I wasn’t initially sold on its cutesy vibes and clumsy controller painting, but then its insightful and heartwarming charm about the joy of creating started to shine through, while the controller painting “upgrades” let that part of gameplay start to shine as well. It’s still intentionally a bit clumsy after upgrades, but in a way that encourages as much player expression as desired and a consciously expressed absence of judgment or gatekeeping. If that sounds like a grab bag of needlessly clinical buzzwords, it doesn’t feel like that at all in action; it’s like a joyful magic trick that convinced me to color in my restaurant menu with the provided crayons.

The light platformer puzzling and innovative boss fights are great fun, too!