Dear Esther recoups costs in six hours

Digital distribution has done Dear Esther no harm at all, as the developers reveal that the title made its entire development cost back within around five and a half hours of going on sale. The Steam release is a remastered take on the original Dear Esther, which appeared as a mod for Half-Life 2.
It wasn’t quite your usual game mod though, instead offering a movie-length, narrative experience on a lonely Hebridean island. The focus is on exploration (both of the island and, I suspect, of yourself) rather than more traditional gaming activities. If you need a genre description, the developers call it a “walk ’em up”.
The remastered release, currently selling on Steam for $10 USD, features environmental art by Robert Briscoe, who worked on Mirror’s Edge.