BA6 | Advanced Game Studies #02

Game Analysis #2 - Dear Esther

Dear Esther is an experimental first person adventure game developed by thechineseroom. The game was first released as a free Source Engine mod but was then entirely remade and rereleased as a standalone commercial version in February 2012. 

Dear Esther is a unique game in the sense that it doesn’t follow traditional video game conventions. Very little is asked of the player and the game mainly involves you walking around an uninhabitated island listening to a series of narrated letters by a man who is suggested to be Esther's husband who is dead following a fatal car accident. These voice over sections of the game are triggered when the player embraces specific areas of the island but are chosen semi-randomly which means that no two playthroughs of Dear Esther will be entirely the same.

(All screenshots are ones I have taken in game unless stated otherwise)

 >> image reference <<

 

Structural Framework Analysis

How do the rules and conditions of the game create conflict? 

In Dear Esther, unless the player knows before hand how the game is played/what it is about then they might be in for a shock. The rules of the game are that you just walk, explore, listen and learn. And that’s literally all you can do. 

Another form of conflict evoked within the player by the game is lack of direction, blatant story or character interaction. You play a silent protagonist who you know nothing about until later in the game. For players used to games where story is drip fed in an obvious fashion this might cause conflict, dissatisfaction and separation from what is a clever and unique game.

Are players struggling against each other, the game or both?

In Dear Esther there is no real “struggle” and there is definitely no struggle against another player. The game is purely a single player experience. There are no online functions, no leader boards, no co op and no multiplayer. Just you and the story. If anything there is struggle against the game, a struggle to understand what has happened and why you are there.  A struggle to fully comprehend the narrative and complexity of the story behind the game.

 What are the interactive experiences provided for players in the game?

Interaction in Dear Esther comes in a variety of different forms. Generally, the game has little next to no interaction with the game world. Players can’t find “loot” nor are there any other in game character to interact with. The voice over audio clips of letters aren’t even triggered when the player interacts with a physical in game letter, they are triggered randomly throughout the game when the player reaches certain areas. I guess this is a sort of interaction, the players interact with the environment, they explore, and this makes the narrated letters occur in game. 

 

An article PC Gamer’s website by Lewis Denby talks about how Dear Esther was created when Dr Dan Pinchbeck of Portsmouth University wanted to “see what would happen were a game focussed purely on storytelling, to the exclusion of more traditional interactive elements.”. This suggests that the interactivity was removed from Dear Esther and was replaced by narrative story instead suggesting “that you could do more with storytelling in games if you stopped worrying about everything making sense and adding up, and that when you read a book or watch a film, you are filling in a lot of those details yourself”.  It could be argued that the game is an “interactive ghost story”, not a game.

“It’s important that we all keep pushing at the potential emotional range of gaming and how subtle we can make a player’s emotional journey,” he says. “What I hope about Esther is that although it is fairly dark, there are subtle tones to that: an ebb and flow that makes it an interesting journey that we can all recognise, rather than just us standing there hitting the player with the tragedy hammer until they give in.” 

 

Anther form of interaction between players and Dear Esther is through the way the player interacts with the environment.  Dear Esther, although not offering genuine interaction between player and environments, did offer a visually stunning game that players wanted to become fully immersed within as they explored and progressed. When I played I often found intriguing little areas of detail that told their own story. I couldn’t interact with them, touch them or make them do anything. They were just there for me to “fill in the blanks” which I guess is a genuine form of personal interaction.

   
Does interaction create meaningful play?

Certainly. Especially with Dear Esther where the purpose is for the player to fill in the “blanks” of narrative and piece together a story of their own through interaction in its most basic sense. Interaction between the player and the environment, with no subliminal messages from other characters or drip fed narrative, creates very personal and meaningful play. 

  Aesthetic Framework Analysis

  

What does the game look like?

Death Esther is a gorgeous, sandbox exploration based game set on a mysterious uninhabitated island. The game is from a first person perspective and there isn’t any form of user interface on the screen; your view of the island when playing is completely un disturbed which is great considering it’s the only element the player has to interact with other than the fairly complex narrative.

The use of colour in the games environments is very clever. Often the faint orange glow of a candle or green tint of a cave can be enough to entice the player to go and explore the area. 

 

What are the possible visual influences and intertextual references?

On the FAQ’s pages of the official Dear Esther website there is a question asking about the inspired behind Dear Esther. It’s apparent that more writing/writers influenced the game as opposed to visual influences. 

Q. Which authors (novels, movies) inspired the script of Dear Esther?

A. Dan (DE’s writer): “To be honest, most of my inspiration came from games. I did a doctorate in FPS games and this led to the questions that inspired Esther. But I guess in terms of authors I most identify with: Boris & Arkady Strugatsky, William Burroughs, Philip K. Dick, Margaret Atwood, Andrew Greig (if you haven’t read “That Summer” you haven’t lived), J.G. Ballard, Angela Carter, Sebastian Faulks (particularly Human Traces)… I love Soviet-era Russian sci-fi too: Kiri Bulychev and Dmitri Bilenkin are fantastic. Although they haven’t made it into our games yet, I’m a massive fan of good steampunkers too: G. W. Dahlquist and Stephen Hunt are superstars and I want to make a full-on Victoriana steampunk shooter before I die.” 

  

I found this article on ROCK, PAPER, SHOTGUN where an interview between Alec Meer, a write for the website, and Robert Briscoe, the lead artist for Dear Esther. He states in a question put to him by Meer concerning visual influences behind the game that he felt very inspired by Stalker, a 1979 science fiction film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky.
 

>> video reference, credit goes to bioreflex << 
  
Briscoe explains that it was “how his meticulous attention to detail helped create a such a great atmosphere” that influenced him visually when designing the landscapes and environments in Dear Esther.

What other aesthetic qualities does the game present, movement, sound?

Dear Esther provides the player with very basic movements because there is no need for fast sprints, melee attacks, blocks, cover or mechanics to fire weaponry. Sound is presented via the cold, eerie winds that blast past you whilst outside on the island as well as the sound of the sea which can almost always be hear.  Ambient sounds of the island seem to pull focus over actual music. Sometimes there is music that will play in the forms of flashbacks or when you reach specific parts of the game.
 
>> video reference, credit goes to Aenrel <<

Contextual Framework Analysis 

Consider the game in terms of context, origin, year of manufacture, company, target audience, does the game contain any persuasive purpose, what would make the game more effective and what potentials does the game point to?

Dear Esther's origin was a Source engine mod created in 2008. While the ideas were still the same the overall aesthetics of the game were incredibly different. The capabilities of the engine were limited and, compared to the re released version, the overall look of the game was a lot more vacant and empty. Players still rated the game for its experience however.

>> video reference, credit goes to HL2Life << 

 >> reference images from original Dear Esther HL2 mod <<

  

The re released version of Dear Esther came out 2012 and was a massive improvement over its origin version. Thechineseroom, originally a mod team, branched out to make Dear Esther but before this they worked on Korsakovia, a single player mode for Valves Half-Life2. In Korsakovia, the player travels through the delusions of Christopher who suffers from Korsakoff’s syndrome. Hearing voices of a doctor, the player must try to figure out what is wrong with Christopher. 

<< video reference, credit goes to HL2Life << 

 Despite the game starting almost identically to Dear Esther (player chooses start and is immediately in game). You are forced to listen to a woman addressing you directly before you are thrown into the game. Korsakovia is also a first person game like Dear Esther but the games aesthetics are very different. Korsakovia is very dark and grungy with basic textures and models compared to the stand alone version of Dear Esther (which is understandable, considering this is a mod). Similarly to Dear Esther, the game has a voice over which helps the player understand the games narrative. 

Dear Esther’s target audience would have been those who were fans of the original Korsakovia mod and original Dear Esther mod. However with the apparent change in gameplay style from emphasis on play to direct emphasis on narrative, it would seem apparent that the target audience were those who wanted a change in pace and gameplay. Gamers looking for something very different with a narrative driven experience where they would have to use their imagination to fill in holes and fully comprehend what's occurring.

The game persuades the player to consider play in a different style. It challenges them to be open minded regarding the content and the way its delivered. I don’t think, for this type of experience, if could be any more effective.  Dear Esther has the potential to influence the way in which we play games and how narrative driven play can be used for greater effect. It suggests that we don’t need fancy mechanics, over complicated characters and convoluted plot to produce an experience worth playing through.