Julian Glander’s game Art Sqool is coming to Nintendo Switch

Yesterday (8 September 2020) the US-based 3D artist Julian Glander made a very exciting announcement on social media. His first game Art Sqool is coming to Nintendo Switch. Launched on PC and Mac back in February of last year, the art school simulation game will be available at the end of the year on the staple lockdown device, Nintendo Switch.

The first perspective game plunges its players in a signature Glander art school universe in the form of a character named Froshmin, a fresh-faced freshman ready to embark on the ultimate art school experience. Assignments are generated and graded by an AI known as Professor Qwertz, a faculty advisor who loves nothing more than using his high-tech capabilities to objectively grade work.

When asked how Art Sqool will change to best suit the format of Nintendo Switch, the well known creator tells It’s Nice That: “It’s going to be better!!! The big addition is the use of the Switch’s touchscreen which is going to make the drawing experience 200 times more enjoyable.” Though Glander personally “loves” to draw with a mouse (which he thinks is down to a childhood spent playing Kidpix) the game’s creator can’t deny the appeal of dragging one’s finger across a touch screen to fulfil the art school assignment of the day.

Since the game’s launch last year, the team behind the popular game has gathered feedback from the Mac/PC launch and in turn, “made a bunch of accessibility updates.” This aims to make the game as readily available to as many people as possible, not to mention more approachable to its existing fans.

In an exceptional year for art school students, the game also takes on a whole new meaning as remote learning envelops institutions globally. “It’s really fascinating,” says Glander on the subject, “because the game has accidentally become a lot more vital this year.” As traditional places of learning went into crisis mode as the pandemic unfolded, students (and notably art students devoid of studio and workshop access) have been left somewhat stranded.

Glander continues, “It’s a moment where all have to really think about what ‘the college experience’ even means.” Could this new iteration of Art Sqool be an alternative answer? Posing this question out loud, he finally goes on to say, “I would love to see someone take four gap years and put ‘completed Art Sqool’ on their CV.” So if there’s anyone out there reading this who’s keen to take on this challenge, you’ll be pleased to know that Glander is “happy to be used as a reference for job interviews for anyone who wants to do that.”

Elsewhere in his work, the 3D artist has been busy in the last year working on an animated project for a TV network. It’s “driving [him] crazy to keep it a secret” so until he’s allowed to talk about it, stay tuned to find out. He promises “soon I will be able to blab about it.” Other than that, he’s also been doing quite a lot of gardening lately. So maybe, just maybe, “my next project could be like, a cool topiary or something.”