Dear Esther (experimental, ghost story / exploration game)

[gekiganwing]

Learned about this work-in-progress project thanks to I Whine About Games. It appears that Dear Esther is an experimental game which could be an unusual graphic adventure game, could be a new type of western visual novel, or could be something else entirely. The official site describes it as "...a ghost story,told using first-person gaming technologies. Rather than traditional game-play the focus here is on exploration,uncovering the mystery of the island,of who you are and why you are here. Fragments of story are randomly uncovered when exploring the various locations of the island,making every each journey a unique experience."

For some reason, the project started off as a Half Life 2 mod. That version is still available. But it sounds like the full version will be available for Windows computers in February 2012.