Dear Esther: A Source Engine Game On Linux

You may have heard a few days ago that Dear Esther, a game built upon Valve's Source Engine, would be ported to Linux and released in the coming months. Well, here's more details about that Source-based game is getting to Linux.

For those that have not heard of Dear Esther previously, it began as a Source Engine mod years ago and was later turned into a standalone game that was fully released in February.

The game is self-described by its website 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."

I've now received additional information concerning the Dear Esther Linux port.

Yes, a Linux port of Dear Esther is coming. However, it will not be released until after the Mac OS X port of Dear Esther is released. "We're getting the mac port done, then [the Linux port is] next on the list :)" Additionally, according to thechineseroom, the company behind this unique game, there is "no timescale right now."

How will they be releasing this Source Engine powered game on Linux? They will be using a wrapper library around the Source Engine to run on Linux. "a wrapper rather than a direct port... it's a little trickier, but we're going to try and make it work." What is this wrapper library? When questioned if it's some sort of Wine or something else, like something from Valve to more closely relate their Source Engine from Mac OS X with Linux, "Don't know exactly at this stage..."

The Seattle area can sometimes be nice...

Besides Dear Esther, another Source-powered game that was on its way to Linux was Postal III, but at the moment its state is uncertain. Valve's native Steam client for Linux is also still to be released. Below is the official trailer for Dear Esther.