After spending a lot of time playing Firewatch over the past few days (the review of which will be up tomorrow) I've gained a deep appreciation of games that focus on story and exploration of some rather beautiful places.

One such game is the recently announced Eastshade, a very stylish indie game that's all about exploring an interesting world as well as soaking in the atmosphere and story. Here's the announcement trailer:

Instead of the usual gameplay riddled with bullets and blood Eastshade is a story about a wandering artist who's on a quest to explore the mysterious island of Eastshade which is home to many long forgotten ruins and caverns filled with secrets and stories of old.

The main mechanic is based around painting, or in this case taking "screenshots", which you can offer as bribe gift to the various inhabitants of the island in order to earn their favor, trade for supplies or simply gain further information about the road ahead. According to Eastshade's website your actions and dialogue choices will affect future interactions and how other people react to you.

With all of your supplies ready you will need to craft or puzzle your way across many obstacles to reach the remote and ancient sites on the island, areas that people haven't visited in a very long time. What you will be able to do once there the developers have decided to leave as a mystery for now.

Eastshade will be released first on the PC with consoles soon to follow, though as of right now there is no official release date. If you're up for a peaceful exploration of a very stylish and pretty world then I'd suggest you keep tabs on Eastshade as its shaping up to be quite something.