Image: Eastshade Studios

Eastshade Studios–the developers behind 2019's cozy painting adventure Eastshade–are clearly interested in what the people in a magical fantasy setting do in between the big dramatic plot beats. What does a wizard do when crops need growing, or the local bridge needs fixing up? What do they do on a lazy Saturday night? Songs of Glimmerwick, their second game (and out today), is trying to answer some of those questions, all the while just looking like a beautifully relaxing watercolor world to explore.

While obviously inspired by That Other Magic School Franchise That We Don't Talk About, Songs of Glimmerwick looks to have quite a few ideas of its own, set in and around a witch academy deep in the magical woodlands and its surrounding village. Magic in this world is magical, and spellcasting requires you to play a small rhythm minigame to get the desired result. This can be everything from a big set-piece event to enchanting the contents of your tool shed to handle the boring parts of farming for you.

As the lead developer in the gameplay walkthrough trailer below is keen to stress, this isn't a farming game. You'll need to grow stuff, but part of your magical education is figuring out how to do that as efficiently and passively as possible, so you'll have more time to go exploring and complete the many story quest-lines that are beckoning you hither and yon. Magic here seems pretty fun, too. No fireballs or magic missiles here, just stuff like 'transform into mole' or 'talk to toads', with new stuff unlocked through a mixture of skill-tree progression and attending your classes.

It's a bit of a well-worn groove at this point, but after Eastshade, the studio has my interest, and I'm sure they can pull off the concept where others have struggled. If they can make an entire game about wandering the world for pretty scenes to paint, then they can surely extract some interesting stories to tell from the idea of going to a magical school.

Songs of Glimmerwick is out now for £22.49/$25, with a 10% launch discount running until October 14th. And if you'd like to get a feel for its exploration, questing, and musical spellcasting, there's a demo too.