PN Review: SDK Paint (WiiU Eshop)
‘SDK Paint’ is a new art application from Hullbreach Studios, available on the WiiU eshop. You may have heard of their previous titles such as ‘DSI Paint’ and ‘3DS Paint’. This new version of the “Paint” series offers some pretty cool options and tools to choose from when editing your artwork. You can even view your creations in the gallery mode which is interesting. But does SDK Paint stand out above the rest of the Painting/Art apps out on the WiiU right now? let’s take a look.
I recommend studying up on the game manual first, before starting any kind of art process. In SDK paint I was very unfamiliar with the tool bar and what the icons meant because there is no explanations of any sort. Its not like I need a step by step guide but there were some options that seemed a bit vague. I didn’t even realize this game offered a multiple layer design option until I started messing around with it a bit. So do yourself a favor and read the manual. Gallery mode is also something cool that I’ve never seen before. After you’ve created a few masterpieces you can view them in a gallery, old school dungeon RPG style. Its pretty neat seeing all your pieces up on the walls.
Gallery Mode
Being able to add layers to your artwork is really cool. You can have up to 5 layers and you are able to edit each layer individually. Making for some pretty neat pieces if you’re skilled enough to know how to do this kind of thing. You can darken a specific layer or lighten it, there’s also a button to flip your painting around if need be. Also while in the process of painting you can fade out the back layers temporarily, making visibility easy as your pieces become more complex. Last but not least you can also add 3D effects to your art using the layers . So yeah, layers are pretty cool… but what about everything else?
Main Menu
There are 11 different paintbrush sizes to choose from and a very unspecific color pallette. After I had used up a lot of my time trying to select the same shade I had used before I discovered the handy color dropper. If you run this tool over any previous color you’ve used it will then select that color. Making it a lot easier for you to find your specific shade. There is also a neat stencil option when choosing your canvas, letting you pick between different size grids and other things.
Stencil- SDK Paint Screenshot
There are quite a few problems I was going to rant about but apparently are all being fixed in upcoming updates. Such as there being no zoom option, only being able to save 10 pieces of art at a time on the system, and several other things. Luckily the people who made this game are eager to please their customers. Here is a Miiverse post from Daniel Gump at Hullbreach studios revealing some of their plans for future updates.
Hullbreach Studios
DanielGumpHBSDanielGump
We are building up a list of requests to implement in updates to SDK Paint. Here is what we have so far:
– Larger color palette
– Drag color palette to select colors (DONE!)
– Alternate palettes – Blending/smudge brush – Better hints as to what the filters do – More eraser options, include full layer erase
– Ability to draw straight lines
– Zoom function – More save slots (DONE!)
– Custom canvas size
In addition to these, we will try to smash any bugs that have been found. If we have missed anything, go ahead and add it to this list. Keep in mind, too, that we already have the following features planned: – Sharing on sdkpaint.com – Linking artwork with UCraft, HullBreach; Uncloaked, and other games – Pattern fills with the Flood Fill (DONE!) – Direct Miiverse posting from application – Free download content: Stencils, Galleries – Paid download content: Stencils, Galleries – Background music
Blank Canvas- SDK Paint Screenshot
