Eastward

The game's cover art as displayed on Steam

Eastward is an adventure-RPG developed by Pixpil and published by Chucklefish, set in a beautifully detailed decaying world, where society is collapsing as the human population shrinks to an all-time low. As the world falls to ruin, you play as a hard-working digger, John, who must guide a mysterious girl named Sam through dangerous decaying cities, inhabited by strange monsters, and even stranger people! Inspired by 90s Japanese animation, the visual style of Eastward has been brought to life using a combination of a modern, innovative 3D lighting system and a rich retro-pixel artwork.

Features

• Single player, dual character, adventure RPG with puzzle-solving and dungeon elements.
• Join John and Sam in their emotional journey across a world falling to ruin.
• Meet a quirky cast of characters and encounter strange monsters and distant cities.
• Beautifully rich pixel art style, created using a combination of modern 3D lighting and retro-pixel style artwork.
• Original Soundtrack composed by Joel Corelitz (Death Stranding, Hohokum, The Unfinished Swan, The Tomorrow Children, Gorogoa), with sound design from Irish studio, Hyperduck Soundworks.

Development

Development started on Eastward at Pixpil’s Shanghai office in 2015, with only 3 team members, using a game engine of the studio’s own making. Built around pixel artist Hong Moran’s original intricate post-apocalyptic pixel designs, and the team’s love of the Mother and The Legend of Zelda series and older Japanese animation styles, Pixpil were inspired to create a narrative driven RPG with a soft sci-fi storyline.

Early art from the game was shared by team members on Twitter, and the game was officially announced with a trailer on 26 April, 2018. The next year, on 19 August 2019 a new trailer was shared in a Nintendo video direct and announced it would be coming to Nintendo Switch. On 11 August 2021 a final trailer was shown in a Nintendo Indie World video which announced the release date - 16 September 2021.

Release

The game initially released on PC and Nintendo Switch on 16 September 2021. A DLC expansion, Octopia, was released on 31 January 2024.