/l the old Dear Esther and "played" through it. There's actually nothing to do other than follow a route and have the "experience" of the island and the story narrated to you. To be honest, I didn't completely follow it, but it was quite atmospheric nevertheless.

[cowsmanaut]

this is why i say it was meant to have good visuals.. as there is little else to it otherwise..

[Gambit37]

An interesting interview with the guys producing the Dear Esther remake:
http://www.podcast17.com/interviews/audio/dear-esther/

They have a new website too:
http://dear-esther.com/

The mod is now going indie and will cost (it was previously announced as free). I think it's a good choice.

[cowsmanaut]

it's been released. I'd been ranting to the students about it over the past year, and so when it came out, one of them had already purchased it on steam and was excited.. anyway, if anyone else is interested... there you are.. $10 CDN on steam right now.. it's essentially an interactive story.. no dying, nothing to fight, just discovery through narration and interaction with the environment.. I imagine it's more like a myst type game in that respect.. though I don't know enough about it just yet to be sure.. other than it's very pretty

[Gambit37]

You beat me to it, I logged in to post about it Downloading right now... Seems like I've been waiting for this for soooooo long....!

[Gambit37]

A new 'game' from the producers of Dear Esther, running on Crytek3:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/07 ... e-rapture/