Daxterpieces Review

Games as art is a debate that has dragged many people under its heavy weight, but no matter which side you choose to take it's always a treat to try out art as games. Daxterpieces by Baby Carrot Studios is a rather simple puzzle game that aims to let players explore artwork that's changeable and interactive.

Each puzzle is a simple piece of artwork that can be flicked through with swipes similar to those used in the photo roll. No zooming is available, but tapping sections of the artwork will cause areas to change into different pieces of a different set of art. When initially choosing an art piece, it will shuffle randomly through these different art sets and it's up to you to fix things which will reward you with a small (if simplistic) animation.

The artwork itself is an interesting mix of digital pieces that are often surreal and modern in their style. Much of the gameplay comes from exploring the options available, perhaps finding a "hidden piece of art" amongst all of the extra artwork made, but often it just comes out as a mess until you revert back to the original piece.

A lot of work has gone in to designing the artwork here and while it's great to see how art is incorporating modern mediums into their work it's ultimately a fairly simplistic "game" that's no more exciting than the ring-bound flip books that let you put ballerina legs on a hippo body with a lion head. Get Daxterpieces to enjoy the art as a time waster, but not for the game.