- Resolved an issue where joystick input would be lost when transitioning from one scene to the other, causing the player to stop moving when they enter new scenes.
- Turned off the Chromatic Filter effect in the title menu.

Hi everyone!

Wow, we can’t get over all of the incredible support and enthusiasm following Eastward’s release date announcement. If you left a lovely comment, tweeted the dev team, ‘Liked’ or shared the trailer, or even just watched it at all, thank you so much. We can’t wait to put the game in your hands on September 16th. Not long to go now!

We’ve also seen a lot of questions floating about - so let’s get those answered in a tidy FAQ!



When does the Pre-Order promotion end?
Eastward is available for pre-order now on Steam, GOG, Humble & Nintendo Switch, with a 10% off discount. The 10% off discount is for pre-sale only and will end at launch where it will return to full price.

What platforms is it available on?
Windows, Mac and Nintendo Switch!

How much will it be?
Eastward will be available for £21.99 / $24.99 / ¥ 2,680 or your regional equivalent, but you can currently grab 10% off if you pre-order before launch.

How long is the game?
That varies depending on how you play it, but we estimate around 30 hours. However, we expect many players may spend even more time chatting to Eastward's quirky NPCs, trying out various puzzle solutions, playing mini-games like Sam’s favourite in-game RPG, Earth Born, and hunting down all of Eastward’s hidden treasures!

How many players does it support?
Eastward is a single player game, with dual character control during combat, dungeon and puzzle-solving sections. There is no online mode.

Will it be playable in “X” language?
At launch Eastward will be playable in English, French, Japanese, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese. We may expand localisation to further languages after launch if there’s enough demand, so let us know! As Eastward is a story-based game, there’s a lot of text to be translated (approx 143,000 words), so additional language updates may take some time to ensure high quality!

Will there be a soundtrack available?
If you bopped your head along to composer Joel Corelitz’s awesome beats during Eastward’s trailers, you’ll be happy to know we’ll be making the Eastward OST available for purchase and download. You can pre-order it right now on {LINK REMOVED}Bandcamp which nabs you the track "Iron Carbine" before release! If you missed it, you can read last week's Music Blog and interview with Joel Corelitz here!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1586600/Eastward_Soundtrack/

While we're on the topic of music, here's another taster from the soundtrack... :

Will it have a physical version?
We recently announced a Japanese Nintendo Switch physical version with our friends at Kakehashi. It will be available as both “Standard” and “Collector’s” editions at various retailers across Japan. The Standard edition includes 2 sticker sheets alongside the physical cartridge itself, and the Collector’s Edition also adds a luxury 2-disc CD soundtrack, and an adorable mini-figure of Sam! The artwork shown on the site is still a placeholder, so we’ll be sharing more information for our Japanese players too.

But what about the rest of the world? Rest assured, we’re working on it, and will have more news to share very soon!

I’m a YouTuber / Twitch Streamer / Content Creator, how do I get hold of a review key?
If any of the above applies to you and you’re keen to get early access to play Eastward when keys are available, you can request access by filling in our {LINK REMOVED}Content Creator form. Please note, we’ve already seen an overwhelming amount of requests, so keys are not guaranteed.

Lastly, if you're as excited about Eastward as we are, come join the community discussion over on our Discord or Reddit, and follow us on Twitter for more Chucklefish gaming news.

Not long to go now. See you at the finishing line.
-Chucklefish

Happy blog day everyone! We’re drawing closer and closer to launch (September 16th, save the date!) so we thought now was a great time to spotlight the main maestro himself, Joel Corelitz!

If you’ve been living in a post-apocalyptic underground mining town then you may not know that the BAFTA-nominated brains behind the incredible soundtrack to Eastward also worked on titles such as Halo Infinite, Death Stranding, Unfinished Swan and Gorogoa. What a roster! Eastward's soundtrack will also be available on Steam.

We took the time to sit down and splash about in that creative cranium of his and share a little music video of one of the game's tracks… enjoy!

CF: Hello Joel! Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to chat with us about Eastward. Easy one to start: in 6 words or less how would you describe your work?

JC: Collaborator who translates ideas into music.

CF: Fans often say that the music to Eastward feels really fresh yet nostalgic, much like the art style of the game. Where did you pull your influences from when starting out?

JC: I grew up in the 80s and 90s. Games of that era, in addition to being one of my favorite pastimes, were my earliest musical influences, so nostalgia was the easy part! I wanted the soundtrack to include the kinds of chunky lo-fi sounds we associate with 16bit games, and even though they pre-date Eastward’s art style, I wanted to include 8bit sounds too. Those sounds, produced by the chips from those old consoles, inspired me to be a composer. To me, they’re the heart and soul of video game music, and they deserve to be in any soundtrack that has anything to do with games of the past.

I wanted to spread those influences around though, because Eastward isn’t just about nostalgia - so they’re usually combined with more modern, higher-resolution sounds and production techniques to create a unique fusion that builds on that sense of nostalgia. The incredible world of Eastward, its story, locations, and characters were about as much inspiration as I needed! And classic game soundtracks were a huge influence of course. But because Eastward’s art style is a mashup of modern and classic, it gave me the freedom to draw from anywhere. Often, Pixpil had an idea of a style that would work for a certain area – for example, there’s this kind of loungy, Japanese Pop from the 70s & 80s that they sent me as inspiration for New Dam City’s theme, Saka No Machi. It worked so well that we used it for Go! Daniel! too.



CF: When considering those influences, how did you go about composing a soundtrack that stands out? (which it very much does in my opinion!)

JC: Thank you! It’s all about variety – just like the world of Eastward, which feels so rich and full of life. For the soundtrack to support such a vivid experience, it needed to feel like more the sum of its individual influences. The goal was to blend as many styles, techniques, and sounds as possible into a collection of pieces that feel like they belong together on the same soundtrack. It turned out like a tribute – my love letter to video game music.

CF: Which is your favourite track and which was the most interesting to create?

JC: It’s hard to pick out of 70+ tracks! But Johnny’s is definitely one of my favorites - I had so much fun creating Eastward’s expression of such an important genre staple. No classic soundtrack would be complete without shop music!

CF: Yes! We’re huge fans of shop music here. Speaking of retail… coming off the back of Death Stranding, was it at all difficult to switch gears?

JC: Switching gears is one of my favorite things about what I do.

I’ve been involved with Eastward since 2016. During that time, aside from Death Stranding, I scored Gorogoa, Halo Infinite, and a handful of other games I can’t talk about yet!

I also designed sounds for electric vehicles, a surgical robot, and composed music for installations, a feature film, and commercials.

Jumping in and out of different worlds keeps my perspective on each one fresh so I can stay focused on creating the perfect fit for each one.

CF: It’s really cool that you get to work across different industries and bring those learnings along with you. Where does video game music fit into the realm of contemporary composition in your view?

JC: I’d put it up against anything. There’s so much freedom in game music. It can be adaptive, or just loop. It can be any style or genre. The only restriction is that it has to fit the experience – from a standpoint of mood, but also in terms of the say it’s presented, or implemented in the game - so in that sense, it’s always functional, sets it apart from other genres or mediums. And that adds an interesting dimension to the process - always a unique and fun puzzle to solve.

But I think maybe what I love most about video game music is that the memory of playing the game is fused hearing the music, so that you can listen to the soundtrack after you play and instantly remember the mood and emotion of the place or point in the story when you first heard it. It’s like the perfect souvenir.

CF: A souvenir, what a wonderful way to describe it! Speaking of memories when creating, how has the music developed from the start of the project compared to the final tracks we’re hearing in Eastward today?

JC: Pixpil had a very strategic compositional plan for the whole process. Each piece on the soundtrack is either about a place, a character, or a mood. We decided to start with a character - with Alva’s theme, The Curious Princess, and once it was in a good place, we moved on to the next piece. So the development of the soundtrack was like creating building blocks, with the sensibilities of each piece informing the next. Because we constructed it that way, we didn’t end up with too much material on the cutting room floor. Terminal, which was I think the actual first piece I wrote, ended up in a very special place in the game.

I almost never compose the theme first – I sort of “ease in” to the world, so that by the time I do the theme, the musical sensibilities of the world are really well established. On almost every project, the theme is sort of “discovered” accidentally. In Eastward’s case, the track Eastward, which contains the main theme, was written for a trailer and the melody just came out and felt right.

There was a point halfway through development (although we didn’t know it was only halfway at the time) where we’d sort of fulfilled the requirements of all our initial sprints, and I took a step back and thought: “this is a Pixel art game, we need more chiptunes!” So, I wrote some, along with additional music for various moods and locations. I think those pieces ended up being some of the most successful in the game. Strange Quest came out of that round. By the end, that “additional music” was about half the soundtrack!

CF: Honestly I don’t think you can ever have too much chiptune, though it does pluck at the nostalgic heartstrings for us. Looking forward, what would you like to see more of in the future of games composition, whether that be technology or technique?

JC: I usually try to make sure creativity and ideas remain the driving force, but I’m always looking for opportunities to experiment with new technology. There are some incredible innovations happening, particularly in adaptive audio. I’m particularly excited to hear how composers and developers use real-time, in-engine synthesis.

CF: Okay, now for the million dollar question. Which post-apocalyptic world would you rather live in, Death Stranding’s or Eastward’s?

JC: Definitely Eastward’s. A trailer in Potcrock Isle wouldn’t be a bad setup to hunker down after the apocalypse. Sure, there might be some giant electrified slugs to deal with but you just smack ‘em with a frying pan - way easier to handle than BTs!

CF: Finally, where can fans find your body of work?

JC: My site & portfolio is at http://joelcorelitz.com/about. My studio and audio-branding company is Waveplant, and I’m on Twitter & Instagram.

If you’re enjoying the soundtrack to Eastward so far, please reach out to Joel and send him your thoughts! Until then, we’ll be dropping a fresh new track from the OST each week for you to enjoy. You can also pre-order the OST right now on Joel’s Bandcamp and check back in to grab it on Steam. Bon appetit!

-Chucklefish

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1586600/Eastward_Soundtrack

Hey everyone!

Today we’re thrilled to announce the news we know you’ve all been waiting for… Eastward is coming to PC, Mac and Nintendo Switch on Thursday September 16th - and you can pre-purchase it on Steam for 10% off RIGHT NOW! Please note the 10% off is only available for pre-purchases, not after launch, so grab it while it’s hot~

The release date was just announced via Nintendo’s Indie World showcase - you can check out the heart-thumping new trailer right here (ooft still gives us chills):




We hope the video gives you a little taster of Eastward’s darker mysteries that are yet to reveal themselves...

Eastward will be available for $24.99 / £21.99 / 24.99eu (as well as other regional variations) and playable in English, French, Japanese, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese. Eastward is a big game for an indie (approx 30 hours) with a rather sizable amount of words, so we’ll be considering future languages for localisation based on post-release demand.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/977880/Eastward/

We also wanted to add that it was wonderful to see all of your lovely comments recently when we released the IGN Gameplay Preview. Thanks to your feedback, the development team at Pixpil have been looking into extra menu options for text sound effects (including a ‘simplified’ version for folks who don’t like the retro text SFX), text volume controls and a clearer prompt for quick switching between weapons.

That’s it for now. As we approach Eastward’s launch, are there any other nuggets of information you would like to know? Ask us in the comments! In our next blog we’ll be chatting to Eastward’s composer Joel Corelitz and giving you all a little preview of some fresh Eastward tunes.

If you’re a streamer and keen to get early access to keys when they’re available you can request access by filling in our {LINK REMOVED}Content Creator form. You’ll also find answers and basic info about the game in our handy FAQ.

Lastly, if you're as excited about Eastward as we are, come join the community discussion over on our Discord or Reddit, and follow us on Twitter for more Chucklefish gaming news.

Until next time!
-Chucklefish

Hi everyone!

We've got something exciting to share with you today... Eastward has been featured on the IGN with an exclusive 25 minute sneak preview of a previously unseen gameplay segment - Quake Valley!

You’ll encounter this area roughly 10 hours into the game, taking place shortly after John and Sam arrive into the bustling metropolis of New Dam City. After making friends with a lively engineer named Alva, the duo are quickly taken under her wing and sent off on new adventures as her assistants (we won't spoil the details). This sends our courageous pair into the dangerous territory of Quake Valley, a trash heap on the outskirts of the city, infested with dangerous monsters but teeming with hidden treasures!



Quake Valley is an excellent showcase of the main combat mechanics you'll experience playing as John and Sam, switching control of them to use their unique abilities and separating them to solve environmental puzzles. You can learn more about Eastward's combat in our previous Dev Blog! Although the gameplay video finishes after an exhilarating cutscene, don’t worry there’s still more of Quake Valley to discover for yourself including taking on the dungeon’s lethal mini boss…



Thanks for checking out this first look at Eastward’s Quake Valley, if you enjoyed it make sure to wishlist Eastward if you haven't already to be notified as soon as the game is out!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/977880/Eastward/

If you’re a streamer and keen to get early access to keys when they’re available you can request access by filling in our {LINK REMOVED}Content Creator form. You’ll also find answers and basic info about the game in our handy FAQ.

Lastly, if you're as excited about Eastward as we are, come join the community discussion over on our Discord or Reddit, and follow us on Twitter for more Chucklefish gaming news.

Keep your eyes peeled - we'll be back with more Eastward news soon!
-Chucklefish

Hi everyone!

Hope you enjoyed our last Eastward blog about the scrumptious snacks you’ll be cooking up. Today we’re giving you a first look at how combat works in Eastward and how it changed over the course of development.

Beating up baddies in Eastward is all about teamwork 💪
Similar to dungeon areas where you’ll be switching between John and Sam, separating and uniting them to solve puzzles, in combat you’ll need to use their strengths to overpower and overcome enemies. Initially you’ll be using a mix of Sam’s telekinetic powers to stun, while John finishes the job by swinging his trusty frying pan or blasting at foes with his ‘bang bang’ gun. As you progress you’ll inherit unique skills and cool weapons.



Things weren’t always this way. In the early days of the development process, John was the only character with the ability to fight, but after trialling the gameplay in the prototype phase, Eastward’s Game Designer, Robert Zhu, explained that the flow just wasn’t working out like they’d hoped;

“Even though John had multiple choices of weapons to utilise, it didn’t feel like the rhythm of the combat changed much throughout the course of the game. Continuously smashing the ‘attack’ button was the only interactive method of fighting - so the rhythm of combat felt kind of drab.”

“We then started thinking about what extra combat options we could provide for players, for example, some sort of support magic energy field. But how could we use that in battle? The answer we figured out was to get Sam involved in the battle!”



Sam has multiple special skills which you’ll be able to unlock throughout the adventure, alongside Sam discovering more about herself - but to keep things spoiler-free we’ll just focus on Energy Bubble today. This skill allows Sam to constrict enemies, by shooting out a bubble to freeze enemies for a short while, for example it’s helpful against the ‘Caba Fly’ monsters you’ll find in earlier dungeons, which attack without a clear hit recovery time. By freezing them John will get the chance to attack normally, charge attack, detonate a bomb or escape the fight altogether.



When Sam uses one of her powerful skills it drains her Blue energy meter, whereas her standard energy attacks use up the Yellow energy meter. The yellow bar slowly refills over time, so you’ll need to keep an eye on it during combat. If you are caught in a pinch, Sam can use the natural environment to her advantage, borrowing energy from special glowing plants to speed up the yellow meter refill. Sam’s blue bar doesn’t automatically refill, so you’ll need to collect blue orbs to top it up by defeating enemies or smashing pots, barrels, glasses and other containers dotted around the world.



John’s arsenal of weapon oddities are fully upgradable as you progress through the world, and each brings a whole new flavour to combat. For example a charged frying pan attack allows you to catapult bombs across the environment to burn up vines, trigger switches or cause mass destruction against a group of enemies. You can also use the wonderfully named Sceptre of Flame to a similar end, spewing a wave of fire and generally looking pretty badass while you do it. There’s another strange and (rather lethal) weapon which we won’t reveal just yet, but we hope you’ll enjoy getting to grips with when you discover the game for yourself!



John also carries various bomb types that can be used both in combat and to solve environmental puzzles. His backpack is upgradable, as is his bomb and ammo box to add additional capacity - handy during tricky boss fights! You can purchase these upgrades at local shops, such as Johnny’s Emporium, owned by the eponymous robot, at the southern end of Damhill city.



We’ve only just scratched the surface here, there’s so much more to talk about and secrets to discover... We’ll leave you with one last thing - you might have also spotted a cute little red and blue robot floating in a few screenshots. It’s called ‘Sonic Punk’, and was invented by Alva, a rocket scientist from Damhill City and has a few secret mechanics up its metallic sleeves which might prove useful in battle…

As ever stay tuned for some more Eastward updates as we hurtle ever closer to the launch period later this year. (We promise we’ll share a more specific indication as soon as we’re ready to!)

If you haven’t already, make sure you add Eastward to your Steam wishlist to get notified about the latest developments!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/977880/Eastward

If you’re a streamer and keen to get early access to keys when they’re available you can request access by filling in our {LINK REMOVED}Content Creator form. You’ll also find answers and basic info about the game in our handy FAQ.

Lastly, if you're as excited about Eastward as we are, come join the community discussion over on our Discord or Reddit, and follow us on Twitter for more Chucklefish gaming news.

Until next time!

-Chucklefish

Hi everyone!

Happy Lunar New Year to all those celebrating the Year of the Ox! Now the development team is back from the holidays, let’s kickstart the first dev blog of 2021 by sharing some tasty info about one of my personal favourite gameplay mechanics in Eastward - cooking!

You’ve probably already spotted that our silent protagonist John often wields his trusty frying pan to fend off all sorts of monsters, but did you know he can also whip up a mean bowl of Fruit Salad? (Yummy, yummy.)



The world of Eastward is full of fantastical ingredients, conveniently-placed gas hobs, big eaters (we’re looking at you, Sam). Even Dam Hill’s very own casino godfather, Lee, considers himself a keen gourmet! As your culinary adventure begins you’ll be able to spend your hard-earned Salt purchasing ingredients from various merchants, as well as foraging in hidden stash boxes littered across the lands - who doesn’t love milk found in a random crate in an abandoned shopping mall?! Every ingredient you find can be cooked up into equally strange and delicious recipes.



You don’t actually need a specific recipe in order to start experimenting - any ingredient in your inventory can end up in John’s frying pan! For example, combining any 3 vegetables will whip up a perfectly presentable Vegetable Stir Fry, but you could try something a little more experimental like Oyakodon (a chicken and egg rice bowl) or a Potcrock Isle speciality, Drupe Fried Rice. Once you’ve successfully made a tasty snack, you’ll then have a recipe recorded to use forever more.



To top it all off, once all your ingredients are in the pan a culinary slot machine wheel will appear, which will determine how effective your dish will be and what stat buffs it may bestow. Cooked dishes can be handy in combat, not only for replenishing health, but also revitalizing Sam’s energy levels, increasing attack speed and more. Make sure to pack yourself an emergency snack or two for those boss battles!



You might also find that certain townsfolk that you encounter may ask you to track down ingredients and serve up a particular dish in order to finish a quest, so it’s always handy to have a stash of veggies, meat, fish and seasoning in your backpack.



That’s all for now! We hope you’ll enjoy serving up some serious grub when Eastward’s lunch, er I mean launch, comes around later this year, until then practice your culinary skills and look after those pots and pans. If you haven’t already, make sure you add Eastward to your Steam wishlist to get notified about the latest developments!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/977880/Eastward/

If you’re a streamer and keen to get early access to keys when they’re available you can request access by filling in our {LINK REMOVED}Content Creator form. You’ll also find answers and basic info about the game in our handy FAQ.

Lastly, if you're as excited about Eastward as we are, come join the community discussion over on our Discord or Reddit, and follow us on Twitter for more Chucklefish gaming news.

Bye for now!
-Chucklefish

Hi everyone!

I hope you’re all staying nice and cosy as we edge into December, or chilling out in the sunshine for those of you in the Southern hemisphere.

It’s been a hot minute since we last updated you about the progress of Eastward and it’s no secret that this year has been a tough one for everyone, including the developers at Pixpil. The team in Shanghai lost access to their server for quite some time at the beginning of the year, with the power cut to their office and no way to enter the building at all due to quarantine restrictions, which of course had some knock-on implications to the development schedule. However fantastic progress has been made despite these challenges throughout the year, and Pixpil are now working on Eastward’s final chapter segment, tightening some loose ends and brushing up a few boss battles.

It’s all super exciting stuff, and we can’t wait to show you more in the coming months. Even though we won’t have the game ready before the end of 2020, we’ll be ramping up our communication about the game as it gets closer to release - there’s certainly plenty to talk about!

To kick off this new blog series we wanted to show you all a few new screenshots and introduce you to a little more of the weird and wonderful world of Eastward. If you’re dead set on avoiding spoilers then look away now!

Okay, still here? Let’s go!

(Please note: Some place & item names may change)



In John’s mining hometown of Potcrock Isle, inhabitants have spent their whole lives beneath the earth’s surface with no knowledge of the outside world! In front of Hello Grocery store you can see a gacha machine and Earth Born arcade unit, where you’ll be able to play Sam’s favourite monster-collecting JRPG. We’ll show you more of that soon!



Welcome to Greenberg, a laid-back idyllic village tucked away in the middle of a forest. You’ll pass through these golden fields during the annual harvest time, and get the chance to meet some friendly locals! I’m personally a huge fan of how each of the village homes are constructed from rusting landlocked ships, some complete with their own majestic duck.



Not long after arriving in Damhill, the city’s food market will open, giving you access to a variety of exotic cooking ingredients (sandrupes and fire mints anyone?) as well as a notorious sewage system. Cooking is an integral part of Eastward’s gameplay, with lots of delicacies to discover and strange recipes to try out with various health, power and other secret bonuses - we’ll post a blog in the future to explain more about how it works!



Throughout their adventure, Sam and John will be boarding a cross-country railway as they travel eastward (hehe) through the decaying landscape. But some stations and tracks need a little fixing up before they’re fully operational...



When you need to take a break from the hustle and bustle of city life in Damhill you can always take the train to this beautiful old bath house for a quick and relaxing dip. It’s run by a cute older couple who seem like they may also moonlight as passionate tomato farmers.

Eastward was also recently shown in a Japanese INDIE Live Expo II video showcase alongside many other fantastic indies - check out the video that was shown below!



Alright, that’s all for now. We’ve got much more lined up for you all as we approach the final stretch before launch. If you haven’t already, make sure you add Eastward to your Steam wishlist to get notified about the latest developments!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/977880/Eastward/

If you’re a streamer and keen to get early access to keys when they’re available you can request access by filling in our {LINK REMOVED}Content Creator form. You’ll also find answers and basic info about the game in our handy FAQ.

Lastly, if you're as excited about Eastward as we are, come join the community discussion over on our Discord or Reddit, and follow us on Twitter for more Chucklefish gaming news.

Happy Holidays everyone!
-Chucklefish

Hey folks!

We’re excited to announce that Eastward has been nominated for the Audience Award at the 22nd Annual Independent Games Festival!

Both the team here at Chucklefish and the developers Pixpil are really honoured to be included next to so many amazing games from 2019 and 2020 - if you're excited to play Eastward, enjoyed playing the demo or are just in a generally lovely mood, you can click here to vote - it only takes a few seconds!



Voting closes February 10th, 11:59PM PST. We’ll have even more Eastward news and dev blogs as we get closer to launch, so keep an eye on this space...

Until then, have fun and thanks for the support!

Hey everybody,

Superconsole here from Chucklefish! We’ve got some exciting news for you today…

A few weeks ago Valve approached us to ask if we’d like Eastward to participate in their special game demo event, to which we of course said “hell yes!”.

From NOW until the next *approx* 48hrs only, we’ll be providing Steam players exclusive access to a snippet of two gameplay sections from Eastward, giving you an exciting glimpse into the gameplay and characters...

• Explore a beautiful (yet slightly dilapidated) town
  
• Chat to quirky townsfolk
  
• Peep inside tiny shops
  
• Adventure through a strange forest
  
• Battle unusual monsters, like the bomb duck!
  
• Switch between frying pan melee attacks with John and Sam’s telekinetic powers
  
• Solve environment and dungeon puzzles
  
• Defeat a mini boss!

Please keep in mind when playing this demo, that it’s currently a work in progress, so you may encounter small bugs, features not yet fully implemented (such as cooking and hints) or incomplete localization.

If you do encounter an issue or would like to share your thoughts and feedback on the demo, please feel free to comment on this thread to let us know!

Join our Discord to hear more updates and news on Eastward as we have it!

Wishlist Eastward now on Steam!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/977880/Eastward/