Olive’s Art-Venture is a free-to-play adventure developed by AndyL4nd for the Newgrounds Pixel Day event. In this spell-slinging and drawing experience, you control a struggling artist on the way to unlimited art supplies. As mobs block your every progress, you draw different magic spells to defend yourself.

With its premise and drawing mechanic, Olive’s Art-Venture feels like a more stimulating version of Patchwork: The Game or maybe even Draw a Stickman: EPIC 2. Furthermore, its simple premise makes it infinitely replayable. If you’re looking for something to exercise your drawing skills then this is a must-try.

Best played with a tablet

Although Olive’s Art-Venture is best played with a drawing tablet, you can still work through its levels with the good old mouse and keyboard. It has simple and intuitive controls easy for anyone who has played any video game before. This is even supported with smooth 2D pixel art animation, think Google Doodle for example. All these aspects allow for a seamless drawing and spellcasting experience.

As mentioned, this game features 2D pixel art. Still, AndyL4nd manages to make the most out of this visual style by creating stages with their own personalities. Each level has a theme that makes the game varied and still exciting even after several minutes of gameplay. Couple this with increasingly difficult gameplay and you have yourself something you can’t finish the first try, yet something hard to put down.

Lastly, the game comes with a rocking playlist. Specifically tailored to meet each level’s theme, its variety and suitability will make it hard to notice when a song has already started looping. The only setback is that since every shape corresponds to a unique magic element, there is a single shape you can use all throughout. However, if you wish to enjoy this, feel free to draw whatever you like.

A relaxing doodle game

With a relaxing 2D pixel art style accompanied by great music, Olive’s Art-Venture is a great relaxing game with enough variety and challenge to keep you going. Its unique mechanic of drawing shapes works well in articulating its premise, that of a struggling artist wielding magic to defend herself. It’s up to you though to find out the cheese strategy shape, but, overall, this is a recommended app.