With its unique art style and a blend of side-scrolling and rhythm game mechanics, The Artful Escape made for a splashy, eye-catching demo at PAX South this year. The game places players in the shoes of Francis Vendetti, a teenage guitar prodigy preparing for his first major performance. Before that happens, however, Francis must set out on a psychedelic multidimensional journey which will inspire his stage persona.
What sets The Artful Escape apart from most 2D platformers is its emphasis on music and performance over pixel-perfect jumps and enemy dodging. As Francis runs through his technicolor dreamscape, he plays his trusty electric guitar in ways that complement the view around him. Certain actions, such as sliding down a hill, result in a sustained guitar riff.
The second aspect of the game are the Simon-style performance sections. As Francis travels the world looking to hone his stage persona, he will encounter various stages where he needs to play his guitar. Players follow along with a series of button prompts to craft a performance sequence. When completed, it becomes a glorious cinematic piece. However, the button prompts aren’t so blatant as a set of A, X, and Y buttons, but are instead abstracted into a part of the environment or creature listening to Francis’s performance.
Francis’s first performance. The five lights on the crab creature thing flash to display the pattern players need to repeat. The glasses lenses and three forehead circles then correspond to the player’s actual button inputs.
While it seems safe to assume that the difficulty of both the platforming and rhythm segments will build as the game progresses, I found both to be reasonably easy in the demo. The concept of running and jumping through these impossible dreamscapes while blasting awesome guitar licks is quite appealing, even soothing at times. One hopes that this game will ultimately turn out to be more of a chill unwinding experience than having later levels turn into controller-throwing frustration.
Originally revealed in playable form at PAX East in 2017 as The Artful Escape of Francis Vendetti, the game has been in development of some form or another since 2015. The development studio, Beethoven & Dinosaur, was founded by The Galvatrons lead guitarist Johnny Galvatron. Galvatron has previously stated that The Artful Escape draws inspiration from David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust transformation, certain films from Kubrick, Spielberg, and Wes Anderson, and Galvatron’s own experiences touring with The Galvatrons.
Francis’s look has evolved a bit since 2017, but the core dreamscape aesthetic has remained consistent.
Publisher Annapurna Interactive has The Artful Escape slated for release later in 2020 for PC, Microsoft’s Xbox One device family, and iOS devices via Apple Arcade. For more information on the game, keep an eye on the official website, https://theartfulescape.com/, and on both the game’s official Twitter at @TheArtfulEscape and Annapurna’s official Twitter account, @A_i.
