I’m not a computer-gamer, really. That said, I may have been playing a number of computer games recently ….
I first heard of “Astrologaster” from a review, I think in the Los Angeles Times of all places, and bought it when it came out in 2019. How could I resist a computer game set in the late-Elizabethan period?! I bought it, logged in a number of hours, and enjoyed the game, but my computer went on the fritz and by the time I got a new one, too many other things were going on for me to think of picking it back up again.
When I first heard of “Tales of the Shire,” of course, I perked up immediately, and waited eagerly for its release, and, clearly from other posts on this blog, I was not disappointed! It has some flaws and quirks, of course, but on the whole it is a gentle, amusing, low-stress “cozy” game.
Laura, seeing my extended enjoyment of “Tales of the Shire,” suggested “Tiny Bookshop” as a similarly low-stress follow-up, once I had gone through my various hobbity iterations. Owning a bookshop-trailer, stocking and decorating it, recommending books to customers, what’s not to love for a library-cataloger?!
I really liked the graphic design of this game — and appreciated its difference from “Tales of the Shire” — it’s got a hip, modern look to it, a coffee-shop vibe one might even say, with a laid-back guitar soundtrack. Perhaps obviously, the best part for me was recommending books to customers, and I got pretty good (if I may say so myself!) at interpreting and fulfilling the requests, although of course, just like in real life, you get someone who says, “Wuthering Heights?! Boo, that’s not tragic/historical/romantic enough!” and you just have to say — to yourself — “enh, get out of my bookshop”!
(I made some other screencaps to show my appreciation for the graphic design, but for the life of me this is the only one I can find! It is a bonfire at Far Beach on the last day of summer.)
And then, well, I was on the lookout for other cozy games, and Steam recommended “A Highland Song” and “Eastshade,” both of which I bought because they were on deep sale.
But first, back to “Astrologaster” —
I really enjoyed this! It is a charmingly original game in which the action “moves” in the manner of a pop-up book, and an unseen vocal ensemble sings a short original madrigal at the beginning of each scene. The songs can be, in sooth, somewhat o’erlabour’d in rhyme and meter, but are full of wit, and full marks must be given even for the idea of it! I found myself laughing aloud at some of the jokes — Latin puns, historical foreshadowing, Essex slang, or the sheer number of times Forman’s lady querents think to themselves, “What a fine-looking young man Doctor Forman has for a manservant” (whom, alas, we never see). I had a bit of a time deciding whether Forman’s astrological readings should be essentially what he thinks that people want to hear (“Good news, my lord, your investments will prove sound”) or more historically prescient (those suspicious barrels being ferried across the Thames late on a November night in 1605 …), so I ended up with a mixture of both, but it came out alright in the end! Huzzah!
After that — and, it must be said, this sequence has taken many months! — I started “Eastshade,” which I confess that I’m a bit less enthusiastic about than I had hoped now that I’m a couple of hours in, but a good part of that might be that I am quite unexpectedly getting motion-sickness from it. Apparently this is not unusual with computer games, usually those where the point of view is through your own eyes, as though you yourself are moving through the action instead of watching it (as in “A Highland Song”), even from only a short distance away (as in “Tales of the Shire”), and there are a number of sites with tips about how to lessen the effects, though I have found that for me with “Eastshade” it isn’t really helping.
(I can feel it in my eyes even now, just watching the trailer!) But I have managed to do four “paintings” so far —
These are the ones I did for myself in the first few “days” in-game — I don’t know why the one I sold to the fisherman doesn’t show up in my real-life downloads — first is the inn in the middle of Eastshade, the other two just some moody-ish ones of views that I liked!
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