Lunch Break Special: Avant Garde, a Game About Starving Artists
Mon dieu! Today's Lunch Break Special will let you play the starving artist who wants nothing more than to be more magnificent than Manet and, you know, eat.
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Do you think you have what it takes to come up with a masterpiece that will survive ages? No? What about your lunch break? Do you think you have what it takes to be forever celebrated in a fictional Paris before you have to go back to work?If so, here's your challenge: beat Avant Garde, a surprisingly delightful take on what was life might have been like for Parisian artists in 1863. Be sure to impress Napoleon III while you're there.
I'm a terrible artist. That's why I write thousands of words a week instead. Still, it's strangely entertaining to see what the road not traveled might have been liked. Rigged up against a backdrop of famous paintings, Avant Garde is a low-key affair, one that will not require exemplary reflexes. It's a little like Princess Maker, except with tortured painters. Your ultimate goal here is to create works impressive enough to earn recognition in the Salon. Of course, you'll need to learn how to draw properly first, Monsieur. Those atrocities you're peddling right now will never do.
Much of your time in Avant Garde will be spent learning how to paint, painting, and then auctioning off your one-of-a-kind vision for pennies. Life's not easy for the unrecognized genius. Along the way, you'll be able to go out boozing with your peers, all of whom are modeled after real life artists. Some of them will like you, others will stare contemptuously down their powdered noses at you because of your lack of vision.
One of the more interesting aspects of Avant Garde is the light RPG system the developer has in place. Instead of using more traditional stats, Avant Garde will have you developing your sense of composition, form and anatomy.
With historical accuracy being at such a premium in games, it's rather refreshing to see something like Avant Garde. Though it's currently still in alpha, I'm rather keen to see where the developers will take it next. Either way, enjoy this classy lunch break diversion. You may want to have a baguette to go along with it.