The Colors! 3D Community : 1 Year On

Colors! 3D is an application that was released for the Nintendo 3DS via the online eStore nearly one year ago, in April 2013. Developed by CollectingSmiles, it is notable for a number of reasons, not least because of the fact it is the first proper piece of art software released for the 3DS. What really made it special, however, and that which has allowed its thriving community to flourish, are the social media elements the developers included. It allows users to build their own online galleries, uploading their favorite pieces to show off to the world, which can in turn be rated/faved and commented on.

L-R : “Landscape sketch” by MO.SAID, “Dark Magician Girl” by BlazedCreativity

A quick look on the app’s communal gallery section reveals that the app’s members have submitted over 100 pieces of art so far this week. And thats just counted the well-rated ones, the real figure is sure to be much higher. And the quality being produced is astounding, especially when taking into account both the size of the device the art is being produced on and the limitations of the app (which I did a piece on when I wrote for PlusXp. You can find this here). You can find a sample of my favourites above.

Pic I drew in Colors! 3D. Text added in Photoshop, border added in the GIMP.

Yes this is a community which certainly takes itself seriously. The desire Colors! 3D artists have to stand out in the communal gallery can perhaps best be seen in the popularity of Rogue Ranger’s ‘How to Get Likes’ tutorial, which has scored a total of 2587 stars so far (making it the communal gallery’s highest rated submission). This animated movie, made using the app itself, has a step by step guide offering Colors! fans such advice as investing time in their work, being original and how to make a picture look good from the communal gallery’s thumbnail view. More experienced artists who are familiar with basics like these will have also found use in this tutorial in what it reveals about the nature of the Colors! 3D beast. Among its many insights are the fact that images uploaded during a time when much positive activity is going on have an increased chance of themselves recieving likes and stars.

The Colors! 3D logo

Nearly a year after its release and Colors! 3D is continuing to make waves in the gaming media.Perhaps most worthy of note was Kotaku’s recent Valentines Day story of a 10 year old boy who tried using Colors! to find himself a girlfiend. The plucky young chap (username Masterclaw360) uploaded a hand-written message declaring “I need a girlfriend. girls read discription” with some downward arrows. His description further elaborated with “im ten years old, i like hockey,basketball and soccer. i like sonic, legend of zelda starfox and mario im sixty two pounds …”. Bless. We’re not sure if the young casanova ever managed to find his lady, but, regardless, we at 3DSBlessed give him full props for trying…

Playa~

Perhaps best of all, for fans of this app, is the fact that the developers have by no means forgotten it. Infact there is an free update on its way that will have a whole host of new features, such as being able to customise the button configuration, a summary of how long you’ve spent on a painting plus a whole plethora of exciting new online features.

Exciting additions to be included in the next Colors 3D update

In conclusion, it seems that in the fast-paced world gaming, software, be they games or console apps like this, gets released and everyone is hyped about them for a month or so. Then they die away. Its something gamers grow to expect.
So when you see an app like Colors! 3D come along and it really manages to hold the gaming community’s attention (not to mention carve out its own little pulsating niche) well… I’d argue thats pretty special.
When I wrote about Colors! 3D for PlusXp I really focused on the negatives. Nearly one year later and its developers are still working on addressing whats wrong with it, trying to perfect it, and this is entirely commendable. But its really the dedication and the love the Colors 3D community so clearly have for it which has utterly sold me on this app.

Official Colors! 3D website : http://colorslive.com

~HelenBaby

Categories: Articles, Home

Tags: app, application, art, artistic, collectingsmiles, colors, colors 3ds, colors! 3d, colours 3ds, colours! 3d, hanheld, nintendo

This post was written by helenbaby, posted on March 7, 2013 Thursday at 8:53 pm