Ride the RailsĪrmed with a frying pan (and later a little gun and flamethrower) for most of the game, John spends his time navigating dungeon-like areas, mostly in a relatively linear fashion, solving door, lock and sliding puzzles. An apocalyptic train ride across a world struggling to adapt to its newfound hardships, held together by the wonderous joy and tireless bond of Sam and John, Eastward draws you in almost effortlessly and keeps tight hold until the train has come to a complete stop. There’s far more to be seen by the end of some 5-6 chapters and around a 30-hour plot. What’s the saying? It’s not the destination that matters… They feel like lovable wholesome vignettes in a journey. There are episodes in certain towns that in a lesser game might be considered filler, but with Sam’s energy and joy permeating through, it never feels like that. But it’s the strength of the bond between John and Sam, the never-leave-each-other, do-or-die, you’ll-always-be-there-right love that really holds the whole thing together.
It’s a pretty episodic framework by the time you get well into it, but there’s reasons for that I won’t go into here. It’s cute, quirky, not afraid to spend plenty of time setting up characters just to move on to the next town and never see them again. Add in the slow build of clues about Sam’s pod-child origins and you’ve got the makings of a great little story. As the miasma follows you and towns in your wake fall silent, there’s a sinister edge to things. Seems maybe the mayor was protecting his town from something after all. They get embroiled in each town’s story, helping out and making friends, but also encountering and investigating the sinister miasma – a black fog that rolls across the surface world and kills on contact. This is not much of a punishment, and so begins their adventure, riding the rails from town to town, exploring a post-apocalyptic world. However, with their new knowledge, they are now a threat to the town and are banished, thrown on a train going Eastward from which no one ever returns. Sam lives with John who takes care of her as her guardian, but when they venture through the Ancient Ruins (an abandoned shopping centre above the station) they find the way out of their tiny world. Ruled over by a tyrant mayor, no one is allowed to even mention the world above let alone leave. With our third in-house game – Witchbrook – in the works, as well as many exciting projects from our publishing partners, we've never been more proud to remain independent.The story starts in Potcrock Isle, but don’t be fooled by its name it’s an underground Fallout-type bunker town that resembles an old train station.
We are the publisher of titles such as Risk of Rain, Stardew Valley, Timespinner, Pathway, Eastward, INMOST and Starmancer.
Since 2011, Chucklefish has been developing its own games (Starbound and Wargroove) and helping independent developers realize their own visions. About ChucklefishĬhucklefish is an independent game developer and publisher based in London, UK who loves charming pixel art and wants to support and create amazing games. Since then, Pixpil has developed its own video game engine which it has used to create Eastward, a pixel art RPG influenced by 90s Japanese animation, and video games such as Mother and The Legend of Zelda. Shanghai-based game studio Pixpil opened in 2013, starting with just 3 people.