Peculiar Pixels [#5]

Make Artsy-Fartsy a Lifestyle Choice This Week!

Igor Kolar
January 26, 2025

Inspired by Epic’s free game entry for the week, we’re focusing on the (visual) arts aspect of video games in this issue.

Rebelle(7) against Photoshop’s digital feel

Digital painting software focused on (easily) recreating physical behaviour of paint!

Open source, feature heavy, PS alternative

From many open source full suite graphics programs, Krita should be where you start!

Rebelle is not a full-suite program like Photoshop, nor does it try to be. Its sole focus is giving you digital tools that closely resemble physical ones. Free to try, it hides its costs behind downloadable content in the form of textures and brushes. Depending on your game's art style, this may be worth an investment, opposed to the potential mess of, e.g., watercolours getting spilled into your computers.

Krita, like Gimp before it, tries to aim for Photoshop in terms of functionality. It is even capable of opening .psd format files, so long as they don’t have any advanced layer adjustments that cannot be translated from Adobe. Free, open source, and a fraction of the size of Photoshop, it’s worth learning to keep as a tool when needed, and nothing else is available.

Your not even a little bit secret weapon against A.I.

Fresh information input and empathy with clients is your only hand over A.I., for now…

A game that lasts as a decent mug of tea

Predictable, simple, short. And none of these are a downside for this game.

A.I. is amazing at generating combinations of concepts, from existing input. But it has, as of yet, no way of reaching out beyond the database it’s been fed to generate those combinations from. Following the art and design scene around you, at least periodically, is a valuable weapon in expanding your arsenal of ideas, and ways of combining them.

Behind The Frame tries to express itself through a combination of familiar and novel interaction mechanics. It is most competent in the visual department, where the 3D perspective has been implemented as well as any high-end anime, while the obviously hand-drawn animation emits the essence of care that was put into them. If you’ve been around the Sun more than a few times, you’re likely going to figure out the story long before it’s done, but I’d argue it’s still worth playing through to see the end presented. At barely an hour of playtime, it’s a perfect length for a tall mug of tea or coffee, at a currently irresistible price.