Name: Coloring Game: Little City.

 

Developer: L. Stotch.

 

Hours played: 2 Hours.

 

Coloring Game: Little City was developed and published by L. Stotch in 2019. The game is designed to be a coloring game; the basic version features 15-pixel art paintings that the player must fill with the right colors to be able to complete the level. The tools and the interface are very easy to understand, and the gameplay is smooth and simple. The player will find himself in front of a grayscale canvas divided by a grid and filled with numbers; after choosing the filling method, a brush, or a filling bucket and, after selecting the right color labeled with a number, he can fill the cells of that number.

Coloring Game: Little City resembles a coloring book that every child used to fill in childhood and is based on the same mechanic: the player must fill every spot and move to the next one.

 

Some people find the game very fun, but some others find it stressful; is Coloring City: Little City a game, a learning platform, or a stressor?

When I  first opened the game I found myself in front of various pixel art designs and I started to be interested in how the drawings were made, how the outline was drawn, how the light spot was chosen and how the artist represented the light with pixels and how the proportions of objects were made; after I finished contemplating the first designed, I chose the brush tool, selected the black color and started following the outline, paying great attention on learning how the outline defines the shape of the drawing and eventually filling all the other colors. When I completed the first design, I decided to draw it from scratches by myself on a different software finding out that my pixel design improved. I saw the game as a good way to learn how pixel art is made and how the tools can be used to give birth to a pixel art design. All the designs feature different subjects, from humans to inanimate objects, covering a wide range of objects that can be represented. On a learning point of view, the progression of the game follows a learning curve that starts from simple and follows an increasing complexity .

Some people also find the game fun to play; Coloring Game: Little City gives a sensation of pleasure, the soundtrack is relaxing, and the pixel art of the canvas is beautiful and well-made but, on the other hand, there isn’t much of a story line that the player can follow. The player is challenged by the increasing size of the design to complete; the game starts with a small design (25×25 pixels) and finishes with a big one (250×250 pixels). The game doesn’t focus on discovery; all the designs can be played from the very beginning and the player knows from the start the design of every canvas. The only sense of discovery is given by the fact that the drawings are black and white until they are completed; The player, in this way, finds himself following the core loop of the game: open the drawing, fill in the colors, complete the design and start over.

The game eventually lacks expression; the player is not able to customize any of the design since the filing cells are binding to a specific color; on one hand, the game, resembles the coloring book every child used to fill, on the other hand, the drawings, cannot be filled with colors that are decided entirely by the player.

Coloring Game: Little City is a hard game to connect with , the game is very easy to complete, and the player may get frustrated by the amount of time taken to fill every cell with colors.

Some people find the game very stressful ; Coloring Game: Little City is unique in the casual game genre, is a slow-paced coloring game that gives to the player a very shallow challenge that can always be overcome by spending time filling cells. The colors can only fill the cells marked with the same number stated on the color itself and the player can only make mistakes when he draws outside the previously colored cells. The gameplay is tedious and always follows the same pattern over and over, it gives no room to imagination as the coloring books do, nor gives the player any sense of discovery as puzzle games do. In coloring books, the player can choose his own colors and play with different combinations, and, in puzzle games, the player must discover a pattern in order to complete the whole design. In Coloring Game: Little City the player is forced within boundaries defined by color, numbers, and cells; the player can also take as much time as he wants to complete the design and there is not much sense of accomplishment once the game is complete since the player already knows the outcome. If on one hand the game may be relaxing for casual players that just want to spend time on easy tasks, on the other hand the game may be considered stressful for players who look for challenge and commitment to a game.

Based on these considerations, Coloring City: Little City may be a good place where to start to investigate pixel art, focusing on how designs are made and experiencing firsthand how to draw characters, objects and environments using pixels. Casual players can also find a place to relax in Coloring City: Little City; they can fill empty drawing spots while listening to a relaxing soundtrack as they did in their childhood when they filled coloring books with colors; on the other hand, the lack of many components that may evoke in the player an emotional response may make the game be considered stressful and tedious with no clear goal, giving to the player nor a sense of accomplishment nor a sense of engagement.

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