{"id":1485,"date":"2012-02-14T13:47:07","date_gmt":"2012-02-14T20:47:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/the-witness.net\/news\/?p=1485"},"modified":"2012-02-15T09:06:43","modified_gmt":"2012-02-15T16:06:43","slug":"dear-esther-is-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/the-witness.net\/news\/2012\/02\/dear-esther-is-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Dear Esther is out."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[This message is crossposted from <a href=\"http:\/\/indie-fund.com\/\" onclick=\"_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'outbound-article', 'http:\/\/indie-fund.com\/', 'the Indie Fund blog']);\" >the Indie Fund blog<\/a>.]<\/p>\n<p>Our gift to you, on this very special Valentine's Day, is the worldwide release of the long-awaited game Dear Esther.<\/p>\n<p>If you haven't heard of Dear Esther, watch this:<\/p>\n<p>\n<!-- YouTube Embed v4.3.4 -->\n<div class=\"youtube-embed\" itemprop=\"video\" itemscope itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/VideoObject\">\n\t<meta itemprop=\"url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/D7VJ4lP-05A\" \/>\n\t<meta itemprop=\"name\" content=\"Dear Esther is out.\" \/>\n\t<meta itemprop=\"description\" content=\"Dear Esther is out.\" \/>\n\t<meta itemprop=\"uploadDate\" content=\"2012-02-14T13:47:07-07:00\" \/>\n\t<meta itemprop=\"thumbnailUrl\" content=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/D7VJ4lP-05A\/hqdefault.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta itemprop=\"embedUrl\" content=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/D7VJ4lP-05A\" \/>\n\t<meta itemprop=\"height\" content=\"315\" \/>\n\t<meta itemprop=\"width\" content=\"560\" \/>\n\t<iframe style=\"border: 0;\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/D7VJ4lP-05A?amp;modestbranding=1&amp;fs=0&amp;rel=0&amp;wmode=opaque\" ><\/iframe>\n<\/div>\n<!-- End of YouTube Embed code. Generated in 0.00091 seconds -->\n<\/p>\n<p>(Or hey, watch the trailer even if you are quite familiar with the game; the trailer is beautiful and worthy of multiple viewings.)<\/p>\n<p>We expect public reception of this game to run wide: some will love it, and others will be very concerned about whether this thing can be called a game and what that means. So far, this has certainly been the case in pre-release reviews.<\/p>\n<p>Game Informer <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gameinformer.com\/games\/dear_esther\/b\/pc\/archive\/2012\/02\/13\/a-haunting-indie-story-worth-listening-to.aspx\" onclick=\"_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'outbound-article', 'http:\/\/www.gameinformer.com\/games\/dear_esther\/b\/pc\/archive\/2012\/02\/13\/a-haunting-indie-story-worth-listening-to.aspx', 'scored the game an 8\/10']);\" >scored the game an 8\/10<\/a>, saying: \"You should consider checking out Dear Esther the same way you\u2019d appraise a film. If you\u2019re interested in absorbing an intellectual story and gorgeous visuals without having to exert a drop of effort, take a chance on this curious experiment.\"<\/p>\n<p>VideoGamer.com <a href=\"http:\/\/www.videogamer.com\/pc\/dear_esther\/review.html\" onclick=\"_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'outbound-article', 'http:\/\/www.videogamer.com\/pc\/dear_esther\/review.html', 'scored the game a 9']);\" >scored the game a 9<\/a>: \"Discovery is such an important part of Dear Esther, especially when everything is so phenomenally pretty.\"<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Destructoid <a href=\"http:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/review-dear-esther-221082.phtml\" onclick=\"_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'outbound-article', 'http:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/review-dear-esther-221082.phtml', 'gave the game a lowly 4.5\/10']);\" >gave the game a lowly 4.5\/10<\/a>: \"It\u2019s as if it wants to be a part of this wonderful medium of ours without asking itself why, which is exactly why you should seek it out and learn from its failures as a game enthusiast, critic, or developer.\"<\/p>\n<p>We like that there's such a big difference of opinion because it means the game is breaking new ground. It's playing in territory that is not safe; there is no established understanding there.<\/p>\n<p>Dear Esther is a game that no publisher would have funded. Dan, Rob, Jessica and the other associates of thechineseroom have done an excellent job putting together a beautiful game. We are happy to be backing it; we hope you enjoy playing it.<\/p>\n<p>If you'd like more information about Dear Esther, here's an <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gamernode.com\/dear-esther-interview-with-creator-dan-pinchbeck\/\" onclick=\"_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'outbound-article', 'http:\/\/www.gamernode.com\/dear-esther-interview-with-creator-dan-pinchbeck\/', 'interview with Dan']);\" >interview with Dan<\/a>, and here's a link <a href=\"http:\/\/store.steampowered.com\/app\/203810\/\" onclick=\"_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'outbound-article', 'http:\/\/store.steampowered.com\/app\/203810\/', 'the game\\'s page on Steam']);\" >the game's page on Steam<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Update: Dear Esther has been wildly successful, selling 16,000 copies in under 24 hours. <\/strong> As an investment, it reached profitability in 5.5 hours.  <a href=\"http:\/\/indie-fund.com\/2012\/02\/dear-esther-has-reached-profitability-it-took-5-hours-30-minutes\/\" onclick=\"_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'outbound-article', 'http:\/\/indie-fund.com\/2012\/02\/dear-esther-has-reached-profitability-it-took-5-hours-30-minutes\/', 'More details are available at a new post on the Indie Fund blog.']);\" >More details are available at a new post on the Indie Fund blog.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[This message is crossposted from the Indie Fund blog.] Our gift to you, on this very special Valentine&#8217;s Day, is the worldwide release of the long-awaited game Dear Esther. If you haven&#8217;t heard of Dear Esther, watch this: (Or hey, watch the trailer even if you are quite familiar with \u2026<\/p>\n<p class=\"continue-reading-button\"> <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"http:\/\/the-witness.net\/news\/2012\/02\/dear-esther-is-out\/\">Continue reading<i class=\"crycon-right-dir\"><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/the-witness.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1485"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/the-witness.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/the-witness.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the-witness.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the-witness.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1485"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/the-witness.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1485\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1492,"href":"http:\/\/the-witness.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1485\/revisions\/1492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/the-witness.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the-witness.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the-witness.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}