Simile - Paint Like a Master 4+

Lovely, but can be difficult

Honestly leaving a review only because reviewers that insist on an app being free and complaining about the price is a huge pet peeve considering the amount of time and effort an independent developer has put into it.

The app itself is pretty fun, though I usually play in short snippets rather than large areas at a time because I find myself getting a little frustrated because I can’t see under my finger (hah). It’s probably much easier and much more fun with the iPad Pro and the Apple pencil (which I have neither, unfortunately).

If it’s possible, I think having a list of the IAPs in the settings section (in addition to where they normally are) would be convenient, because I got a bit lost trying to find out how to buy the extra tools.

Developer Response ,

Thanks for your feedback! I'm glad you are enjoying my game. In regards to seeing under your finger, that is tricky, but I have a few suggestions. 1. Your results will often look great, even if they aren't perfect. Make something that reasonably resembles the original, and then look at your score, if it's at 3/4 or higher (750) your results will likely be beautiful. 2. There are a number of capacitive touch screen stylus options available which will work well with your iPhone. I've found their prices to be extremely reasonable. You may want to give those a try. Note: It is not necessary to use a stylus to get great results. Most of the painting for the app marketing screenshots (see above), I did with my finger.

In regards to IAP in the settings, I'll give that some thought. Thanks.

Good, but not $25 good.

This is a great way to kill time, and it could even be used to practice drawing from a reference (or at least i'm sure it is, I'm no artist). The ability to use your own pictures is very good too, and that feature alone is probably worth five or so dollars.

But of course, there's the pricing. You only get two images to draw for free, and they're images you don't get to choose. Everything else (even a few of the tools) costs a bit of money. I understand monetizing games like this on the AppStore, devs gotta eat too, but for everything, it costs $25. That's the kind of price you'd pay for some kind of professional tool for your phone, not for a game in the same device.

I did buy the full package, mostly because I knew this game had potential and I wanted to support the devs. Unfortunately, the game is now dead. You can't even play with your friends anymore. I still pick it up every now and then, (I did spend a bit on it after all), but for new players, I wouldn't expect much from this game, since it hasn't been updated in a very long time.

5 star to 2 star

Wow, I loved this app the moment I downloaded it. As I worked in arcade mode I was going through all the various ways this could actually help me in my own arts. Everything about this was perfect. The Apple rate box popped up and I immediately gave it the 5 stars I thought it deserved. Then I moved on to my next painting. Oh wait, that one costs money. Makes sense, they’ve gotta make their money somehow. I move to the next painting. It costs money as well. So then I just start looking for any that do not. There are literally only two (that I found). Wow. This is *not* a professional art app, devs. I love the work you’ve put into this but the prices you are asking are totally not justified. Again, it’s a great app... it’s just the business model that’s killing it. You either need much more free content and features to counter offset these prices or just lower the prices to something much more reasonable—possibly a bit of both. Otherwise I feel a lot of people are going to do what I’m about to do and just begrudgingly uninstall it 30 minutes after discovering it. What a shame. Wishing all the best for the future of the app here. Really.