Passpartout: The Starving Artist sounded like one of the great concepts I’ve heard on steam. You paint art, artists come by judge your work and pay you money based on how good your work is.
Seems simple enough, but it also seems like it just wrote the hugest check that it’s not going to be able to cash. A game that can judge art? That would truly be something.
Passpartout fails that test, but in all honesty, I feel like any game that attempted that bar would fail. Computers can’t really tell us what’s good art, it can only tell us what it’s programmed to think is good art. That’s fine if we understand the limitation of the system.
The real issue I have with Passpartout isn’t that it fails this test, it’s that it lacks a lot that would be nice to have in addition to this.
The game starts with you in a garage and you make a painting, spending time on it, and then try to sell it for money. This is the entire game. People come by look at your art, and some will make an offer if you’re lucky. Now hopefully someone will buy your first painting. Some people will come by and bash it. If you make a canvas all of one color you might hear “Single Canvases. So Overdone” Makes sense what to do.
In fact, the original area starts to get interesting as it seems like the longer you “work” on a painting the more money you get. That’s fine but until you figure out what you’re doing, you won’t get real money. Finally, you’ll find a good patron and for me it was Steve. Steve liked my work. He would give me a hundred dollars after a while and I grew to like Steve. So I made Steve painting after painting and ignored everyone else, even the cheap baguette seller.
I eventually got a critic to come and move me to the next level. I beat another level in a similar way, and reached my final area that I did the five color paintings. I started to hate my life and the game because I wasn’t doing inspiring art, I was just making the same picture over and over.
I didn’t know if I was doing it right or wrong, and in fact, much of the game I wasn’t sure why I was selling painting A and not painting B, as the clues the game was giving me often was a little lacking. However I could consistently find one person who liked my paintings in each area, and after you figure out what they are keying into, the game becomes easy to just paint for who you are targeting.
Perhaps that’s what the game wants to say, that the art becomes less about self-expression and more about commercialism. Perhaps it wanted to say that art is more about the public than the person. Perhaps I’m looking too deep, but the message of the game is there. It’s interesting I suppose.
But often the in-game messages are even less clear. I often got a complaint of “Why couldn’t it be more original?” I didn’t see this on the original picture I did, but I saw it often enough after it. I also got attacked for not enough energy in my pictures. It might be interesting if the game understood my last picture, and demanded new work from me, but by the last chapter, I was just literally throwing the same five colors on a canvas as fast as I can and selling them for thousands. So originality didn’t seem to matter.
These complaints though range from obvious (mostly color complaints) to obscure, and I would have gladly given some of my in-game currency to get a minor lesson to understand what I was doing wrong.
The issues I have with the game though is I’m not an artist, I’m creative by writing and programming, and maybe I’d enjoy it if I was writing reviews or short stories and getting judged on that. But art for me isn’t my field. I’m a programmer and Programmer Art is… well, let’s just say I’m glad I can’t upload images with this review (Check my screenshots if you really want to see my earlier works) So I don’t get the joy out of creating that some people do.
But more important than that, the game doesn’t really let you revel in the art you create. You don’t have a history. You don’t get to see how each of your paintings has done. If you haven’t sold the painting you can look at it or delete it, (screenshot and Twitter is available). A few of your paintings will be displayed at the end of the game, however, there’s no portfolio for the old work. Those five color drawings at the end of the game didn’t drain me as much as it should. I couldn’t go back and look at the novel and unique drawings and see my loss of style. Instead, I knew it because I experienced it, but overall the game didn’t show me it.
But that missing portfolio is a problem to me, I really would have loved to look back at some old photos I didn’t save, the fact I have to screenshot every picture feels wrong, I wish the game would have that feature because there are a few pictures I wouldn’t have minded seeing one more time.
It’s the gamification that doesn’t work here. The game wants to say something, and does it through a game, but if this was simply “you’re an artist try to sell stuff” it might have meant more. Instead it’s all about trying to get to the next level or go in a different art style. If this was more focused on an experience rather than a game, the message would be stronger. “I’m trying to do art and am subverted by the masses” is a stronger message than “I have to paint what other people want so I can win the game”.
So if I don’t like art, why did I play the game? Well, I hoped I’d be entertained by it. I was hoping the game might be interesting in something besides trying to judge art through a rudimentary system.
There are a few other considerations here. I wasn’t a huge fan of the art tools in the game. You eventually get three tools. I assume you always get the same three, but I got a normal paintbrush that had variable sizes, a spray can, and a pen which just felt like a slower paintbrush. It made some better angles, but overall the paintbrush was the only tool I really used. I wouldn’t have minded the tools you’d see in pretty much any paint program, such as the fill bucket, a cut and paste tool could work, an eraser (or at least ACTUAL white paint, instead of off-white) There are other minor things. How about letting me mix paints? There are 24 paints in the game and that’s it. No blending, no mixing, just 24 paints.
In addition, I wasn’t using a Wacom tablet, maybe that would give you better control, and make the game more interesting. If that’s the case, I could see that improving the experience, Too bad the game doesn’t save out your art (other than screenshots). Ultimately I think if I was really interested in the art, I’d rather have just played in Paint or Photoshop and save out the art and get a real person’s opinion of it. I might have spent more time on each picture as well, and since I could save and reopen them I can work on it some more.
So I was playing a game in a style that might not be for me (I’m definitely not an artist) without the perfect tool (Though I’d argue the mouse should be good enough the game doesn’t demand a drawing tablet) and to be honest, It makes it impossible for me to recommend it. However, if you’re a person who just oozes creativity, and you could just do drawing and sketches for hours on end, Passpartout might be good for you. I still think I’d recommend working on your own so you get a proper portfolio or the ability to save it, but if you just want to have some fun with art, Passpartout does do that.
I give this a non-recommendation on steam but I give this a 2.5 or a push rating. Maybe I’m being generous, but I just don’t really dislike this game, it’s just a game that’s not for me, similar to a horror game or really most multiplayer games.
If you enjoyed this review, or are just curious what type of games I do prefer, you can find my Steam curator page at this link.
http://store.steampowered.com/curator/31803828-Kinglink-Revi... 2.5