Simple but effective, lovingly presented and thoroughly charming. To its great credit, Behind the Frame neither overstays its welcome nor burdens either itself or the player with more or more complicated puzzles just for the sake of having them.

The runtime is short, the goal is sweet, and the surest sign that it manages to land its emotional swing is that little bit of dread you feel as the story progresses, a bit of genuine concern that things aren't going to work out and the realization that you're you're quite invested in the hope that they will all the same.

Sunny-side-up eggs and toast. A warm cup of coffee. Relaxing piano music. An easel and a canvas. What better way to enjoy a morning?

Behind the Frame invites its player to revel in that tranquil scenery. It tells the story of a young painter who's trying her best to enter an art exhibition in New York and, on an afternoon that would have been spent with the easel, ends up learning more about an old neighbor who doesn't interact with other people much. As a short narrative-focused game, it's better not to go any deeper into the story in a review: suffice to say, it's a touching and easy to relate to story about being true to oneself and one's feelings.

Much like Tangle Tower, another 2D hand-animated point-n-click on Steam, Behind the Frame immediately distinguishes itself through its immaculate vibes: the Ghibli-inspired characters and animation, gorgeous environments and emotional tunes are highly effective in setting the mood to our lovable artist's surreal adventure. The similarities end there, however, as Behind the Frame is much more focused on its narrative than anything else.

The game is strictly linear, with six chapters composed of events that unfold in sequence -- not unexpected from a narrative game, but the particular choice of mechanics here does end up giving off this distinct feeling of being constrained. It's also far lighter on puzzles, which, bar the ones at the tail end of the game, are solvable within seconds. This makes the package less attractive for its brainteasers, and more of a game to unwind to on a lazy evening. On that front, it makes a very compelling case for itself.

This is the first original IP from Akatsuki Taiwan, and it does leave a good impression along with the lingering question on whether they'll make more original games like this.

I think I need an artistic mind to understand what is going on here. Or maybe I am just too dumb.
Anyway the game is good-looking and has some good cutscenes.

EDIT: This game was nothing like anything I have ever played. What a unique concept!
I wasn't getting what was going on, but the last chapter brought it all together. The game design and the execution of the story by the devs team is really worth a praise.
I would say this is one of the most beautiful games I have ever played.

Really, REALLY wish I could I say I adored it. The art style, music, atmosphere and story are so up my alley that the extreme lack of content (I beat it in a hour with 20 minutes extra for achievements) and overly simple (If still effective and narratively fitting) gameplay hurts me and keep it from being something genuinely astounding like I wish it was.

Despite its simplicity and length it was otherwise a wonderful little title that was absolutely worth its small price. I pray for a longer spiritual sequel.

I cannot recommend this game enough. At first, I was lulled in by the game's absolutely beautiful Ghibli-inspired art style and the lovely jazz music, and I was enjoying it. Then, at a certain point, the game suddenly got more interesting, and by the end, tears poured out of my eyes and I just can't help it.

This game is quite simple in premise and gameplay. It's a point and click adventure, with easy puzzles primarily revolving around adding missing colors to missing paintings. The game is more about the story and atmosphere, and the simplicity of it's gameplay helps you to appreciate the game's strength even more.

At less than 2 hours in length, there is simply not much to talk about without spoiling it, so I will end it with this: this game would have been a wonderful short film, but as a game, it becomes something that is truly special.

Behind the Frame is a refreshingly cozy indie point and click game with a nice Ghibli looking artstyle.

The gimmick for this one is that you play as a painter so a lot of the gameplay involves paint-by-numbers sections where you have to paint things a certain colour. It's simple but it's fun enough.

A short but very immersive and pleasant indie.

definition of cozy gaming. the visuals are absolutely stunning and the soundtrack is definitely going in a cafe playlist or two, and the gameplay although simple has fun puzzles and the sound design makes everything feel amazing to do. the only place where it drags is in the middle where the puzzles just kinda feel stupid and tedious. the camera within an 'animated' space is so genius i can't even begin to fathom how they went about the technicalities of that. there's only one area that i felt didn't feel 3D enough, and that was in the free dlc, which was pretty good though less engaging than the main chapters.
my only complaint would be that the story didn't wrap up neatly enough and that some things didn't really add up, since there just wasn't enough information by the end for any solid conclusion about the big twist to be drawn and when the credits started rolling i was just kinda like 'wait what', which is unfortunate. Everything else in this game is polished and charming to a fault, and definitely made a great two hours spent. Would absolutely love a spiritual sequel with better more cohesive writing.

This game has a sense of premium to it with its graphics and music. It feels very professional and beautiful. It makes sense that the game took me an hour and 25 minutes to complete. It’s short but what you get is high quality. The game is all about telling a story (through showing) and inviting you to its world. The gameplay is very simple and mostly there to make you live the story. Chapter 4 (out of 6) is the only exception where it suddenly turns into a point and click adventure with puzzles that ask more of you which was nice. I found the way it came together was very clever. You’re going to need to pay attention to the care that was put into the details. Although I tried the demo on PC, I ended up completing it on my iPad Pro 2020. The game is very decent on PC but the touch screen felt more suitable to the gameplay and its theme. Both versions are more than fine though. You know if the game is for you or not. It succeeds what it sets out to do but you’re obviously going to hate it if you bought it with the idea that you’re going to get a deep gameplay experience. Are you here for the short experience and story? Then please come through. You’re more than welcome.

you guys need to cool it with saying everything looks like studio ghibli, if anything this game felt like watching a gobelins film (and stylistically looks like half of all gobelins films tbh), especially in its tone and its general theming and atmosphere and presentation, so basically all of it. This game really feels like a gobelins film.

But like gobelins, this game is quite short, which is good, and something so rare in this medium which is understanding how much time a game is worth. This game is simple and wants to tell you a short story and there's nothing wrong with that, that is infinitely more preferable to having it drag on longer than it should for sake of "content". Like there isn't enough content in the game already for it to be fully enjoyable and get across to you every emotion it wants to.

I just finished this game as of writing this, and I keep going back to everything in the game, stuff that I didn't get or otherwise stood out to me, and after putting them into the broader context of the rest of the game, not only do I understand them completely, but appreciate them greatly. Everything in this game is designed so expertly, the pacing the story the mechanics (besides the last puzzle that was really finicky), they all flow together perfectly and there's never a frame in this game that looks ugly, there's never a moment in it that goes wasted, and there's really nothing else I could seek to add to it, it is wholly and completely, well, complete.

I have an immense love for video games that take design seriously, the idea that you don't just need game design and stuff like replayability to make a good game. That games aren't just gameplay mechanics, they're stories, stories which are expressed cooperatively through an audiovisual medium. To ignore the design of how the camera can sit in every map in the game, or how the loading screen can sometimes separate the experience of playing a game into something akin to vignettes, actually taking into account the cooperate storytelling aspect of video games and designing the other aspects with it in mind and it with the other aspects in mind and the other aspects with the other other aspects in mind as well. It's something incredibly difficult for any piece of art, and especially hard for a video game to do, but it is always something to admire and love when a game even attempts to do it.

This game was extremely short but very lovely, definitely an interesting concept that was very enjoyable. I'll sum up the arguments for my rating below:

(+) Visuals: The artstyle is extremely artistic, probably due to them being ''handpainted'' and overall having a very painterly style. The characters are drawn in a style similar to anime.
(+) Sound: The music and sounds are very lovely. There are not really any narrators or voices, but I think that supported the cozy atmosphere.
(+) Puzzles: I think the puzzles were not too hard but also not too easy, but they were really innovative and i enjoyed the variety and thoughts behind them.
(+) The story was short, but very touching.

(-) Length: The game was extremely short. I finished the main game in about an hour and a half and the DLC was around another hour, and I really took my time, so it is possible to finish it in less time. For the price (especially considering that the DLC's also cost extra money) it is just not really worth it. I'd recommend to get it in a sale.
(- -) This certainly won't concern everyone, since it is about the achievements. There are not many of them, but you certainly won't be able to find them on your own, because they are just really pointless. Many of them are things like ''click on x ten times'' or ''stare at y for this many seconds''. I love achievement collecting, but this just felt like a task. Especially because most achievements are extremely missable and you will just have to replay it to get them: Cutscenes are unskippable which makes the entire progress tedious.

This leaves me at about three stars!

A lovely game about painting, love and loss. It looks beautiful and the music/sound effects are very nice and set a relaxing mood. The puzzles are fairly simple, but that suits the game just fine and keeps things going. The biggest disappointment here is the writing. I can forgive the sketchy grammar, but the storytelling is so incredibly obtuse that I simply had no idea what actually happened once the credits started rolling. It's not an open-ended thing where you can draw your own conclusions, I just had no clue what went on here. Such a shame because the journey truly is enjoyable.

A cute little piece. You can tell that the devs wore their hearts on their sleeves this one, really drawing from their inspirations, such as Ghibli and Amélie. It's a quaint puzzle game with a lot of good art and simple yet touching animations.

The biggest struggle with a game like this is that there's just not a lot to it. It's a simple, straightforward narrative, with some very simple puzzling elements. A few of the puzzles are finnicky, but are pretty straightforward and easy to solve. The plot itself is also very straightforward, and you'll probably realize what happened by chapter 2. This can make the game feel a little slow and plodding; it's as if the writers revealed their hand too early, and maintaining an air of mystery would be more interesting.

But for what it is, this is fine. It's a nice, wholesome, cozy game, and it'll pluck a heartstring or two on its way. Definitely a pleasant experience, but there's also not much else to say beyond that.

This game not being good hurts me in the same way as when an animated movie isn't good.
Animated movies sometimes have badly written dialogues which just kills the movies, in this game it's the same thing with the interactions, there's something wrong with the way they feel and they don't manage to make you feel what the games want you to.
Now obviously the drawings, the animation, the music and the puzzles were great.
The game tries to make you feel the same thing as these days where you're alone, either sunny, rainy or during the late evening with warm moody lights in your flat and you're just listening to music, cooking, reading, cleaning... doing something tangible and carelessly enjoying it.