Eastshade Studios has a fascination with setting. Their previous game, the eponymous Eastshade, put players on a curious island full of lively characters, picturesque landscapes, and natural wonders. Without any peril to agitate them, players peacefully existed on the island, leisurely painting the scenery and learning more about their newfound neighbors. It’s a refreshing gameplay loop, focused on contemplation over combat, where an amicable atmosphere is incentive enough to keep exploring.
The sense of place in Eastshade was so palpable that I found myself wondering what the developers would do next with this unique style of theirs. Seven years later, I finally have that answer with Songs of Glimmerwick. At first glance it may seem like just another cozy farming-sim game, but it is so much deeper than that, as it carries with it the studio’s lineage of making rich, non-violent, authored worlds.
Much like Eastshade, Songs of Glimmerwick opens with our protagonist (formed by a simple character creation tool) disembarking from their ship onto a mysterious rocky shore. This time, however, we are primed with lore to help us make sense of our new surroundings. The history of the land involves some ancient magic-wielding musicians who discovered the dangers of their craft, only to ban everyone from it besides themselves. One etchery, a school for witches, embarked on a clandestine mission to continue teaching illicit music/witchcraft, and it is here our protagonist arrives to study.
At first this setup may feel a bit familiar, but in the 3 hours I spent with the game, it definitely found its own voice. For starters, the vibe here is much more crunchy and artisanal than other works of fantasy. Farming is the primary economic system in Glimmerwick, and if people aren’t outside working the land, they are inside crafting things from what the land has yielded. As a philomath, you will spend a lot of time running around the nearby town, trading goods (mostly produce) with the locals in exchange for knowledge about their specialized handiwork.
Despite this being billed as a farming sim, questing was much more prevalent than farming in my experience. This is in part due to the early automation tools I uncovered as I played, such as enchanting my rake to till the land while I spent my time elsewhere. While my tools did the farming for me, I was off rehearsing music via a rhythm mini-game, crafting potions as a favor for the townfolk, and sleuthing my way toward the truth for who abandoned their wagon in the middle of the street. The quests maintained better pacing than the farming, but they nonetheless involved a similar tedium, so I hope that the developers include a bit more creativity in these tasks for the full release of the game.
On the contrary, the NPCs themselves were endlessly interesting and captivating. Each of them is hand-designed individually and given their own voice-acting, animations, and personality. This is impressive, no doubt, because the NPCs are as numerous as the locales they fill. What’s more, they have day and night cycles that direct their movement throughout the day, so each of them feels self-guided in their pursuits. The NPCs orbit around something other than the player, which is rare in game design. I was also impressed with how kind and friendly most of the NPCs were to themselves and one another, which is the opposite tone of most fantasy games. I was waiting for some grey-haired man to scoff at how the nearby university was ruining the local property value, but that man never showed up.
As mentioned previously, there is a day and night cycle in Songs of Glimmerwick, so time steadily advances. However, I thought it was a brilliant concession from the developer to freeze time for certain mandatory in-game events as well as during the bedtime routine as a way to give the player the space and agency to close out any tasks they wanted to before the central plot continues. There is a lot to see and do in the game, so having some moments to breathe in between all the activity is vital. Along these lines, progress is the main player motivation, not challenge or peril as we would expect from a game in this genre. Sure, getting the highest marks on your wood-chopping spell can be tricky, but the game rewards people who like to check little things off their list more than those who would min/max their way to perfection.
Last but certainly not least, the art direction in Songs of Glimmerwick is sublime. Truly both the visual and auditory experience in this short demo blew me away. There is such a high fidelity and sheen to every animation, every cutscene, every spoken word that I couldn’t really find much at all that I didn’t like. The game even played well on the Steam Deck, as long as you use the zoom-in function to appreciate the environmental detail.
Overall, just as Songs of Gimmerwick is thematically centered on the idea of mastering one’s craft, the same could be said of the game’s designers. Their expertise in creating bountiful, spirited worlds is undeniable with this project. If they can manage to keep the quests and main story as interesting as their exquisite setting throughout the game’s full runtime, I think we will certainly have a game of the year contender here. I can tell an incredible amount of hard work went into getting this demo to the polished state it is at now, but take heart, Eastshade Studios; we all know the best potions are a concoction of blood, sweat, and tears.
Songs of Glimmerik is due out later in 2026, and you can play the demo right now on Steam.
