Dear Esther

Warnings

The macOS (OS X) version of this game does not work on macOS Catalina (version 10.15) or later due to the removal of support for 32-bit-only apps.

Dear Esther
Dear Esther	2012
Dear Esther: Landmark Edition	2017

This page is for the original release. For the updated version, see Dear Esther: Landmark Edition.

General information

Official Dear Esther Website

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

This game is no longer available.

The original mod release can be downloaded from here.

Essential improvements

Skip intro videos

Use `-novid` command line argument^{[citation needed]}

Increase movement speed

Bind key to increase movement speed^[1] (retrieved)

Open <path-to-game>\dearesther\cfg\userconfig.cfg

Add the following code to the end of the file:

bind 1 "de_playerspeed 100"
bind 2 "de_playerspeed 200"
bind 3 "de_playerspeed 300"
bind 4 "de_playerspeed 400"
bind "W" "+forward"
bind "MOUSE1" "+forward"
bind "MOUSE2" "+zoom"
bind "MWHEELDOWN" "de_playerspeed 100"
bind "MWHEELUP" "de_playerspeed 200"
bind "MOUSE3" "de_playerspeed 400"

Enable the developer console from the options menu.
Toggle the console with ~, type in exec userconfig, and press ↵ Enter.
In game, you can hold the left mouse button to move forward, mousewheel up to increase movement speed, mousewheel down to reset or use the number 1, 2, 3, 4 to adjust movement speed.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\dearesther\cfg\^{[Note 1]}
macOS (OS X)
Linux	$XDG_DATA_HOME/dearesther/
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/203810/pfx/^{[Note 2]}

This game follows the XDG Base Directory Specification on Linux.

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\dearesther\SAVE\^{[Note 1]}
macOS (OS X)
Linux	$XDG_DATA_HOME/dearesther/
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/203810/pfx/^{[Note 2]}

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Steam Cloud		Syncs save games.

Video settings

General settings.

Video settings.

Template:Video settings

Input settings

In-game input settings.

In-game input mapping settings.

In-game controller settings.

Template:Input settings

Audio settings

Template:Audio settings

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Bulgarian				Available here.
Simplified Chinese				Available here.
Czech				Available here.
French				Available here.
German				Available here.
Hungarian				Available here. (Alternative)
Italian				Available here.
Korean				Available here.
Polish				Available here.
Portuguese				Available here.
Brazilian Portuguese				Available here.
Russian				Available here.
Serbian				Available here.
Spanish				Available here.
Turkish				Available here.
Ukrainian				Available here.

Issues fixed

Purple and black broken textures

A generic fix for this issue can be found on our Source engine page.

Linux version fails to launch on unsupported localizations

Instructions^[2]^[3]
Run the game with the following command: `LC_ALL=C ./Dear_Esther`

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	9
OpenGL		OS X only.

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	XP	Vista
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz	Quad Core 2.4 GHz
System memory (RAM)	1 GB (XP) 2 GB (Vista)
Hard disk drive (HDD)	2 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce 7600 ATI Radeon X1600 DirectX 9 compatible Shader model 3.0 support

Pre-Sandybridge Intel graphics chipsets not supported

macOS (OS X)
	Minimum
Operating system (OS)	10.6.7
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core Duo 2 GHz
System memory (RAM)	2 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	2 GB
Video card (GPU)	ATI Radeon 2400 Nvidia GeForce 8600M Intel HD Graphics 3000

Notes

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data (use Wine regedit to access Windows registry paths). Games with Steam Cloud support may store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/203810/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (203810) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References

[gamedir-2] 1.0 ^1.1 When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).

[Proton_path_note-3] 2.0 ^2.1 File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data (use Wine regedit to access Windows registry paths). Games with Steam Cloud support may store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/203810/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (203810) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

[1] Useful Tip: Binding Keys/mousewheel for 4-speed variable walk speed!!

[4] Bug 6455 – Localization problem prevents the launch (Native Source Engine port)

[5] Localization problems cause launch failures on many Linux games : linux_gaming

[1]

[Note 1]

[Note 2]

[2]

[3]

Developers

	The Chinese Room
macOS (OS X)	InterWave Studios
Linux	Ryan C. Gordon
Publishers
	The Chinese Room
Engines
	Source
Release dates
Windows	February 14, 2012
macOS (OS X)	May 15, 2012
Linux	June 10, 2013