Playable Paintings:
Steam Games That Are Treated Like Paintings

A museum website visitor rarely expects a discussion about video games, but over the past fifteen years, a significant number of projects have emerged on Steam for which the word "painting" is used without irony: watercolor, ink, tempera, and oil brushstrokes have become not decoration, but the very language of expression. Below, we’ll discuss the origins of the term "playable painting," which projects fit this definition, and why they’re discussed not only by gamers but also by those interested in art history. Finally, we’ll address a practical question faced by some Russian gamers: how to top up a Steam wallet if your account is managed in tenge.

Where does the expression "playable painting" come from?

The term isn’t academic: it’s how game critics and artists themselves describe projects in which the frame is constructed according to the principles of easel painting rather than photography. Three characteristics are usually cited.

The first is hand-crafted texture. In most modern games, the image is rendered by the engine: light, shadow, and materials are calculated using physical models, and the result strives for photorealism. In "painterly" projects, artists deliberately forgo this in favor of visible brushstrokes, paper grain, and uneven ink lines. Technically, the frame is still assembled in real time, but textures and animation are hand-drawn, layer by layer or frame by frame, as in an animation studio.

The second is color as dramaturgy. In a classic film, color sets the composition and mood; in games of this type, the palette shifts with the character’s mood or plot twist, and the viewer detects the change before the text explains it. This technique is familiar from the color scripts of animation studios, where a dominant color scheme is predetermined for each episode.

The third is overt references to schools and techniques. The developers name their sources directly: Japanese prints and ink paintings, medieval book miniatures and early woodcuts, European watercolors of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, expressionist portraiture. For someone accustomed to museums, this is a convenient entry point: the recognizable techniques make the game accessible even to someone who has never held a gamepad.

Steam isn’t just a store in this story. Each project’s page features a gallery of screenshots and concept art, reviews, and discussions, and the games themselves often come with digital artbooks. For some players, collecting such projects is an activity akin to collecting exhibition catalogs: the account library becomes a personal gallery, revisited for just a few shots.

Six projects for which the word "painting" applies literally

• Gris are watercolor landscapes in which colors return one after another as the story progresses.
• Journey is a desert, sand and fabric, rendered in a spare palette and almost without words.
• Okami is a world drawn in the sumi-e and ukiyo-e styles; the heroine uses a brush as her main tool.
• Dordogne is a French province, hand-painted in watercolor, sheet by sheet.
• Pentiment — 16th-century Bavaria in the style of book miniatures and woodcuts; even the font of the lines depends on the character’s origin.
• Disco Elysium – portraits and a city, executed in the spirit of oil painting and expressionism.

Each project has its own destiny, but the general principle is the same: the image doesn’t imitate reality, but rather interprets it, like a painting. All six are available for sale on Steam, and this is where the practical part of the conversation begins.

Kazakhstan-region account: prices in tenge and top-ups from Russia

Some Russian players have Steam accounts registered in the Kazakhstan region: some have relocated, others created accounts while living or studying in Astana or Almaty, and others created them many years ago. The store for such accounts displays prices in tenge, and the catalog corresponds to the Kazakhstan region. This article does not provide advice on changing the region — it only covers how the owner of an existing Kazakhstan account can deposit funds into it while in Russia.

There’s one limitation: the wallet for such an account is maintained in tenge, and it can’t be topped up directly with a Russian bank card. Funds are deposited through a service that accepts rubles and credits the tenge to the specified account. According to the service’s page, over 120,000 such top-ups have already been made for Kazakhstan accounts. The owner only provides a Steam username, without a password, and can top up Steam Kazakhstan in tenge via the Fast Payment System (FPS) through the PREPOD STEAM service . Preset amounts range from 1,000 to 20,000 tenge. Payment is in rubles, including by Russian bank card. The deposit takes a few minutes. The amount in tenge and the debit in rubles are visible until the order is confirmed, and the amount deposited into the wallet is no less than the selected denomination (a 1% conversion fee is added to the payment).

Access to your profile is not required: the service does not log into your account, but transfers funds to your wallet using your login, just as it does with a gift from another user.

What to check before transferring money

Three checks take a minute and eliminate the need to contact support.

A login, not a nickname. The money goes to the login entered in the form. The profile name visible to friends and the account login are different; the login is displayed in the Steam client settings under "Account." It’s from there that it’s copied.

Store currency. After logging in, the storefront should show prices in tenge. If prices are in rubles, you have a different account, and the tenge top-up page is not suitable for it.

Denomination. Presets are available in multiples of common amounts — 1,000, 3,000, 5,000, 10,000, and 20,000 tenge — and choosing a denomination is wise for a specific purchase, taking into account the upcoming sale. The reference exchange rate on the service page is listed as 1 Steam RUB = 1.06 ₽; for a Kazakhstani account, the total is calculated in tenge, and a 1% conversion fee is already included in the payment amount, ensuring that the balance is credited no less than the selected amount.

How can you watch these games if you don’t have time to play?

For those who prefer viewing rather than playing, Steam has several habits borrowed from museum audiences. Many projects in this category have a built-in photo mode: the game can be paused, the interface hidden, the camera freely moves around the scene, and the shot can be saved as a reproduction. Screenshots are uploaded to the account gallery and to the game’s community page, where thousands of other players’ "reproductions" from various stages of the game are collected. Digital art books released with the game showcase sketches, color samples, and rejected versions — the very same preparatory material that museums display alongside the finished painting.

What remains in the end

"Playable painting" isn’t a genre or a marketing label, but a way to look at games through the eyes of someone accustomed to a museum: through technique, color, and style. Gris, Journey, Okami, Dordogne, Pentiment, and Disco Elysium demonstrate that watercolor, ink, miniature, and oil paint can be transferred to the screen without losing their meaning. And the practical side of this hobby is simple: if your Steam account is managed in tenge, your wallet is topped up using your Russian login in a few minutes — once your login and the store currency are verified and the desired denomination is selected.