Six years ago, Danny Weinbaum decided to leave his job as a 3D environment artist at Sucker Punch. just as the studio was on the cusp of launching inFamous: Second Son for PlayStation 4 as well as continued development on inFamous: First Light and begin pre-production on a new IP we now know as Ghost of Tsushima.

He had an itch to make his own game, known as Eastshade, an adventure game where you explore the island of Eastshade as an artist. But he had given himself a two-year deadline to make the game and if it still wasn’t out by then, he’d go back to a job.

“It’s funny when two years came around. I was like it wasn’t even a consideration,” said Weinbaum. “Really stop. It was like, ‘I’m just gonna spend every penny I have to finish this game. It was a no brainer. It wasn’t even a difficult decision.”

This is the story of how it came to be, making comfortable and wholesome games and what it has planned next (spoilers: not Eastshade 2).