ArtLevelUp - Drawing Practice

Daily drawing quests, skill leveling, and an art journal that help you build a real practice habit. Targeted practice for fundamental drawing skills that rewards you with achievements and cosmetics.

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Inspiration

I have always had the hobby of drawing and painting and as a DevOps engineer with a love for gaming and automation I had the idea of gamifying my art journey to help me stay consistent. I kept seeing people online trying to gamify their drawing practice with spreadsheets, habit trackers, and paper-and-pen systems so I wanted to make something dedicated to this. I envisioned the app as an old-school pixelart RPG experience.

What it does

ArtLevelUp turns getting better at drawing into a game with daily quests, leveling skills, and streaks that keep you coming back.

Every day you get a daily board of quests featuring targeted drawing prompts for fundamental art skills.

You can:

  • Complete Quests & Log Art: Upload photos of your sketches to a personal art journal.
  • Level Up: Earn XP to level up your skills over time.
  • Build Streaks: Unlock achievements and custom skins by staying consistent.
  • Track Progress: View detailed stats and a sortable gallery of your artistic evolution.

How I built it

ArtLevelUp is a React Native app built with Expo and TypeScript, running on Firebase for pretty much everything: the database, cloud functions, storage for photos and authentication. Subscriptions go through RevenueCat on top of Google Play/Apple billing.

I have personally hand drawn all the pixelart in the app in order to give it a nostalgic video game aesthetic.

Challenges I ran into

It has been very hard to figure out how to balance the free and paid tiers in a way that feels engaging and fair to the user. I have wanted the free subscription to allow everyone to build a habit of drawing daily without feeling limited by a paywall. So the Plus membership has been designed for determined users that want better insight into their stats, more quest options and to build an expansive photo portofolio.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

  • Shipping a fully functional app with a complete core loop (quests, journal, skills, streaks, gallery, and progression).
  • Creating all pixel-art assets by hand so the app has a unique visual identity.
  • Building an efficient backend that keeps operating costs extremely low.
  • Designing a system that directly addresses a pain point many artists openly talk about: staying consistent with deliberate practice.

What I learned

As a professional DevOps engineer, I also took working on this app as a learning experience in system design. I have prioritized a clean architecture that is scalable and efficient from day 1. Every single feature has been implemented with responsiveness, performance and cloud costs in mind. I have utilized optimistic loading and caching wherever possible to make the experience as snappy as possible.

I have also learned a lot about the process of actually publishing an app, going through app reviews and now I can fully see that actually shipping a full product is very different from "just" programming. Overall it has been a very exciting journey navigating the business side of this project.

What's next for ArtLevelUp - Drawing Practice

I have a lot of exciting ideas for future updates:

  • First seasonal event as Inktober! You will be able to complete daily Inktober prompts, share them and earn cosmetic rewards such as new letters, wax seals, boards and themes.
  • Social: Sharing drawings in the app, viewing other people's profiles, leaderboards and multiplayer challenges.
  • Reference library.
  • Gesture drawing timer and tracking.
  • Questlines: Guided art lessons.

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