I recall the original Passpartout making waves way back whenever that was. A game with a working art app inside that rates and rewards your creations. I never tried it myself but plenty of Youtubers impressed us (read, made us laugh at) their talents. As someone that dips into art from time to time I couldn’t resist this sequel. An excuse to plug in the old tablet.
It’s a gorgeous game with a quaint little town to unlock and explore. I’m a big fan of the mumbly voice acting, in particular some of the punks. Smell (that’s their name) has a really expressive delivery, love it. Having the dialogue appear on dangling signs and making buildings open up like a diorama is a cute and slickly executed idea.
Gameplay is a mixture of adventure and art. Meeting people generally results in an artist commission of some sort, completion in turn advances their stories. I don’t sense any strict requirement to be ‘good’ at art to progress. Merely a genuine attempt to fulfil the brief. Some quest art pieces appear around town, an incentive to make a little extra effort. At anytime you can knock out a masterpiece and sell it on the street. Even my hack attempts made something. The story is leading me towards the art museum. Perhaps one day I’ll have my own exhibition.
One feature that took me by surprise and gave me a wow moment is the art book, found after buying a studio. It has a record of all your paintings in the form of a video showing everything that was done to that particular canvas. The video plays sped up in about ten or twenty seconds.
There’s a small but versatile number of art tools. A range of brushes, spray cans, splatters and effects. Plus different shapes, sizes and textures of canvas to work on. It even has 3D objects that can be painted. New palettes can be discovered too. While it won’t challenge a standalone art app, anyone with the know how can make something beautiful. That much has been proven many times before with MS Paint. A quick scroll through the Steam community screenshots page will either inspire you or put you to shame. Maybe a bit of both for me.
On the point of the available toolset. You start with a single brush. Later I made a sale of about €600 and was momentarily unhappy because now I could afford a lot more tools. I’d been enjoying working within the limitations of one or two brushes and the effect it has on pushing creativity. I forced myself to only buy one more tool and continued to muck about with everything gradually. It’s one of those rare occasions that I wanted a game to progress more slowly.
The other notable difference from most art software is that there are no layers, just one canvas, which affects how to approach a painting. The number of times I scrubbed the whole picture out and started again, I lose count. Other times I decided to vibe with an error as it would be in real life, without the option of undo. I think this was a wise choice and should be taken as an opportunity to relax about perfectionism.
It’s been a long while since I made any serious attempts at some artwork and Passpartout is still not really the time for that. Passpartout is more like a wonderful gateway to that world. It’s a playground to be enjoyed and not taken too seriously. By simply trying to make something that looks pretty or cute or cool, whether realistic or abstract or wonky, and getting a slightly higher sale price than the last, progress will be made, both in the game and in ability. I’ll be playing Passpartout 2 a lot more and then maybe move on to Krita.
Available from Steam.
mishmash 