Sculpt People

Genre: Misc.

Players: 1

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Review:

Sculpt People, released on mobile devices in 2020 and ported to Nintendo Switch in 2024, is a game where players nominally mold bits of clay to resemble the heads of various people in photographs they are shown.

I say “nominally” because players aren’t really given much freedom to actually do this. As they move a tool around the clay, most of the shaping and carving is done for you, leaving players mostly to just add eyes, accessories, and coloring, along with making any last-minute touches they deem suitable.

However, don’t expect any of this to actually matter. At one point, I accidentally stretched out the clay, creating an arm’s-length growth on the side of one figure’s face. The game wouldn’t let me undo this action, and I was forced to turn it in. I still earned a full three stars.

The graphics here are at least decent, with some good 3D modeling and texturing for the clay itself, though nothing that ever makes it look very much like the photos you’re trying to reproduce. This is all backed by repetitive instrumental music that works, but isn’t at all noteworthy.

In the end, I don’t see much reason to play Sculpt People. There’s little creative control, your efforts don’t seem to matter, and the visuals never reach the sort of quality that you actually feel like the goal of reproducing photographs with clay is ever achieved. I suppose at the very least this game is unique, but that only earns it a “huh, weird” before moving on and never playing it again.

tl;dr – Sculpt People is an odd game where players nominally mold clay to look like the heads of people in photographs… only much of the molding is done for you, and what little input you do have doesn’t seem to matter. You should absolutely skip this one.

Grade: D-

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