This Metroidvania About Depressed Garbage Man Is Fully Hand-Painted

Amber RutherfordSenior Editor26 October 2026

"My response to AI slop."

These visuals seriously look like they're inspired by Van Gogh and feel pretty unique for a game. Developed by SadMonkStudios, it's an untitled chemistry puzzle metroidvania that lets you play as a sad, little cube-shaped man in a world where everything reacts. The developer says the character needs to look different from the painterly surroundings for story reasons.

The story remains a mystery, though. SadMonkStudios shared they use a triplanar shader for repeating elements like streets and sidewalks, but they'd like to optimize it even further. They're still working on a solution for handling shadows and normals.

Here are some earlier demos:

For the painterly visuals, SadMonkStudios used Rebelle, a digital painting app that realistically simulates traditional media like watercolors, oils, and acrylics. We've covered quite a few new 2D painting apps lately: check out Moko for its realistic color mixing, Kala Paint for its ambitious brush engine, and Callipeg and Umoupen for tools that animators might find useful.

If you're a 3D Artist, Theo Daley recently showed us YMA Painterly, a collection of 12 shaders that give your 3D artwork a painterly look in Cinema 4D and Houdini.

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