Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Game
Game2017
Dear Esther: Landmark Edition
Developer The Chinese Room, Robert Briscoe
Dear Esther is a 2012 adventure game developed and published by The Chinese Room. First released in 2008 as a free modification for the Source game engine, the game was entirely redeveloped for a commercial release in 2012. The commercial version was released for Microsoft Windows in February 2012 and OS X in May 2012; ports for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One were released by Curve Digital in September 2016. Dear… From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
96 reactions from 2 sources (Bluesky, Mastodon) · newest Oct 3, 2026 · last updated Oct 7, 2026 · How this works
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60 of 96 · most liked firstTo be fair, Dear Esther is the Duchamp's Fountain of video games, presenting something that clearly isn't a game as if it were a game, in order to make us question what makes something a game. Instead we got people accusing every first-person adventure game of not being a game.
unlabelledView post →playing Dear Esther. it is much better than i remember, and the only thing distracting me while i play is how angry i keep getting that this game is *still* accused of somehow being impenetrably pretentious. it is as accessible as any book you read in high school. fucking ridiculous
unlabelledView post →Duchamp's Fountain becomes art by forcing us to discuss the boundaries of art. Dear Esther becomes a game if you choose to treat figuring out the boundaries of games as a game. You can also treat figuring out the boundaries of art as a game. Duchamp's Fountain is now a game. Discuss.
unlabelledView post →I just got reminded of Dear Esther (2012), a game that shaped me in my early career as a games artist. It opened the door to the debate on whether this could even be considered a game or just interactive poetic art. The soundtrack truly haunts me with goosebumps and nostalgia. Play it please! 💜
unlabelledView post →i should like to replay Dear Esther. i would always fight hard for that game in casual conversation. it would drive me nuts how people talked about it. but im a lot older now and maybe everyone else is right and im wrong
unlabelledView post →Every game should have its own Bowl mode. Hitman Bowl. Dynasty Warriors Bowl. Ten Pin Alley Bowl. Dear Esther Bowl
unlabelledView post →if I had to gauge my life based on video game vibes these last few weeks...I've been feeling pretty Dear Esther. yeah, not super cheery. but hey, sometimes everyone needs a busted shipment of Antacid Yoghurt, amirite? 💩💩💩 💩💀💩 💩💩💩
unlabelledView post →This one’s hard because nearly every game I’ve played has stamped something on me? A few answers: -Dragon Age Origins made me switch careers (to games writing) -Walking Dead s1, Spider-Man 1, + Mass Effect 3 are the only games that made me cry -Dear Esther comes to mind whenever I think of grief
unlabelledView post →I remember being one of those plonkers who thought Dear Esther doesn't qualify as a game. Nowadays I consider POOLS a recent favourite of mine and it's literally just an atmospheric walking sim with no story.
unlabelledView post →To put it succinctly, there are games now that explore every facet of human emotion. Games like Celeste explore the sense of self and self-acceptance, while being presented as a precision-platformer game. Dear Esther and SOMA examine our definitions of reality, humanity, and life. 1/
unlabelledView post →"Gone Home" is definitely a favourite among many at The Chinese Room. If you're yet to experience either game, our very own "Dear Esther" and equally atmospheric "Gone Home" are currently available together in a Steam bundle at a great price - store.steampowered.com/bundle/75941...
unlabelledView post →Tons of video game soundtracks on flash sale for one hour: bit.ly/3VlDB2D #ad Includes vinyl for - Temtem - Asterigos - Dear Esther - Shadowrun - Evergate - BPM - Pine - Never Yield - Cris Tales - Going Under - Dyling Light 2 Lots more
unlabelledView post →if I see another game "inspired by the Hebrides" centred on an old lighthouse I'm gonna write a manifesto titled Dear Esther And Its Consequences and start mailing bombs to game developers
unlabelledView post →GAMEDEV RESHARE: Share 1 image of a game that gave inspiration for your current project Mine is 'Dear Esther' - and while the style is vastly different- the inspiration came from being able to tell a good narrative in a game. #gamedev #indiedev #indiegame #indiegamedev #indiegames
unlabelledView post →Choose 20 games that greatly influence you. One game per day, for 20 days. No explanations, no reviews, no particular order. Day 18: Dear Esther #GameChallenge #DearEsther #IndieGames
unlabelledView post →In addition to game of the year Kentucky Route Zero, I'm adding Gone Home, Dear Esther, & What Remains of Edith Finch. There are so many more.
unlabelledView post →I actually had no real interest in VTM: Bloodlines 2 at first, but I have been a fan of The Chinese Room since Dear Esther in 2012, so seeing reviews say it’s not really an RPG but a narrative-driven game, in line with the studio’s usual output, shot it straight onto my must-play list. It was okay!
unlabelledView post →we should be talking about Street Fighter the way we talk about Dear Esther, and i don't mean the lore, i mean, like, "fighting games are a contest in restricting the other player's ability to interact with the game to a much greater extent than even other PvP genres, here's what that means" or w/e
unlabelledView post →Played Spiritfarer today until my controller died. What a gorgeous game. I'm glad I saved it until the right headspace. My experiences with Dear Esther and Kentucky Route Zero were that I bounce off super heavy games when they're not what I need, but when I do they have a crit multiplier against me.
unlabelledView post →... than walking sims and art games along the lines of Dear Esther (2008) and Gone Home (2013). While it won countless accolades and nominations (up to and including a Grammy nom for Best Score in a Visual Medium), I'd seen more traditional gamers turn up their noses at its "pretentiousness."
unlabelledView post →Auriea Harvey and Michaël Samyn have been developing video games as interactive art instillations since 1999. The success of games like Gone Home and Dear Esther proved to them that their vision of a game for gamers was viable. store.steampowered.com/app/287600/S...
unlabelledView post →That's good and I hope well for them but also it's hilarious to me to describe them as "known for Still Wakes the Deep," a game I've never even looked at, while they made Dear Esther, Amnesia: Machine for Pigs, and Everybody's Gone to the Rapture. Like saying "Blizzard, known for Blackthorne" 🤣🤣🤣
unlabelledView post →1. Dear Esther The game starts off on an island and it seems really depressing. I got extremely bad vibes and immediately stopped playing. Mentally could never go back to it.
unlabelledView post →There are three kinds of caves in videogames: Caves where something is glowing and lighting the cave and it is not important (sucks; see every game) Caves where something is glowing and lighting the cave and is the only important thing in there (okay; see Dear Esther) Dark caves (best; see TotK)
unlabelledView post →#GameRankings #Top400Countdown 23. Worms Armageddon 24. To The Moon As Dear Esther already showed, a game doesn’t need compelling gameplay to be a good game. But is a good narrative enough for a good videogame? Would To The Moon have been as good as a movie? I’m sure smarter people than I (1/14)
unlabelledView post →Dear Esther tiiiiiime I love this game so much hnnnggh After that some Alan Wake American Nightmare twitch.tv/zalgog Also look at my tiny burrito children
unlabelledView post →RiME, which is secretly about grief Spiritfarer, which is overtly about death and grief, like, I literally cried so many times during Spiritfarer. Probably not the best game to play after my dad died [whomp whomp] Also Gone Home, Abzu, Dear Esther
unlabelledView post →It's Mixtape discourse. But from weird reactionaries who don't even play video games and still earnestly say shit like "Dear Esther isn't a video game".
unlabelledView post →Today's post comes from our February 26, 2012 roundup, where Brainy Gamer's Michael Abbott suggests that discussions of DearEsther’s influences should include Soviet montage: web.archive.org/web/20120223...
unlabelledView post →Finished @inkle.co's new TR-49 and it's predictably excellent, but I'm now fascinated by the distinct genre of scientific mysticism blended with interpersonal tragedy that characterizes so much of the British indie game writing scene (see also: Dear Esther, Everybody's Gone to the Rapture...).
unlabelledView post →coining a genre called "walking simulator" after Dear Esther is so stupid, omg did you play the game? It's a heart simulator dipshit what if you cared about anything so much that it killed you to lose it. grow up
unlabelledView post →Games definitely aren't about constant dopamine! It's only one aspect of them. A good game can cross many boundaries. If you want a quick example of a dopamineless game... Dear Esther made a whole genre called "walking simulators" which are narrative art pieces. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dear_Es...
unlabelledView post →Interesting experience last night. I played Dear Esther with Angel. Both of us have lost people close to us - and playing through this little narrative game became a way we both navigated our grief and experiences. 080 was the one playing for the lions share of our 4 hour session, calmly narrating.
unlabelledView post →I had heard about Dear Esther a while back and this rainy Sunday finally seemed like the perfect time to play it. The game is the first of its genre, considered a "walking stimulator" where the player simply explores while the story is revealed in voices fragments of letters
unlabelledView post →for years ive been waiting for a game to surpass The Chinese Room’s Dear Esther that’s not Still Wakes the Deep but it gets fucking close
unlabelledView post →"If the narrative of a game is not explicitly expressed within the mechanics, I do wonder why the work has to be a game at all."... it's too bad the IGF never got this memo re: Dear Esther (a work that was later released in its more natural form: a pdf). :/
unlabelledView post →Played through critical acclaimed indie game Dear Esther tonight. Was not prepared to see this within 1 minute of gameplay:
unlabelledView post →Dear Esther. Okay, okay, calling it a "game" is a bit of a stretch, but the important part is that the game pushed a lot of people's understanding when it came out. It was supposed to make you realize video games can be fine art, and so it forced you to focus on the story and atmosphere.
unlabelledView post →The limitation of "game" when it comes to entertainment software goes back a lot further than Dear Esther or Gone Home. Wil Wright, for example, called SimCity a "software toy" since it wasn't designed as a game. I don't care for the "toy" term, though, because of the connotations.
unlabelledView post →The Chinese Room has got to have one of the strangest histories as a studio. Half-Life 2 mod (Dear Esther), better Half-Life 2 mod but it crashes after you play it for 5 minutes (Korsakovia), the best Amnesia game, The Thing but on an oil rig, then Vampire: The Masquerade (???)
unlabelledView post →nicklefritzdev 02/03/2025 I've heard it's important to play games when you make games (...you know, for research). So I started playing "Dear Esther"; this is how it's going so far... #gaming #pcgaming #steam #dearEsther #walkingSimulator
unlabelledView post →Leaving a negative Steam review for Dear Esther - "dead game less active players than conconrd lol"
unlabelledView post →5. Dear Esther I’m all about moody, narrative games and Dear Esther combines it with a scenic walking sim. Give me a stormy night and a hot beverage and I’ll settle right back down into this game.
unlabelledView post →I'm pretty sure the first game people called a walking simulator was Dear Esther. That's the first game I remember getting real backlash for having walking as its only mechanic.
unlabelledView post →Im one of the biggest defenders of Dear Esther out there. I still think its a beautiful game that let's you drown in its vibes. Rapture didnt really entice me as much but I really liked exploring the town.
unlabelledView post →Everybody's Gone to the Rapture isn't a typical speedgame. How many out there run walking sims? I already loved the game though, so finding the quickest paths for various runs was incredibly rewarding. Along with Dear Esther, it was fun to reinvigorate dead communities by beating their best times. 😎
unlabelledView post →In about half an hour (14:30 BST) we're starting a NEW GAME! Time to wander the Outer Hebrides! It's Dear Esther! Join me twitch.tv/djnrrd
unlabelledView post →Not only is it quite good--I teared up a little bit at the last of the 9 endings--but it's also aged fantastically? Like, I'd legitimately argue this was a bit ahead of its time. A narrative exploration game was still very new territory in 2010. This was 2 years before Dear Esther!
unlabelledView post →I could never have any emotions to Dear Esther aside from love. That game means the world to me
unlabelledView post →Deus Ex was an adventure game. You talked to NPCs which had dialog trees, you poked around for story tidbits and useful items, even juggled an inventory. But it was also an FPS. The technological endpoint of Myst is really just an FPS game without the shooting. It's a walking sim, like Dear Esther.
unlabelledView post →There is a problem with certain people treating "not a game" as a statement of quality which just closes the door on any kind of conversation. I can hate Dear Esther just fine for what it is rather than what it isn't.
unlabelledView post →‘Walking simulators’ or visual novels are worth a look too. They usually have very basic game play - often just some light puzzles - and focus more on providing a narrative experience. Dear Esther, A Short Hike, The Disappearance of Edith Finch, Firewatch, and Gone Home are all great examples
unlabelledView post →We're continuing our Pokémon Z-A adventures on the weekly but also stepping into the world of Dear Esther which I am SO HYPED FOR. I've been wanting to play it forever and BAD END THEATER! Can't wait to share these with you all.
unlabelledView post →Game #16 - Scanner Sombre A great walking sim in the vein of "Dear Esther" and "Everybody's Gone to the Rapture", this game has a cool USP of using LIDAR to reveal the surroundings and show the player the story. Definitely glad I picked this up.
unlabelledView post →31 Days of Britain - Video Game Edition Day 15 Dear Esther on PC (2012) An independent game that help popularise the rose of the walking simulator, Dear Esther sees you exploring a Scottish island whilst extracts of letters to the explorers dead wife are read. A deep and emotional game.
unlabelledView post →Understandable, I tried playing a game like that called “Dear Esther” (haven’t finished it) and I’m sure it has a great story but there is like zero gameplay besides walking around an abandoned island. Not much gameplay there so yeah I hear you
unlabelledView post →Dear Esther was the very first game I bought when I created a steam account, back when it hadn't yet been converted to consoles!
unlabelledView post →Ooh, nice choices. Dear Esther (changed how I saw game design) Outer Wilds (just stunning, I'll remember it forever) Axiom Verge 2 (shows how much game you can make with love, and I adore a good Metroidvania) Steamworld Dig 1+2 (such solid polish on a simple mechanic - quintessential indie)
unlabelledView post →First one I ever played was Dear Esther, had a huge impact on me. Up until then I didn't think a game with no real "game" in it could be so amazing
unlabelledView post →4. Dear Esther Whenever I feel like chilling and enjoying great landscape, I always return to this game...
unlabelledView post →
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