I'm Cryptic Paw, and I chose to play and rate Art Sqool on my YouTube channel!
I like to analyze games from a casual POV to give indie game devs advice on what worked and how to further improve their games. You can find the rating video at the link below.
I found the game interesting! I played it without knowing what it's about, and after playing it, I am still confused, but I think I had some fun! Drawing based on the prompts was fun!
This is a fantastically peculiar game that makes little sense to people outside of the art scene, like myself. I enjoy the heck out of the game, but I do wish the controls and camera were better. If the game ever gets revisited/remastered, I'd focus on smoothing out those aspects while keeping everything else... nonsensical.
Still worth checking out and playing, because it's funny as heck.
so when are we getting the full fledged "literally just kid pix" spiritual successor to this because whilst its obvious theres some very good and true statements going on in this game, part of me cant help but notice that its also screaming out to be a kid pix style tool,
This game is so cute! i love the colors and the vibes. I also love the prompts, it makes it fun to draw. One thing though is when i try to see my portfolio, around half of them are blank, i dont know why. It makes me sad that i lost so much of the drawings i did, if there's a way to fix this i'd love to know. Otherwise, this game is so fun and i look forward to playing it everyday. I only got it a few days ago and i already have 8 hours on it!
I know this is an old comment, but I thought I'd respond anyway. When I opened my portfolio towards the start of the game, there were eight total pictures and only three of them were not blank. The funny thing is, at that point I had only drawn three pictures! However multiple times (five, if i had to guess) I fell into the void or accidentally entered a door with nothing drawn, which prompted Professor Qwertz to say it wasn't finished and to come back when I was done. My theory is that the game catalogues the unfinished drawings as well as the finished. I would recommend going back through your portfolio if you still have it and checking to see if there are the 50 total finished drawings.
This was adorably and brutally on-point for how art is often graded. A little tough for me to navigate with arrow keys which made exploring the world a little frustrating but did enjoy that I could just walk off the side of the world rather than find the professor's office to turn something in.
I mean the idea is cool and all but from one art major to a dev why isn't there enough weird and totally out there sculptures like say, a rat with very big bullocks like in New York?
And yes this is an actual sculpture straight from Pratt Institute.
This game is super cute and fun for farting around !! however im photosensitive and the professor, the sky and the other static textured objects are incredibly hard to look at so i cant play for very long. is there any way to turn this off ?
If the creator actually trained an AI for this game, it's not great. I'll spam random colors and get a B or A. The drawings I put effort into get Fs and Ds and then I'll add a random dot and get an A. Super limited color pallette didn't feel fun, made things hard to draw. World is fun to explore but I wish movement was faster. Overall I'd only play it with a friend, drawing weird pictures and laughing about them to yourself seems not fun.
Actually this is insanely accurate to being an art student, the only way you can fail is if you don't do the work or outright plagiarize and trace someone else's art.
No, just no. There is no tutorial, no mouse-over information about what buttons do, no nothing, just wonky controls and weird imagery. I am sorry but this was not appealing in the slightest.
If you've ever used mspaint or any other drawing tool it's pretty easy to figure out. Not everything needs a tutorial. And the weird imagery is part of some game's charm. It's pretty easy to see the game's art style on this page as well.
They made a fancy PDF instead of just putting that information into the game. I'd be fine with that if this was a silly game jam project made in a weekend. This had a QA team of more than ten people.I think the game is meant to be a little obtuse on purpose, but at least include the readme in the game files!
Some of it is intuitive. Mouse to select paint tools. WASD to move. Others aren't. Unless I looked at the readme, I wouldn't know pressing x changes the camera angle. (The readme also displays arrow keys for changing the camera angle. It means page up and page down.)
i love the vibe of this game but i'm having a weird issue?? i couldnt open the normal mac file (says i need permission) but i could open the alt mac file- although the actual environment wouldn't load, just the static and the drawing window. i might mess around some more to see if i can fix it bc i would love to play the game as intended ^v^
I like this game. I enjoy exploring the floating island to find more art tools. I also like the drawing part, the prompts, and the overall vibe/aesthetic of the game. The grading seems kind of random, like one time I spent a lot of time on a drawing and got an F. But one time I just wrote "NO." with the rainbow pen and got a B. (I didn't wanna do the prompt lol) But maybe that's intentional, it's hard to say. I also don't like how if you fall off the map your art gets graded and you might not be done. Still a good game though.
what a cute concept. I love the neon pastels and weird vibe. Somehow drawing with simple tools brings out my own creativity. I don't really like the first-person controls, and simply jumping in succession to "fly" got kind of annoying.
It's so fun and creative. Just got it from the World Land Trust Bundle and played it for 2 hours.
The only bad aspect I believe is the camera movement. Since you are encouraged to explore and get new brushes, and the world is so beautiful and atmospheric, I would have expected more freedom.
Nevertheless, great music, beautiful colors, and remarkable art direction.
I've been looking for a game like this for ages!! I bought it a few hours ago and have been playing it for 2 hours now :)) i like how it makes me think about how i view my own art!
Very excited to try this, but the PC version seems a little borked? It won't load past the blue screen of opening and will freeze if you tab out of fullscreen.
Very cute and fun game, but it felt like the more I liked my drawing the worse my grade got, in the beginning there were two Drawings I was particularly happy with that both got a D, but then I passed both of their prompts by just putting a single dot or something like that and getting a B
i really like the prompts in this game, and the entertainment value from that alone is pretty high, especially as an artist currently facing art block and needing a bit of a push to create.
it does have its problems though - mainly unintuitive controls and camera, slow movement (which is a problem when you're encouraged to pick up addons but get too bored to bother) and accessibility (our ai buddy is waaay too flashy and could bother sensitive people - i myself suffered some eye strain from it and it stopped me from playing too long).
all that said, there's definitely a jewel somewhere in there. i hope you keep working on it!
i agree that it is, but there were a bunch of people who use steam and not itch, so to just remove it from steam entirely is a bit of a weird decision to make.
← Return to game
Comments
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
Hey there, Pack Members!
I'm Cryptic Paw, and I chose to play and rate Art Sqool on my YouTube channel!
I like to analyze games from a casual POV to give indie game devs advice on what worked and how to further improve their games. You can find the rating video at the link below.
Happy Gaming!
Alice of Cryptic Paw
I found the game interesting! I played it without knowing what it's about, and after playing it, I am still confused, but I think I had some fun! Drawing based on the prompts was fun!
Chris Pratt
I agree
I didn't expect streaming this to get deep but dang. O_O Thanks for a fun game that reminded me of the joy of drawing!
This is a fantastically peculiar game that makes little sense to people outside of the art scene, like myself. I enjoy the heck out of the game, but I do wish the controls and camera were better. If the game ever gets revisited/remastered, I'd focus on smoothing out those aspects while keeping everything else... nonsensical.
Still worth checking out and playing, because it's funny as heck.
so when are we getting the full fledged "literally just kid pix" spiritual successor to this because whilst its obvious theres some very good and true statements going on in this game, part of me cant help but notice that its also screaming out to be a kid pix style tool,
This game is so cute! i love the colors and the vibes. I also love the prompts, it makes it fun to draw. One thing though is when i try to see my portfolio, around half of them are blank, i dont know why. It makes me sad that i lost so much of the drawings i did, if there's a way to fix this i'd love to know. Otherwise, this game is so fun and i look forward to playing it everyday. I only got it a few days ago and i already have 8 hours on it!
I know this is an old comment, but I thought I'd respond anyway. When I opened my portfolio towards the start of the game, there were eight total pictures and only three of them were not blank. The funny thing is, at that point I had only drawn three pictures! However multiple times (five, if i had to guess) I fell into the void or accidentally entered a door with nothing drawn, which prompted Professor Qwertz to say it wasn't finished and to come back when I was done. My theory is that the game catalogues the unfinished drawings as well as the finished. I would recommend going back through your portfolio if you still have it and checking to see if there are the 50 total finished drawings.
This was adorably and brutally on-point for how art is often graded. A little tough for me to navigate with arrow keys which made exploring the world a little frustrating but did enjoy that I could just walk off the side of the world rather than find the professor's office to turn something in.
And yes this is an actual sculpture straight from Pratt Institute.
the benches in the game are actually inspired by the funky benches at Pratt!
This game is super cute and fun for farting around !! however im photosensitive and the professor, the sky and the other static textured objects are incredibly hard to look at so i cant play for very long. is there any way to turn this off ?
If the creator actually trained an AI for this game, it's not great. I'll spam random colors and get a B or A. The drawings I put effort into get Fs and Ds and then I'll add a random dot and get an A. Super limited color pallette didn't feel fun, made things hard to draw. World is fun to explore but I wish movement was faster. Overall I'd only play it with a friend, drawing weird pictures and laughing about them to yourself seems not fun.
Actually this is insanely accurate to being an art student, the only way you can fail is if you don't do the work or outright plagiarize and trace someone else's art.
Even when you find all the colors there's only 6 of them and there are like 3 different shades of purple
I like it.
Any chance we get a sequel?
If I buy the game will i get Steam key?
^ The keys are going for $80 on g2a, I'd love it if I didn't have to be scalped to play this on Steam. I hardly use itch.
Same :(
No, just no. There is no tutorial, no mouse-over information about what buttons do, no nothing, just wonky controls and weird imagery. I am sorry but this was not appealing in the slightest.
If you've ever used mspaint or any other drawing tool it's pretty easy to figure out. Not everything needs a tutorial. And the weird imagery is part of some game's charm. It's pretty easy to see the game's art style on this page as well.
There is a readme.
They made a fancy PDF instead of just putting that information into the game. I'd be fine with that if this was a silly game jam project made in a weekend. This had a QA team of more than ten people.I think the game is meant to be a little obtuse on purpose, but at least include the readme in the game files!
Some of it is intuitive. Mouse to select paint tools. WASD to move. Others aren't. Unless I looked at the readme, I wouldn't know pressing x changes the camera angle. (The readme also displays arrow keys for changing the camera angle. It means page up and page down.)
weird as shit. perfect
Cool game. The overworld controls are a bit weird, but it still works fine and is fun :)
i love the vibe of this game but i'm having a weird issue?? i couldnt open the normal mac file (says i need permission) but i could open the alt mac file- although the actual environment wouldn't load, just the static and the drawing window. i might mess around some more to see if i can fix it bc i would love to play the game as intended ^v^
the same exact thing was happeningg to me! i couldnt use the normal mac one but the alt had the static
Was this in the racial equaliy bundle? I'm sure it was but now I can't download it.
it is! you have to go to your account, library, then search the bundle, it's kinda confusing but I just downloaded this game.
Thank you kindly. I felt like that's the process I undertook earlier, but I tried again and hey presto! Strange, but resolved. Appreciate your help.
I like this game. I enjoy exploring the floating island to find more art tools. I also like the drawing part, the prompts, and the overall vibe/aesthetic of the game. The grading seems kind of random, like one time I spent a lot of time on a drawing and got an F. But one time I just wrote "NO." with the rainbow pen and got a B. (I didn't wanna do the prompt lol) But maybe that's intentional, it's hard to say. I also don't like how if you fall off the map your art gets graded and you might not be done. Still a good game though.
Here's some of my favorite drawings so far:
(I've only unlocked the yellow color lol)
this game's aesthetic is so charming and it captures the creative ability to work with what you're given, good game
I brought this game and I can't use my stylus or Wacom tablet to play it! Does anyone have any tips?
what a cute concept. I love the neon pastels and weird vibe. Somehow drawing with simple tools brings out my own creativity. I don't really like the first-person controls, and simply jumping in succession to "fly" got kind of annoying.
It's so fun and creative. Just got it from the World Land Trust Bundle and played it for 2 hours.
The only bad aspect I believe is the camera movement. Since you are encouraged to explore and get new brushes, and the world is so beautiful and atmospheric, I would have expected more freedom.
Nevertheless, great music, beautiful colors, and remarkable art direction.
how do I play? Art sqool is installed but keeps returning to buy and pay information.
I did a vid of this game and had a great time! Made me think a lot about why I draw.
I just posted a video for this game. My chat already loves the sound track
I've been looking for a game like this for ages!! I bought it a few hours ago and have been playing it for 2 hours now :)) i like how it makes me think about how i view my own art!
He gave me a C when he told me to draw the ugliest thing at Art Sqool and I gave him this, but I think it's because he's bitter and knows the truth:
“As close to the real thing as you can get” - Charlie*, art school graduate
Very excited to try this, but the PC version seems a little borked? It won't load past the blue screen of opening and will freeze if you tab out of fullscreen.
I can try to fix this if u email me with some specs about ur PC!
ive bought this game
Very cute and fun game, but it felt like the more I liked my drawing the worse my grade got, in the beginning there were two Drawings I was particularly happy with that both got a D, but then I passed both of their prompts by just putting a single dot or something like that and getting a B
i really like the prompts in this game, and the entertainment value from that alone is pretty high, especially as an artist currently facing art block and needing a bit of a push to create.
it does have its problems though - mainly unintuitive controls and camera, slow movement (which is a problem when you're encouraged to pick up addons but get too bored to bother) and accessibility (our ai buddy is waaay too flashy and could bother sensitive people - i myself suffered some eye strain from it and it stopped me from playing too long).
all that said, there's definitely a jewel somewhere in there. i hope you keep working on it!
I love this game, just finished!
I liked the game, so I made a video essay about it. Good Job.
i love it!
hello i am froshmin its my first day here at
A̷̗̗̿́͑ ̴͎̳̉͑̓̚R̶͔̔͛̀̈́͘̕ ̸̗̮̬̬̝͇̗̲̃̒̔͑̀̈́ͅT̷͚̥̩̅̃̿̅̕͝ ̸̧̛̮̼̼͉̼̻̙̫̉̍̇̍͑͘̕ ̷̛̘̲̟̣͖̯̊̓̔̆̆́͌Ṡ̶̡͈̲̲̬̭̹͋͠ ̷̝̳͓̤̼̤̝̳͇͌̀̔̐̉̏́͝Ç̶̞̅̃͜ ̶̡̦̣̹̤̝̮̎́̐̆͂͠͠ͅḨ̵̨̮̭̼̥̤͉͒̀͜ ̶̗̥̠̭̗͓͇̅͊͘͝O̷͍̰͖̚ ̷̨̨̝̹̰͙͋̈́̔̓͋̈́ͅÖ̴̥̲̬̦̬̙͎́̇͋̃ͅ ̶͇̆̃͂͆͑̂͒͌̓͐L̵̛̪͚̲̘͆̓̿́̀
how come you removed the game from steam?
itch is better :)
i agree that it is, but there were a bunch of people who use steam and not itch, so to just remove it from steam entirely is a bit of a weird decision to make.
I agree, I personally feel like more people would buy it if the game was also on Steam.
i enjoyed this game!! the controls are a little frustrating but i think the overall entertainment value balances it out :)