Eastshade
GameBy Eastshade Studios · Released Feb 13, 2019
Eastshade is a first-person, open world exploration game. You are a traveling painter, exploring the island of Eastshade. Capture the world on canvas using your artist’s easel. Talk to the inhabitants to learn about their lives. Make friends and help those in need. Discover mysteries and uncover secrets about the land.
Connections
Each row is a game or company named alongside Eastshade, each column a document, oldest first. A mark means that document names it. Select a row to see those documents.
About the game
- Released
- Feb 13, 2019
- Developer
- Eastshade Studios
- Genres
- Adventure, Indie
- Platforms
- PlayStation 4, PC (Microsoft Windows), Xbox One
- Links
- Wikipedia
Game data from IGDB.com
Key figures from the reports
Eastshade Studios achieved commercial success with over 4,000 'Very Positive' reviews on Steam, demonstrating that a high-quality, focused indie game can generate over $1,000,000 in revenue.
Thomas Brush, 2024 · How This Game Dev Made Over $1,000,000 — Full Time Game Dev Podcast Ep. 015, p. 1
Eastshade, an indie game developed by Danny Weinbaum, has generated over $3.5 million in revenue across all platforms since its 2019 release.
Thomas Brush, 2024 · How To Make Millions From An Indie Game, p. 1
Documents about Eastshade
Their 0 Combat Game Made Them Millions
The development of non-violent, exploration-focused adventure games relies on a synthesis of immersive world-building, clear mechanical communication, and disciplined production management.
- Environment art efficiency is achieved by prioritizing unique, hand-crafted assets over modular sets to maintain a distinct visual identity and optimize performance through reduced draw calls.
- Developing for a fixed camera allows developers to treat every frame as a 'hero shot,' significantly reducing production costs by only requiring high-fidelity art where the player can actually see.
- Successful indie games on Steam are often found in the 'middle class' of sales, typically ranging between $100,000 and $1,000,000 in revenue, rather than just the extreme outliers or mega-hits.
How This Game Dev Made Over $1,000,000 — Full Time Game Dev Podcast Ep. 015
Independent game development is a viable, high-reward career path when approached with professional discipline, strategic market awareness, and a commitment to long-term production.
- Eastshade Studios achieved commercial success with over 4,000 'Very Positive' reviews on Steam, demonstrating that a high-quality, focused indie game can generate over $1,000,000 in revenue.
- Effective trailer design involves scripting and creating specific, high-impact game moments specifically for the trailer rather than simply recording existing gameplay footage.
- Organic wishlist growth on Steam is primarily driven by the platform's internal algorithms, such as the discovery queue and upcoming games list, which prioritize games that attract early user interest.
How To Make Millions From An Indie Game
The journey of developing the indie game Eastshade serves as a case study for transitioning from a stable career in AAA game development to independent production.
- Eastshade, an indie game developed by Danny Weinbaum, has generated over $3.5 million in revenue across all platforms since its 2019 release.
- To fund full-time development, the creator saved approximately $130,000 while working in the AAA industry at Sucker Punch, allowing for a multi-year runway.
- The development process spanned four years, during which the creator and his partner lived frugally and eventually moved in with family to extend their financial stability.
Tips and Resources for Your Funding Applications: Germany
Gamecity Hamburg, an initiative of the Hamburg Kreativ Gesellschaft, published this short guide on March 27, 2024 to help game developers prepare applications for its funding programs, particularly the 2024 Prototype Funding round.
- The 2024 Prototype Funding cycle in Germany offers a total of 400,000 euros in financial support for independent game developers.
- Successful funding applications must be substantiated with concrete data from platforms like SteamDB and SteamSpy, specifically regarding sales figures, genre trends, and target audience demographics.
- Pitch presentations should prioritize brevity and a clear definition of a unique market hook while avoiding the over-explanation of standard game features.
Tim Epic vs. Tim Apple
Simon Carless's August 2020 weekly roundup on game discoverability opens with the Epic Games versus Apple dispute, in which Epic was banned from Apple's platforms and sued after deliberately provoking the company over in-app purchases in Fortnite.
- The 30% commission fee charged by major platform holders remains a primary point of financial tension for developers, as highlighted by the 2020 legal conflict between Epic Games and Apple.
- Independent developers frequently struggle to achieve profitability, as net revenue is significantly eroded by platform fees, taxes, and operational costs, often necessitating external funding or rapid development cycles.
- Digital storefronts, including Steam, the Epic Games Store, and console ecosystems, are shifting toward an interconnected, subscription-heavy model exemplified by services like Apple One and EA Play.
What Percentage of Gross Revenue Do Developers Actually Get
Developers on Steam keep only about 55 percent of what players actually spend, according to analysis by discoverability consultant Simon Carless.
- Developers typically net only about 55% of a game’s gross revenue on Steam after accounting for platform fees, taxes, and refunds.
- Steam takes a 30% revenue share, while additional deductions include VAT, sales taxes, corporate taxes, and currency exchange costs.
- Average monthly refund rates for games typically range between 5% and 8%, though rates can vary significantly by region and game genre.
Game Refunds and the Hidden Costs of 'Getting to Net' on Steam
Turning a game's headline gross revenue on Steam into the money developers actually receive takes several deductions, and the process is walked through here using a notional $1 million gross.
- Gross revenue is a misleading metric, as a hypothetical $1 million in Steam sales typically yields only $577,500 in actual net revenue for developers.
- Steam’s standard platform commission accounts for a fixed 30% deduction from gross sales.
- Refunds and chargebacks typically reduce gross revenue by 6.5% to 11%, with rates varying based on game genre, quality, and geographic markets like China.
Discoverability: A 'Hot or Not?' Genre Guide
Simon Carless argues that in the post-"Early Digital Discoverability" era, when indie games were assumed to be original simply by existing, developers who need to recoup budgets of $20,000 to $2 million should weigh genre crowding, sales performance, and public enthusiasm before committing to a concept.
- Multiplayer-centric games carry high financial risk because they require large, simultaneous player counts to prevent negative community sentiment and demand constant content updates.
- Games under five hours in length struggle to command the $20 to $30 price point often required for indie developer profitability.
- Roguelites and titles featuring procedural generation remain strong commercial performers due to their high perceived depth and replayability.