In the Fall of 2012, right after Stardew Valley was placed on Steam Greenlight, solo developer Eric Barone was approached by British developer Finn Brice. Not long after that, Brice and his company, Chucklefish, made a deal with Barone to serve as publisher for his game.
What followed was one of the most unique success stories in gaming history, in the form of Stardew Valley. While Barone and Chucklefish are still providing updates for the title, including a multiplayer mode and a Nintendo Switch port, each are working on new titles as well.
Earlier today Chucklefish revealed one of those next titles would be a post-apocalyptic adventure game that takes inspiration from ’90s anime. Titled Eastward, the game puts you in control a John, a worker tasked with guiding a young girl named Sam through a series of dangerous cities throughout a decaying world.
Despite the slowly shrinking population and post-apocalyptic landscape, most of the characters you’ll meet in Eastward seem quirky and full of life. Outside of the dying, dreary environments, the game will look similar to Stardew Valley on the surface, as Chucklefish continues its reputation for creating games with detailed 2D pixel art style.
Chucklefish seems to have a thing for the little guy too, as the title will be developed by a small Shanghai-based indie game studio called Pixpil. Back when the story of the game originally broke back on the indie game forum TIGSource, the company was only made up of three people. Currently, Pixpil employes 10 people, a significate growth.
Eastward is described as an RPG that has dungeon-crawling elements. Alongside taking influences from ’90s anime, the title looks very similar to hit titles from the same genre, like The Legend of Zelda and the Mother series
No release date is confirmed as of yet, but Eastward will be coming to PC and Mac at some point in the near future. Simply add it to the list of much-anticipated titles to expect from Chucklefish in the coming years, joining co-op action game Wayward Tide and magic school RPG Witchbrook.