TL;DR: · Steam Cloud available for existing and new saves. · Universal macOS build with native Apple Silicon support. · SteamOS/Linux build enabled, see below. · Storage and performance optimizations. I finally completed the basic Steam integration into the game, the first bonus of which is support for Steam Cloud. After you load your save game, you can enable Steam Cloud in the popup dialog. I…
There was a bug where the readability analysis didn't give you a checkmark if you used undo to get back to the state of the drawing before you opened the analysis paper. I've changed the logic now a bit so that the analysis always computes in the background and it only shows after you first open the paper (so it doesn't distract you when you're initially drawing).
TL;DR: · Pixel art readability challenge with 94 icons to draw in 8×8, 16×16, and 32×32 sizes. · Two new cassette tapes in synthwave and lo-fi genres. · Archive folder for inactive tutorials. · Let me know if you find the readability analysis discouraging. Continuing from where we left off with the Pixel art size tutorial, this update brings the new Pixel art readability challenge. It's similar…
In case you got stuck on the Perceived resolution lesson, it wouldn't let you complete if you accidentally painted some pixels behind the preview area on the phone or laptop screens. This fix now lets you complete the lesson even if something extra is painted there.
TL;DR: · Pixel art size tutorial. · Study Plan drawing performance improvement. · Easter egg: Jungle PICO-8 cartridge. After you've acquired the simplification and smooth curves interests, you will now unlock a new goal about pixel art size. Every pixel art image depends on the size of the canvas within which it is created. The new tutorial on the topic goes over the basic principles (size of t…
There was a bug in the latest update where the to-do tasks would stop writing out on a new playthrough, so I fixed it. I also added a list of active goals at the bottom-left of the Study Plan to show which goals are currently being displayed in the Drawing app. When you click on the name of a goal, you also get a window explaining that you can check/uncheck the completed status of a goal to hid…
TL;DR: · Study Plan app shows the big picture of available goals and tasks. · Add goals to get new tasks. · Mark goals complete to hide them from the Drawing app. Before I could add more tutorials, I had to solve the issue of the Drawing app getting cluttered as you complete more and more tasks. I also wanted you to have a better overview of your learning journey (than the Progress tracker in t…
TL;DR: · Draw Quickly minigame with 94 subjects to draw. · Symbolic drawing mode where the computer guesses what you're drawing. · Realistic drawing mode where you apply simplification with a reference. I like to follow the tutorial→challenge→project progression where learning new theory continues to practice and then a creative project where you apply the new knowledge freeform. The Simplifica…
TL;DR: · Simplification tutorial. · 3D references that can be manipulated. This update brings a new tutorial about simplifying shapes from realistic to highly stylized. 4 techniques are presented, which can be used in various degrees and combinations. The silhouette lesson shows that if you choose a good angle you don't need any details for an object to be recognizable. I had to implement a new…
TL;DR: · 10-year anniversary video going over a decade of Pixel Art Academy development. · Play other educational games on Back to School Games Celebration. Most of you probably don't know the history behind Pixel Art Academy: Learn Mode. It started as an idea to give players an experience of going to art school, but you'd also learn a real drawing skill along the way. The project proved to be…
A player reported they were getting an EPERM error on Windows during the autosave, so I fixed my file system handling to avoid this. I also noticed while debugging this that the Invasion project unlocked too soon (when you finished the Shape tutorial). I fixed it so it correctly unlocks after the Shape language tutorial.
TL;DR: · Invasion project (a shmup game for PICO-8) unlocks after you complete Shape language. · Customize the Invasion design document on the Pixeltosh. · Chronoscope, a magazine with science fiction artworks for inspiration and reference. · A new dynamic soundtrack song plays in Pixel art fundamentals and Invasion project. After a bunch of theory around designing shapes, it's time to put thin…
TL;DR: · Shape language tutorial. · Filled rectangle/ellipse tool by clicking again on the ruler. · Redesigned look of picking up references. You can now unlock the first tutorial in the Design fundamentals course (as soon as you complete the Elements of art: shape). In Shape language, you'll learn from 12 different games, how they use circles, squares, and triangles as the building blocks for…
It was discovered that the color help option that draws symbols instead of dots didn't work properly on Windows and Linux (it was misaligned and too big, which made it also impossible to see which pixels to delete). This hotfix attempts to resolve this issue.
Just a bug fix for the Maniac Mansion reference in the Pixel art line art challenge. One of the shapes wasn't completely black and since the game now supports shapes of different colors, it wouldn't let you complete it.
TL;DR: · Elements of art tutorial on shapes. · Ruler tool for drawing lines, rectangles, and ellipses. · A detailed plan for the rest of Learn Mode. I'm very excited to be working back on new tutorials. Starting off with the next element of art, you will learn how to start a drawing with basic shapes and transform them with details and organic forms. If you look closely, you will notice a new r…
TL;DR: · Artworks section will appear after you complete the pixel art evaluation challenge. · Create custom artworks with up to 16 colors. · Basic, monoramp, system, and modern palettes. · Fullscreen artwork preview. · Export the image as a PNG at varying scales. Many of you have been asking for the ability to create your own artworks inside the game, so I enabled this feature. This is not mea…
TL;DR: · New dynamic soundtrack song for the Elements of Art tutorial. · Pinball Creation Kit sounds. I had an odd week before some travel and a family visit so I did a quick update on the audio front. The game's original soundtrack received a new song by Anna Eicheneuer which will play after the Elements of Art tutorial is unlocked (whenever you don't put on a cassette tape in the Music app, s…
TL;DR: · Renaming and removing of saved games. · The Continue button in the main menu loads the game you last played. · 10-pixel grid in the pinball editor. · Option to use right-clicking instead of the back button. · Customizable music effects. · Many other bug fixes and polishing. Sorry for the delay in this quality-of-life update. I was affected by the fires in Los Angeles, and it took a bit…
TL;DR: · Publications offer a way to cut out images and use them as references in your projects. · Pinball Magazine issue 1 with four articles: prewar pinball machines, gobble holes, bumpers, and gates. I'm back with another content update, bringing some much-needed help with the pinball project. If you were feeling a bit lost on how to draw the various pinball parts, you were not alone, and th…
Just a tiny one-line bugfix since the color help instructions prevented the drawing of project sprites until the instructions were shown. Otherwise, I'm in the middle of improving the Pinball project, which will be coming in the next content update. Cheers! —Retro
TL;DR: · Color help form to request error detection on your sprite. · Option to have cross-stitch symbols instead of dots to indicate colors. Today's quality-of-life update brings a feature requested as early as the demo by people with color vision deficiency but proved necessary in general since some of the sprites contain very similar colors. You can choose to either get one-time help that sh…
TL;DR: · 2 new Pixel art diagonals lessons. · 3 new Pixel art curves lessons. · UI indicators where to click in various tutorials. It's finally time for the first content update! There's been a bunch of bug fixes and urgent tweaks in the first month, but version 0.25 now brings actual new lessons based on your feedback. I completely replaced the diagonals evaluation lesson and broke it down int…
Game-breaking bugs should mostly be solved (no more errors on loading, hopefully), so unless new critical things pop up, I will now be implementing quality-of-life improvements and your feature requests. Version 0.23 (restart Steam to get the update) brings: · Better tablet support. · Right-click erases pixels. · Brush size shortcuts are now +/- (like Aseprite). · Change brush size with ctrl +…
A big thank you to everyone who decided to take a chance on my little educational game when it released into Early Access last week! The response has been incredible and I'm grateful I will now be able to work full-time on Pixel Art Academy thanks to you. I'm also very happy to be part of the Wholesome Games Steam Celebration , which started right now! My aim is to make learning a relaxing, enc…
Hello everyone! As is customary before I do a release, I want to give everyone a few reasons why NOT to buy the game: · Not all fields of art are covered. Just line art is included with the first Early Access release (about 2–4 hours of content for a speedy playthrough). The other 6 elements of art (shape, form, space, value, color, and texture) will be added throughout Early Access. So if you'…
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Announcements are the developer’s own posts to the game’s Steam news feed: updates and their patch notes, in-game events, releases and sales. The important ones are marked on the players chart.