Remember Dear Esther , the creepy atmospheric adventure game made on the Source Engine? Well, it’s getting a remake… again. Turns out that there are some problems with getting the Source Engine. First of all, the licensing fee for the thing is huge. Second of all, it’s really not working all that well for the Mac and Linux ports for the game. Last of all, the huge bills that come with the Source Engine are affecting the Dear Esther team, specifically in that they could not keep contractors on board.
So how do we fix this problem? According to The Chinese Room, the Dear Esther creators, the best solution is to just ditch the Source engine. Instead, the team is rebuilding the entire game on the Unity engine. Unity has better compatibility with Mac and Linux operating systems, is far easier to code in opening up the team to hire on more contractors and doesn’t cost an arm and a leg to license.
This will be the second time that Dear Esther has been overhauled. It began as a simple mod in 2008, and was made into a full game in 2012. It’s unclear when the Unity version of the game will release
Source: IGN