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TL;DR:
An art project in which you draw small, 2D chess pieces.
Playtest your art on the Pixeltosh and learn the rules of chess.
A chess magazine with 90 references to get inspired by.
4 chessboard themes and a dark interface mode to match your art style.
Play against the computer, a friend, or watch Pixeltosh play itself in 5 difficulty levels.
Following Pixel Art Academy's typical progression (tutorial → challenge → project), we're rounding up the exploration of simplification and pixel art size with a project where you draw sprites for a chess video game.
After you've drawn the icons in the readability challenge, you get access to Chess Academy, a Pixeltosh program where you design pieces for the game's 2D view. (3D style will be available in the future after I add the form element of art.)
In Chess Academy, you slowly unlock pieces as you buy them in the game shop.
For each piece, you get to draw the white and black variants.
And you have 64 Squares, a chess magazine full of references to help you along the way.
With each newly drawn piece, you jump through quick lessons that teach you all the rules of chess.
When you complete your set of 16 pieces, you're ready to face Pixeltosh in a full game, play against a friend, or pit the computer against itself.
As you can see from the screenshots, you can customize the chessboard theme and turn on dark mode, whichever fits best with the art style of your pieces.
I hope this gives you enough creative freedom to design a chess game to your liking. The project is set up non-linearly so you can complete the pieces in any order you want.
Chess Academy took a bit longer to develop since it's a bigger 'end game' project like Pinball. You can check out the process behind making it in the devlog:
This concludes the main content for the 'shape' element of art. I'll now take some time to polish this part of the game before we move onto color in the second half of 2026.
If you have any requests for quality-of-life improvements, drop them in the discussion forums as I will be implementing the ones that can be done relatively quickly. And as always, if you find any bugs, I really appreciate the help by reporting them so this can be the best learning game it can be.
Cheers! —Retro
TL;DR:
Steam Cloud available for existing and new saves.
Universal macOS build with native Apple Silicon support.
SteamOS/Linux build enabled, see below.
Storage and performance optimizations.
I finally completed the basic Steam integration into the game, the first bonus of which is support for Steam Cloud. After you load your save game, you can enable Steam Cloud in the popup dialog.
If you don't enable it, you can do it later through the load menu (click edit and select your save game).
You can also disable Steam Cloud here later, if you want your save game to be available just locally on that computer.
The option to use Steam Cloud now appears when you're starting a new game as well.
And to easily see which save game you're currently on, you can see the floppy disk in the bottom-right corner of the pause menu.
The save files on your hard drive now get compressed on load (including backups, which are also pruned to the last 10 days the game was run). The save games themselves are not very big (mine is at 8 MB currently), but the backups could add up if you ran the game often, so this now limits it.
~
While I was working on integrating Steam into the game, I also improved other aspects of my build process. The game is built with Electron and I've now updated to the latest version, which might lead to a performance boost, but more importantly, allows me to use all the latest browser features in the future.
An even bigger improvement should come to players on macOS as the app is now universal, meaning it ships with Apple Silicon binaries (no more Rosetta translation on new macs).
I also enabled the Linux build after testing everything on the Steam Deck. The only thing is, to enable the native build, you have to go to Properties and under Compatibility choose to force the "Steam Linux Runtime 1.0" option. The default is Proton, as chosen by Valve during initial testing, and I'll try to get that changed with them (no idea how long that takes though).
~
No video devlog this time since there's no new game content, but hopefully this quality-of-life update will also be welcome.
Now I'm off to do the last new feature for the shape element of art, a new project to make sprites for!
Best, —Retro
TL;DR:
Pixel art readability challenge with 94 icons to draw in 8×8, 16×16, and 32×32 sizes.
Two new cassette tapes in synthwave and lo-fi genres.
Archive folder for inactive tutorials.
Let me know if you find the readability analysis discouraging.
Continuing from where we left off with the Pixel art size tutorial, this update brings the new Pixel art readability challenge.
It's similar to the Draw Quickly challenge in that you draw one of the 94 subjects Pixeltosh can recognize, but this time on a small pixel grid.
It uses the same readability analysis introduced in the last lesson of the Pixel art size tutorial, where Pixeltosh tells how easy it was for it to see the subject.
Note that you still get a checkmark, even if the recognition didn't work. The Pixeltosh uses a small neural network that is not specialized at reading pixel art and especially has trouble with the smallest 8×8 size where a lot is left to interpretation. Please let me know how you feel about this challenge, especially if it makes you feel discouraged if your icon doesn't get recognized. I'm trying to see if the feedback is useful enough to be included, even though it's not too intelligent and can fail at small sizes.
In other news, I also added two new cassette tapes so you have some more music to listen to while you're going through the icons.
Holizna's tape is in the lo-fi genre whereas Jospeh Sacco's two albums (one on each side) lean on synthwave. You get them after completing the Simplification and the Shape language tutorials respectively.
Finally, I've gotten quite some feedback on things disappearing from the Drawing app. This was a feature of the Study Plan update, aimed at decluttering the tutorials section, but turned out to be too confusing and not intuitive how to access the completed content again. I really appreciate you letting me know about this because it was something I wasn't sure myself if it'll be clear enough.
I've now opted into a more straightforward solution where the inactive tutorials move into a separate Archive section so you always have access to them.
Check out the devlog if you want to see behind the scenes of how the readability challenge was made:
And again, you're very much encouraged to give your honest thoughts on the readability analysis, what was your experience with it like.
Thank you and cheers! —Retro
TL;DR:
Pixel art size tutorial.
Study Plan drawing performance improvement.
Easter egg: Jungle PICO-8 cartridge.
After you've acquired the simplification and smooth curves interests, you will now unlock a new goal about pixel art size.
Every pixel art image depends on the size of the canvas within which it is created. The new tutorial on the topic goes over the basic principles (size of the pixels and smallest representable details) and introduces a new readability analysis tool.
I'm reusing the image recognition capabilities from the Quick Draw program from the Simplification goal, so don't expect too much, but it's good enough to not just let you proceed without any resemblance of what you need to draw.
I'll try to add some more features into this system with the next update, where you will have the challenge of drawing any of the ~100 possible subjects as an icon.
Here's the latest devlog going over the new tutorial:
I was also able to squeeze in a few optimizations to the Study Plan app (panning around the map should be much smoother now) and there's even an easter egg in the PICO-8 app after you're done drawing the animals in one of the new lessons (for the rules, check out here).
I hope you will enjoy how I explain things in this tutorial and as always I appreciate any feedback and/or bug reports.
See you in the next update! —Retro
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.
TL;DR:
Study Plan app shows the big picture of available goals and tasks.
Add goals to get new tasks.
Mark goals complete to hide them from the Drawing app.
Before I could add more tutorials, I had to solve the issue of the Drawing app getting cluttered as you complete more and more tasks.
I also wanted you to have a better overview of your learning journey (than the Progress tracker in the main menu).
Both of these could be solved with a study plan where you could add your goals and mark them complete when you're done. It starts small, as soon as you complete the Basics tutorial.
Over time you will add more goals and gain the ability to plan your journey further ahead. The map will then reveal itself as you complete the tasks.
It's a sort of an overworld view that shows the big picture of what you can do in the game. It also makes it easier to see which things you can solve in parallel and where those branches will lead you.
To mark a goal complete, click on the flagpole and that will also make the tutorials disappear from the Drawing app (you can always bring them back later by clicking on the flag again).
I hope you will enjoy this new look at the game's content and have a better overview of all that you achieved and what else there is to do.
Now I can finally continue with the tutorials. The next one will be on pixel art scale.
See you then and wishing you all a creative and peaceful 2026!
—Retro
TL;DR:
Draw Quickly minigame with 94 subjects to draw.
Symbolic drawing mode where the computer guesses what you're drawing.
Realistic drawing mode where you apply simplification with a reference.
I like to follow the tutorial→challenge→project progression where learning new theory continues to practice and then a creative project where you apply the new knowledge freeform.
The Simplification tutorial is no different and so in between learning abstraction (tutorial) and drawing your own icons (project, coming in the future), I wanted to squeeze in a fun challenge called Draw Quickly.
To keep things black and white, I put it on the Pixeltosh. I can easily imagine how I'd be playing wtih an educational software like this in the 80s.
Symbolic drawing mode is very much like Pictionary, where the computer is trying to guess which of the 10 things you're currently drawing.
Behind the scenes, there's a tiny neural network doing the guessing. It can only recognize 94 items, so it's far from perfect, but good enough for some quick fun.
After you're done drawing things like apples and fish, you can move onto harder things.
It's similar in realistic drawing mode, going from simple to complex drawings.
This time, however, you draw with the help of a reference, each time having less time to draw, so it forces you to simplify and decide which of the lines are the most important.
I prepared references for all 94 possible subjects and I hope you'll have fun discovering them all.
Two devlogs cover the development of this feature, first the neural network training sprint, and then the Draw Quickly one.
Next up I'll have to organize the tutorials a little bit better since there would be too many to display in the portfolio as I add more in the future.
See you then! —Retro
TL;DR:
Simplification tutorial.
3D references that can be manipulated.
This update brings a new tutorial about simplifying shapes from realistic to highly stylized.
4 techniques are presented, which can be used in various degrees and combinations. The silhouette lesson shows that if you choose a good angle you don't need any details for an object to be recognizable.
I had to implement a new type of 3D reference that you can manipulate to solve the lesson. Besides being able to rotate the 3D model, you can also add or remove details—one of the most used approaches in simplification.
You can change the objects' proportions to make lines and shapes more readable.
And you can morph the shapes themselves towards their basic versions (circles, squares, horizontal/vertical/45 degree lines).
Each stylization lesson comes with 3 references to choose from and there's a final lesson where you study various characters from ZX Spectrum games, from realistic to simplified.
As always, you can go behind the scenes and hear my thoughts on the lessons in the devlog:
If you've done all the tutorials so far you'll notice that the portfolio folder is getting pretty stuffed, so I'll have to deal with that soon, but perhaps a new challenge could come first. I guess we'll find out in the next update!
Thank you all for playing and giving the game a chance!
Cheers, Retro
TL;DR:
10-year anniversary video going over a decade of Pixel Art Academy development.
Play other educational games on Back to School Games Celebration.
Most of you probably don't know the history behind Pixel Art Academy: Learn Mode. It started as an idea to give players an experience of going to art school, but you'd also learn a real drawing skill along the way.
The project proved to be a bigger dream than I imagined, so 7 years into development I decided to release the competed lessons as a standalone version, now known as Learn Mode.
In my 10-year anniversary video I go over this project's beginning on Kickstarter, a bit chaotic development of the adventure parts, and the eventual switch to a more focused, polished experience.
I hope you will enjoy learning a bit more about the motivation behind the project:
I didn't do a sale to celebrate this big milestone exactly on the anniversary as I knew that Back to School Games Celebration will be happening later this month and now it's finally here!
I love taking part in this event because I am so inspired by the games from the 90s that had an educational component. It's absolutely wonderful to see other indie games that give the same feeling.
So check out the event to find some other learning games or productivity tools you might enjoy:
https://store.steampowered.com/curator/44695353/sale/BacktoSchoolGamesCelebration2025
That's it for this time, I'll be back with a new game update next time as we dive towards simplification, pixel art scale, and eventually the next challenge.
Thank you for all the wonderful reviews, feedback, and support on this journey!
—Retro
TL;DR:
Invasion project (a shmup game for PICO-8) unlocks after you complete Shape language.
Customize the Invasion design document on the Pixeltosh.
Chronoscope, a magazine with science fiction artworks for inspiration and reference.
A new dynamic soundtrack song plays in Pixel art fundamentals and Invasion project.
After a bunch of theory around designing shapes, it's time to put things into practice by drawing sprites for a simple, single-screen shoot em' up.
It runs on PICO-8, so it's not a long project like the Pinball game, but it's not as simple as the Snake game either. The extra bit of functionality is that you have the chance to customize the design document for the game.
You can change every underlined word in the document …
… and adjust plenty of numeric properties.
The main thing is of course still to draw the sprites.
And you have a new magazine/book available if you choose to design your game with the science fiction theme.
Of course you get to play the game and tweak it until you're happy with the gameplay.
There was also a new song added to the game's OST (you can hear it when you don't have a cassette tape playing in the Music app) and I'm so happy with how it turned out. It appears at the end of the devlog as well:
I hope you will have fun coming up with creative ways to change the design. I can make it even more advanced in the future (multiple sprites for invaders, invaders that attack out of formation, rotating and animated sprites) as right now it's still quite limited, but of course there's a million other things to develop too, so I'll get back to new tutorials next.
Cheers! —Retro
TL;DR:
Shape language tutorial.
Filled rectangle/ellipse tool by clicking again on the ruler.
Redesigned look of picking up references.
You can now unlock the first tutorial in the Design fundamentals course (as soon as you complete the Elements of art: shape). In Shape language, you'll learn from 12 different games, how they use circles, squares, and triangles as the building blocks for their characters.
To aid you with drawing all the shapes, you can now click again on the rectangle or ellipse tool to get the filled variant.
I've also improved the display of references with better drop shadows, which should make exploring all the game cartridges more pleasant.
As always, I go behind the scenes in my devlog.
I hope you will enjoy this learning-from-examples approach. Soon you should be able to put this knowledge into practice as well.
See you then! —Retro
About
This page aggregates Steam news feeds, patch notes, and developer announcements for Pixel Art Academy: Learn Mode, sourced from official Steam community posts.
Major updates, balance changes, and seasonal events often correlate with player-count spikes — cross-reference announcements here with the live charts on the main Pixel Art Academy: Learn Mode statistics page.
Articles link back to Steam for full changelogs. SteamScope refreshes news entries as new posts are published to the game's Steam hub.
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