![]() "When the PS3 port collapsed, I realised that with my knowledge of Unity, there was an opportunity to not only safeguard the future of Dear Esther, but to also clean up the Linux and Mac ports and reach a wider range of other platforms. He began experimenting with Unity, finding that with various third-party tools he was able to achieve his coding ambitions, and has been working on the conversion for three months now. "We got the underlying impression that official engine support was not long for this world, making me all the more anxious, not just about the possibility of further ports, but about the future of Dear Esther in the years to come," Briscoe said.īriscoe blamed himself for the mess and the financial hit the company took, as he hadn't been as deeply involved in the creation of ports as he had been on past projects. When "what should what was promised to be a fairly straightforward PS3 port" went upend due to the need for more licensing, the departure of The Chinese Room's main Valve contact, and finally the announcement of the PlayStation 4, it was "the final straw" for the team and the Source Engine. It was a big hit financially, which put us at a loss in terms of the Mac and Linux ports." Not only that, but we’d need to pay for a separate license for each platform released. "To top things off we also received a huge bill regarding the licensing of middleware that had been, unbeknownst to us, included with the Source Engine but not covered in the original License deal. "Without developers experienced in multiplatform Source Engine development, coupled with our own unfamiliarity with the Mac and Linux platforms, we hit a brick wall," Briscoe wrote. Unfortunately, both contracted port development teams later dissolved, leaving the tiny indie unable to continue support. The atmospheric exploration experience went on to sell well and score multiple critical accolades, but plans to bring it to platforms beyond PC went awry.īusy with other projects, minus a coder, and burnt out on Dear Esther's steep learning curve, The Chinese Room elected to outsource Mac and Linux ports. Originally a Half-Life 2 mod, Dear Esther was rebuilt as a stand alone Source Engine-powered title for independent release. "Rest assured: we won’t release or replace anything until we’re 100% sure it’s ready and you are happy with the transition," he said. The plan is not 100% locked down, Briscoe cautioned, but promised to keep fans informed on his progress. ![]() "At some point we’ll release betas for our existing Humble Store and Humble Bundle customers to evaluate and test, and when we’ve got something that reaches a quality we’re happy with, we’ll scrap the flakey old builds and look at getting everything up and running across all platforms on Steam." "The plan is to work towards a solid, high quality, Linux and Mac build, and then eventually PC," The Chinese Room's Robert Briscoe wrote on his blog. These were walking simulators, and they had a tradition, expectations and an audience.Dear Esther is being remade - again - after The Chinese Room encountered serious difficulties with the Source Engine, causing major problems with ports. What’s clear, reading the article years later, is that by 2016 the term had taken root. Others were concerned about overly broad usage. For others, it trivialized artistic achievement. For some, “walking simulator” was a useful descriptor that allowed them to connect with a player base. The discussion reached an apex with a 2016 Kill Screen piece that interviewed critics and developers of these games about how they understood walking simulators and the discourse around them. At the time, Paste Magazine’s Austin Walker connected the motivating conversations in game design and criticism together, noting that discussions of form and content always resolved into bigger historical debates about what does and does not belong within any given culture. ![]() Calling something a walking simulator carried a declarative weight to it, as if the act of walking was so surface level and pointless that to call it a “game” had no value. The battle around the walking simulator term, like many definitional fights, was a political one.
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