2019-05-01+PC+Gamer

I,ontheotherhand,amplayinga

travellingartist.IcametoEastshade

topaintpicturesintributetomy

mother via a type of in-game

screenshotting. It’s this art focus

which sets Eastshade apart from

other games which muddle about in

those high fantasy settings.

The game opens

with your character

being shipwrecked. You

wake up in a cave just

outside the tiny port of

Lyndow and start to

explore, quickly

accumulating a to-do

list, idly picking up

sticks and flowers, and

noting how picturesque everything is.

You learn how to make canvases out

of bits of wood and fabric under the

guise of teaching a little kid in

Lyndow how to do it.

Painting involves picking a canvas

• either a fresh one or a used one
  you’re happy to paint over. Once
  you’ve picked your surface you
  compose the image. This is done by
  cropping the view you have onscreen
  using a rectangle guideline. Pressing
  E paints whatever’s in the rectangle,
  applying some effects so that what’s

shownonaneasel,whichappearsin

theworld,isn’tastraightforward

screenshot,buttakesonapainterly

quality. Each painting costs

inspiration, which you collect by

visiting new areas or doing tasks.

Games being pretty isn’t unusual,

but Eastshade’s design is closer to

that of a grand garden.

The buildings feel

more like follies than

functional houses, the

bridges come straight

from Arcadian

paintings, and curated

lines of sight are key.

Capturing specific

objects, people or areas

of Eastshade allows you to fulfil

commissions or make progress in

quests. The main purpose of the

game is to collect four paintings

which correspond to your mother’s

memories of the place, but in trying

to reach those locations you end up

following little side stories – a

religious conflict involving

hallucinogenic tea, a neighbourly

dispute over whether a guy who

keeps getting jars stuck on his head is

a good parent, a tiny detective quest

involving a stolen book.

There’s an element of crafting

here too, although it’s not particularly

complex. You can use what you

gather to brew teas which offer

different effects, trade feathers for

cash, or build a raft or a reed boat to

cross the water. I found that as long

as I remembered to pack my boat up

when I’d finished using it I only

needed to craft one.

The only time I was really paying

attention to my resources was when I

needed to make money. Figuring out

how to catch the largest kind of fish

meant I could soon afford a coat and

thus stay outside during the freezing

night. Traipsing round, picking up

feathers helped me pay the bridge

tollandleaveLyndow.

She’S a hoot

Eastshade isn’t huge – I finished in

about ten hours – but it is charming.

There are memorable characters –

Anika and her owl obsession, the

ship’s captain who hates you because

you don’t understand how much she

loved her boat, the night drummers

• and the screenshot mechanic is
  enough of a point of difference that
  the fairly familiar story setup still
  feels fresh. You also see your own
  paintings on people’s walls as you
  turn in commissions.
  The game crashed a lot so I’d
  advise saving frequently. Some of the
  tasks don’t flow smoothly. I could
  also do with a few more map
  markers, and sometimes the painting
  interface didn’t register my clicks.
  But even with these quibbles,
  using image capture as part of the
  game is fascinating. Tying it to a
  finite resource and making you
  compose a shot before you paint
  means you make decisions about
  what to capture in a different way to
  normalscreenshotting.

NeedtoKNow

What is it?

A relaxing first

person open world art

creationgame

EXPECttOPaY

£19.50

DEvElOPEr

EastshadeStudios

PublishEr

In-house

rEviEWEDOn

Windows 10, 16GB RAM,

Intel Core i7-5820k,

GeForceGTX 970

MultiPlaYEr

None

link

http://www.eastshade.com

78

Eastshade is a charming

travelling artist

adventure which uses

image capture in

interesting ways.

vErDiCt

The buildings

feel more like

follies than

functional

houses

D

o you know who I admire? Anika from Eastshade. Anika

lives in a little hut between the port of Lyndow and the city

of Nava in the game. She’s obsessed with owls. Can’t get

enough of them. When she’s not sitting in her hovel she’s

tramping through the ferns making hooting noises.

STaTe of The arT

eastshade makes screenshotting

an intrinsic part of play. By Philippa Warr

taKe your best shot

These games have an interesting take on image capture

NoMaN’ssKy

Developed with

DeadEndThrills’ Duncan

Harris, NMS’ photo mode

offers filters, lighting

control and more.

bioshocK

The research camera

lets you learn enemy

weaknesses and gain

bonuses by taking

photos of foes.

theblacKoutclub

Use the camera on

your in-game phone to

record evidence of

spooky goings-on in

your hometown.

Firewatch

Use the in-game

disposable camera to

snap a limited number

of shots, then order

them as real prints.

Eastshade

rEviEW