1.4 GB
Simulation
, Animation & Modeling
, Design & Illustration
, Education
, Game Development
, Early Access
Added
11 hours ago
Updated
11 hours ago
CSF + Goldberg
About the Game
Pixel Art Academy is an educational game for learning how to draw. In Learn Mode, you jump straight into the game's interactive tutorials for the fastest way of becoming a pixel artist. After you learn the rules behind pixel art lines, test your skills by drawing fan art and unleash your creativity with designing and illustrating your own pinball machine.
Please note that during Early Access the game does not cover all areas of art yet!
The game's content is organized around the 7 elements of art: line, shape, form, space, value, color, and texture. The current version only covers lines with about 2–3 hours of gameplay for a minimal playthrough (more if you complete all the challenges and put extra effort into game projects). The other 6 elements are planned to be developed during Early Access.
I also keep a completely transparent development process. Visit my YouTube channel for frequent devlogs or catch me anywhere on the internet to chat about current progress.
Please note that during Early Access the game does not cover all areas of art yet!
The game's content is organized around the 7 elements of art: line, shape, form, space, value, color, and texture. The current version only covers lines with about 2–3 hours of gameplay for a minimal playthrough (more if you complete all the challenges and put extra effort into game projects). The other 6 elements are planned to be developed during Early Access.
Features
- An immersive user interface with a cozy, relaxing atmosphere.
- Carefully designed interactive tutorials teach how to use drawing tools, followed by intermediate lessons covering pixel art fundamentals with a focus on line art and jaggies.
- Put theory into practice with drawing challenges where you copy other indie game sprites or draw fan art from reference.
- Design video game sprites as you customize the game Snake and create your very own pinball machine. Of course, you get to play the games as well!
- Get in the groove with more than 6 hours of background music to accompany your drawing sessions.
Future development
Please keep in mind that the game is designed, drawn, and coded by a single person—me! I also have to run the business side of things, do marketing, and organize collaborations with other artists, all of which take time. Expect slow, but steady progress. I have been working on the bigger Pixel Art Academy universe for 9 years now and I don't intend to stop any time soon.I also keep a completely transparent development process. Visit my YouTube channel for frequent devlogs or catch me anywhere on the internet to chat about current progress.
Screenshots
15 images
Version Information
Steam Patch Notes
Official update history
On the site: Build 24291097
Up to date
Some of you were able to buy 9 pawns in Chess Academy. This patch will fix your save file and prevent any others from being too speedy in the chess shop. No more breaking the chess law!
View on Steam
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).
View on Steam
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).
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.
View on Steam
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 hide/reactivate it.
Additionally, a list of gained interests shows which requirements you already completed so far.
The paths stopped showing in some of the pixel art curves lessons due to upgraded paths. Had to change one line of code and now it works again. Yay!
View on Steam
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.
View on Steam
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.
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.
View on Steam
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.
View on Steam
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
View on Steam
Otherwise, I'm in the middle of improving the Pinball project, which will be coming in the next content update.
Cheers!
—Retro
Version 0.23
Aug 22, 2024
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:
As always, report any bugs in the Steam discussions or on my Discord. Pixel Art Academy is a daunting piece of software to test thoroughly on my own, so I really appreciate your help (and patience) with any bugs that pop up during Early Access.
Cheers!
—Retro
View on Steam
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 + mouse scroll.
- Loading percentage indicator (if loading takes more than a few seconds).
As always, report any bugs in the Steam discussions or on my Discord. Pixel Art Academy is a daunting piece of software to test thoroughly on my own, so I really appreciate your help (and patience) with any bugs that pop up during Early Access.
Cheers!
—Retro
Current Release
Build 24291097
Uploaded Jul 21, 2026
System Requirements
OS
Windows 10
CPU
Can it run a browser?
RAM
1 GB RAM
GPU
At least 320×240 pixels resolution
How to Install
1
Download all files
2
Extract the .ZIP file to a folder (use WinRAR or 7-Zip)
3
Run Pixel Art Academy Learn Mode.exe to play
Troubleshooting tips
• Run Redist/_CommonRedist installers if game won't start
• Add folder to Windows Defender exclusions
• Run as administrator
Download
Direct link available
Size
1.4 GB
Build
24291097
Password: cracked-games.org
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Download Pixel Art Academy: Learn Mode for PC with a direct link or via torrent. Get the full version of Pixel Art Academy: Learn Mode for free. Pixel Art Academy: Learn Mode is a Simulation released by Matej 'Retro' Jan.