- Platform Nintendo Switch
- Release Date Jul 27, 2017
- No. of Players To be determined
- Category Puzzles, Education
- Publisher Abylight
Qbics is an educational game designed to teach the art of 3D Modelling, Sculpting & Painting with the use of pixels. it is a colourful game that requires a steady hand as you try to pick away the unnecesary white pixels to reveal the sculpture underneath. This game makes use of the Switch’s touch screen; touching the screen will pick away a pixel or colour one in, sliding your finger across the screen will rotate the model and stretching or pinching your fingers will zoom in or out.
There are a total of four modes available; Sculpt, Paint, Creation & Image. In Sculpt you chip away the white pixels to get to the image underneath, be careful of touching the blue pixels underneath as you can lower the amount of stars you can recieve after finishing the sculpture. In paint, you have the option to colour in your sculpture with a palette of 24 different colours, Creation allows you to create your own model or dismantle the existing model. Lastly, Image allows you to take photos with your creations by placing them on different backgrounds.
There are over 50 different images to work your way through and are categorized under different themes like farmyard animals, people, toys, nature and transport to name a few. There is some intrigue and a small sense of acheivement in revealing each model but this game does require the need for a stylus as using fingers can be quite cumbersome and can mistakingly touch the sculpture losing points or accidently paint a pixel a colour you didn’t mean to paint.
This game I feel is more guided towards younger children due to the simplistic nature of Qbics Paint but I am sure this game will appeal to Minecraft users as well with it pixel designs and creativity.
Conclusion
I wish there was more I could say about this game but I couldn’t really engage with it. it has an interesting concept but I couldn’t stay interested in it long enough to continue playing. With a price tag of $4.99, it is not expensive and may be appealing enough to young children but in a world full of Platformers, RPGs and first-person shooters, I doubt this game will make much headway in the Videogaming market but will definitely be a useful tool to teach young children about 3D Modelling. For that I will give a generous score of 6/10. It isn’t going to be the next Angry Birds or Soduko but it will definitely be a good educational tool to teaching young children and those interested in modelling.
