You know that brand of medieval art where everyone’s faces look the same, animals are super wonky, and it looks like the third dimension hasn’t been invented yet? That’s exactly the kind of art you get to bring to life when you step in to the Middle Ages in Scriptorium: Master of Manuscripts, a medieval illustration simulator developed by Yaza Games and published by Mythwright.

With charming, humorous writing and an ever-growing toolbox of silly yet appealing illustrations, Scriptorium is a fantastic creative sandbox to get lost in. That’s exactly what I did when I grabbed the demo that released as part of Steam Next Fest: February 2026.

A Charming Story to Get You Going

No one wants to sit through a tedious tutorial when you have an arson full of creative tools waiting for you. At the same time, though, jumping straight into a creative sandbox with no idea what you’re doing can be intimidating. Luckily, Scriptorium features a story mode that’s perfect for showing you the ropes, inspiring new creative ideas, and providing plenty of humor and intrigue as you start your journey as a medieval illustrator.

Customize your character and take them from a down-on-their-luck medieval nobody to the owner of the new local scriptorium. Two mysterious creatures also arrive at your shop to help you (or maybe hinder you, depending on how the story goes) as you find your footing and make a name for yourself.

Ignore the fact that one of them claims to be your uncle and the other one literally has devil horns—it’s probably not important.

Ulterior motives aside, it’s characters like these who make learning the game’s mechanics a breeze. Plus, the easy-going pace and ample room for flexibility mean you won’t feel lost or held back as you work on your first couple of art pieces.

Mastering Your Craft

The writing is fun and the characters are great, but let’s get to the real stuff: the artwork. The game gives you a portfolio of sketches, or design elements, that you can use in your illustrations. Some sketches are full images, such as a rabbit or a monkey. Others are pieces that you can mix and match, such as a head, paw, or tail. When a customer asks you to draw an animal, you can place a whole rabbit on your parchment, or you can get a little more creative and, say, combine the head of a rabbit and the tail of a monkey attached to the limbs and torso of a human.

Every customer will come to you with specific requirements, which are necessary to complete the art, and requests, which earn you extra points and praise. Every project has clear but mostly hands-off parameters, making it easy to follow the rules while giving you the freedom to play around and get silly with it.

Satisfying clients earns you money, prestige, and new sketches to make every new project even better. Plus, you get to spend money on furniture and other customizations for your shop. All my gold went straight to buying a cat—and yes, it was absolutely worth it.

Creativity Has No Limits

Scriptorium boasts straightforward, intuitive controls that let you do a lot even when you’re just starting out. The creative mechanics are perfect for not getting overwhelmed by too many tools and for not making you feel bored or frustrated by limitations. Even with three hours of playtime, I never had a moment where I felt like the game couldn’t keep up with what I was envisioning for a piece. Even if I maybe should have been stopped at some point.

Sorry, Big Beast. You were cooler in my head.

The game also has a sandbox mode that lets you loose with a blank parchment and a full arsenal of sketches and pigments, promising hours of entertainment even beyond the story mode. Best of all, you can turn every illustration—including both story mode and sandbox mode creations—into PNGs that are easy to save, upload, and print whenever you want. Make props for your TTRPG game, entertain your friends with silly greeting cards, or simply enjoy your wacky masterpieces for years to come.

The Shop’s Just Getting Started

The demo offers a handful of customers and projects to explore, plus the sandbox mode with all the currently available tools at your disposal, but the full version of the game promises even more. New drawing tools, more customers, more story (and hopefully more answers about who these weird little guys in your shop are), more customization, and plenty of fun challenges to test your creative vision await.

Note: Although Scriptorium is a game of all ages, the developers give a mild mature content warning for occasional, non-explicit cartoon nudity.

The Scriptorium: Master of Manuscripts demo was part of Steam Next Fest: February 2026. The demo is still available as of publication. The full game’s release is slated for some time in 2026.

Read all of our demos coverage in our Steam Next Fest February 2026 page.