Review: Joy Exhibition

At a Glance

ESRB Rating: NR - Not Rated
My Rating: Everyone
Genre: Other
License: Freeware
Fun-O-Meter:
Release Year: 2015
Reviewed Version: 1.0.1
Review Published On: December 22nd, 2015
Played on: Martha

Available on:

Windows

Available from:

No longer available :(

Areas of Concern:
  • Nothing of note


How to Save and Pause:

The artwork you create is automatically saved in the Artwork folder located in the same directory as the games executable. If you want, you can also manually save the artwork via the pause menu.

Time needed per session:

This is a game with no end in sight - you just play it for as long as you want. Plan your time accordingly.

Does this game pose issues for Christian players?

Maybe
There isnt much to this game, but its interesting to mess with.

Screenshots

[view screenshot]
Using a paint gun

[view screenshot]
The aliens seem to be fond of this one

[view screenshot]
Some art made with the game



Game Overview

Joy Exhibition is an example of something I particularly like to see in indie games. Since there is no pressure to conform to any standard, indie developers are free to experiment and create whatever they want. That also happens to be your goal in this game, though it may take me a moment or two to explain what I mean.

This game takes place in a surreal and alien art gallery. Iridescent humanoids wander the halls, looking for things that to find interesting. Your job is to provide them with visual entertainment by creating abstract paintings in the gallerys central area (or studio).

The twist, however, is that while the studio does provide canvases for you to use, there are no paintbrushes, pencils, markers, crayons, or other normal art supplies. Instead, youll find a large rack of colorful firearms on each side of the door. Youll be using these to paint your masterpieces. None of the weapons are actually dangerous, as theyre designed to spray paint in various fanciful ways. On the downside, they rarely shoot straight and often have distracting secondary features, so youre probably not going to be able to paint anything other than abstract art.

Once youve finished with a painting, step outside the studio and line it up with a different canvas. This will allow the aliens access to the work, and many of them will stop to take a look. None of them can speak our language, but you can still get an idea of what they think of your doodles.

If youd like a little fun playing around with paint, try downloading this game and shooting the canvases for a bit.

Points of Interest

Very quiet game

Although the guns do actually make sounds when you pick them up and fire them, this game is so quiet that you could hear a pin drop. The lack of music and sound effects seems fitting somehow, though not everyone will enjoy that. If youd like some ambient music, youll need to run your favorite music player in the background.

Create order out of chaos

The paintguns are randomly generated. Everything from the colors they use to the way the paint is sprayed on the canvas is unique to each gun. When the game is launched, every slot in the studio is filled by a freshly created firearm, so no two iterations of the game will feature the same art supplies.

Creative nonsense

Sometimes its just fun to make a mess. While thats basically the point of the game, seeing the aliens react to your artwork is also entertaining. Who knows, perhaps youll create something that leaves the patrons completely entranced.

If you really like how one of the paintings turned out, saving it is just a matter of selecting an option in the games menu. From there you can upload it to your social media accounts and share it with everyone. With enough practice, you might be able to make some truly unique and interesting wallpaper.

More of a tool than a game

Theres no conflict to overcome, nor is there any way to beat the game. When you get down to it, Joy Exhibition is just a fancy way to make some abstract art. This means that your average player will lose interest in it fairly quickly. Meditative games like this arent for everyone.

Concerns and Issues

None really.

At its core, this is more of an unusual art program than a game. With no way to win or lose, theres nothing for parents to be concerned about. At most, the player could put some effort into drawing something inappropriate, but considering how the guns work, thats far more effort than its worth.