Audiobook: Dear Esther, Level 1: The Lighthouse

The audiobook this time is a bit odd: I'd like to read the monologues from a game called Dear Esther about a man coming to terms with his overwhelming grief. The structure of the game is peculiar: the only gameplay involves the player walking through a Hebridean island, working their way toward a lighthouse in the distance. When the player walks over specific points in the world as they progress and explore, another monologue will play, taken from a random list depending upon which trigger they touch. Because of this randomness, as well as some randomness with the island, there are many different permutations that a player might experience.

The game was widely panned by the general public when it was released due to its profound lack of what is generally considered "gameplay," and even critics were mixed about it. In fact, the term "walking simulator" was invented specifically by the gaming community to insult Dear Esther, decrying it as pretentious and artsy.

Nowadays the term has significantly less venom and a lot of games wear the label proudly, though the original walking simulator was never able to shake its negative reputation. If it were released today, it likely would have been unremarkable, but when it released, it was a big deal because of how it questioned what games even were and how the medium could be used, albeit by paring back as much as possible.

On a more personal level, Dear Esther is an extremely important game to me because it convinced me of the potential for video games as an artistic medium; the term "game" feels wrong to describe it. It's not simply a gallery, either, since the experience is holistic. What's more, the prose is incredibly beautiful.

What I would like to do for all of you is read the script with the different prompts in order, pausing in between each potential random monologue to differentiate them. If you enjoy this, please let me know in the comments on Patreon here and I'll continue to do more. I've already scheduled this one and the next one since I'll be away when they release, but if you'd like me to continue, I'd love the feedback. Also don't be afraid to suggest other audiobooks, I've gotten some good suggestions in the past that I plan on doing.