Free AI-Built Adobe Clones Get a Reality Check
ArtCraft is a set of seven free, open-source apps that copy Adobe Creative Cloud tools, like PhotoCraft (Photoshop), VectorCraft (Illustrator) and FilmCraft (Premiere Pro). Open-source means anyone can see and change the code. Developer Brandon Thomas wrote them with help from Anthropic's Claude AI. Creative Bloq tested them and says they look almost exactly like Adobe's apps, but they aren't ready to replace Photoshop or Premiere yet. The project itself says only two of the seven apps are properly usable right now.
Michelangelo's Handwriting Becomes a Real Typeface
The office that looks after St. Peter's Basilica worked with Microsoft and Italian studio studiogusto to create "Michelangelus," a typeface based on Michelangelo's handwriting. The designers studied his original letters in the Vatican archives and at Casa Buonarroti in Florence. The lowercase letters come from his handwriting, and the capitals come from inscriptions carved in stone, including the one on the Pietà. The family has four styles, and it's coming to Microsoft 365.
Dragon Quest's Creator Made a Game in 30 Minutes
Yuji Horii created Dragon Quest, one of the best-selling game series ever. On 11 October he shared a free browser game, a text-only detective interrogation, that he says took about 30 minutes to make with Claude AI. He compared it to *The Portopia Serial Murder Case*, a 1983 game he wrote, drew and programmed entirely by himself. His point is that someone who can't draw or code can now make a decent game alone. Nobody has independently checked the 30-minute claim, and a polished commercial game still takes far more work.
Epic's "AI-First" Disney Game Sparks Backlash
Bloomberg reports that Epic Games told the team on its delayed Disney shooter to stop writing code by hand and to make art through AI workflows. A workflow is the step-by-step process a team follows to make something. Epic says its own developers are still "the visionaries and creative drivers," but many players and developers see it as an attempt to rescue a struggling project. Some commenters draw a line between AI helping with code, which they're fine with, and AI generating the art, which they aren't.
Brand a Biology Charity in 20 Minutes
Brand New, a leading site that reviews logo and identity design, featured a new identity by Mucho for Biotic, a non-profit focused on cell biology. An identity is the whole visual system around a logo: type, colors, shapes and how they're used together. Brand New's tags point to a minimal black-and-white Swiss style (clean grids and simple sans serif type) with a cell-inspired element, under the headline "Cell-by Date."
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5 stories · under 10 minutes. See you tomorrow.
TODAY’S THREADIn all five stories, the tools are getting easier and cheaper, from AI-coded app clones to 30-minute games. What still makes the work stand out is the human part: Michelangelo's hand, Horii's story idea and a designer's research into cells. Spend your time on the ideas and the looking, because the tools will keep changing.