Basically Myst and Riven?

[Communion]

So, is this game basically a 2020 homage version of Myst and Riven?

I'm on the fence with this one. I cannot stand first person games (loathe is more the word), but the art style intrigues me.

[papasmurph]

I saw it more as an Elder Scrolls game without any deaths (except a few fish) :).

[BERGZZ]

really my game was the same pproblem

[Pesky]

It's a first-person exploration and puzzle game. In unusually beautiful surroundings. No combat. Low-adrenaline. Take your time, figure out what's going on, discover new places.

[LoneSylvan]

I also hate first person games... yet this is one of my favourite games ever...
Basically, hating first person is usually because of the inability to see what is attacking me from behind... and why I have no peripheral vision... none of which is a problem here... nothing attacks you ... just look around in wonder... and wander :)

[Eastshade Studios]

Originally posted by Kungpao Kitty:

So, is this game basically a 2020 homage version of Myst and Riven?

I don't think Eastshade has anything to do with Myst or Riven whatsoever. I feel people only compare them because there are a few round buildings in Eastshade. There is certainly no homage, as I've played maybe 20 minutes of Myst, and have never played Riven. Mechanically speaking, they are from different planets. Eastshade is a bustling place with over 50 fully voiced characters. To a large extent, the characters and the conversations are the heart of the game, and are the drivers of the quests and game goals. I would not call Eastshade a puzzle game at all. If there is any "homage" here it is certainly to Elder Scrolls. I even think our game has more in common with Animal Crossing than it does Myst.

Myst is a puzzler, through and through, full of valves, buttons, levers and gizmos. That's where you spent most of your time in a Myst game. You won't find any of that in Eastshade.

[Jazman2k]

Originally posted by Kungpao Kitty:

So, is this game basically a 2020 homage version of Myst and Riven?

I'm on the fence with this one. I cannot stand first person games (loathe is more the word), but the art style intrigues me.

This game has a certain feel in it. Something that not even Skyrim cannot achieve. The world feels alive. I only have half an hour in this game but I really enjoy that I don't have to fight - at all. And I noticed that I actually listen what characters have to say. I never listen anything in Skyrim.

[matthornb]

No. The only real similarity is non-violent design and a beautiful art style. Myst and Riven are challenging, give minimal direction initially, largely solitary, and focused on mechanical style puzzles, this is an open world full of various NPCs who give you mostly fairly simple/easy quests that encourage you to explore the world and find things. [Fetch quests, mostly, of one sort or another, though a few do mix this up in creative ways and there's also a crafting aspect to Eastshade where you learn to make different things from items you collect] In essence, Eastshade's a far easier, more casual sort of game design and it makes up for the simplicity of the challenges by simply having a lot of them, and scattering them across a very large and beautiful open world. (Seriously, the world of Eastshade is probably 2-3 square miles in all, which is astounding when you consider that the core development team was, apparently, about five people and that they filled it with so many bits of life and so many colorful details, enough that it doesn't feel particularly empty or repetitive.)

Incidentally, if you're actually looking for a harder puzzler in the vein of Myst/Riven, a better analogue would be any of the Myst sequels post-Riven or the Myst MMO (Uru, which in its originally intended continually growing 'new worlds every month at cost of a subscription' sense is gone, but actually is still around now as donation-supported freeware that's stagnant and not much new has been added there aside from small patches, bug fixes, etc, in over a decade), Obduction [also by Cyan, making another 'Myst-like' game but not tied to the massive sprawling canon of the existing Myst franchise], Quern [a Myst-like game from a little Hungarian studio], The Witness [Think Myst without a concrete storyline - the narrative is vague philosophy, barely there, and pretentious, expressed more through the game design than any normal story structure. But it has a very pretty open world and 500+ puzzles, some of which are surprisingly clever, which you'd expect from the guy who made 'Braid'], Haven Moon[a little indie Myst knockoff], etc. I like that kind of game myself but I've got a pretty crazy long attention span and most players don't get far in these games due to impatience/frustration and a lack of prior experience with that genre.

That patience serves me well though, I feel like the persistence needed to play those games and actually complete them, weirdly [nowadays] works in my favor as an indie game dev, since programming and game development generally is essentially a gigantic and intricate mass of challenges to overcome. But if you can make it from 'exploring amazing, immersive gameworlds' to making your own that draws from your various gaming experiences, there's something super rewarding in that.