Colors! 3D off-line changes and submission woes

I’m sorry to report that there are further delays with the Colors! 3D update. Nintendo found two more issues with our submission and have requested us to fix them before we can make the update available in the eShop. The first was a couple of situations where Colors! 3D didn’t behave as it should if the SD card was full and you re-ran the tutorial (or used a coloring page in the Portuguese version!). The second one was that sometimes the Paint With Friends feature would not connect if the one user had the original version of Colors! 3D and the other had the updated one. We’ve already submitted a new version, so now we are waiting Nintendo to look through it. Based on this, our new hope is to see the update in the store somewhere between 3-5 weeks from now. I’m terribly sorry about these delays – no one wants to see this update go live more than we do.

So, to give you at least something nice to read about in this blog-post, I thought I’d talk about the off-line changes we’ve done in the update. We’ve said before that this update is focused on the online areas of Colors! 3D, but we’ve also snuck in a few changes elsewhere.

colors_3d_custom_buttons
Here you can see the custom button configuration options. This is something that a number of you have been asking for to improve their painting flow (and we’ve even got a few requests from people that have Nintendo 3DSs with broken shoulder buttons that want find a way to keep use Colors!). Using this, you will be able to map whatever function you want to each button. There are even a few new functions that Toggle Eraser and increase/decrease brush-size that weren’t available at all before.

colors_3d_usedtools

This is a slightly redesigned Manage Painting screen. We’ve added information for you to see what tools you’ve used and how much time you’ve spent on the painting. You will also be able to see this information online on the comments page of each painting in the gallery.

And then there are of course bug-fixes. There are number of bad bugs that snuck into the original version of Colors! 3D. With the update, we’ve fixed all the known ones of which the top three culprits probably are:

• Fixed an issue where sometimes a layer would not save correctly
• Improved the behavior of app when you’ve have hit the 6 hour playback limit (including a limited Undo and Export)
• Fixed a bug where sometimes imported photos would get corrupt

That’s pretty much it for off-line changes. I know many of you want to us add more tools and features, but that will have to wait for another time. While we will probably never include a line or a fill tool (we don’t believe that those tools fit with the “pure painting” goal with have with Colors!), we’d love to add more brushes and a few other simple tools in the future.

Jens

The Colors! 3D update for Nintendo 3DS will be a free update that you will be able to download from the eShop. There is no set release-date, but our best guess at this point is 3-5 weeks from now.

42 thoughts on “Colors! 3D off-line changes and submission woes

  1. I’m ok with delays for this, because I get this update on WHY. I appreciate that you let us know what is going on. Some companies just say “some issues, expect release later”, but we get to know why for Colors! 3D. I’m excited for this update, hoping for no more future delays :)

  2. I’m really looking forward to this and it’s nice, that you told us, what exactly the problem and didn’t just say “technical difficultis” like everyone else :)

  3. I am really excited for this update. One thing I am curious about is why the 6-hour playback limit is in place. (I don’y really have any knowledge in programming or what it take to run the app so maybe there are just limitations?) Also I think your idea to add new brushes is a great idea. I think that with really help achieve better results (a watercolor brush perhaps?). One last thing, have you ever considered adding some sort of blur tool?

  4. @Jeremy,

    Yes, the 6 hour limit is due to limitations with the Nintendo 3DS system’s internal memory (RAM).

    Yes, a blur tool is something that we hope to add to Colors! at some point.

  5. Yeah. I don’t really mind the delay. I think colors! 3d is fine the way it is! I have never had a problem with it! Its got a great gallery full of great art, so yeah! ^w^

  6. So what happens when you pass the 6 hours limit in the updated version?
    what do you mean by “Improved the behavior”? O:

  7. I am glad to see that the offline is getting an update. About the line and fill tools, I say the line tool should be there, for a couple of reasons. It is hard to draw straight lines on the 3DS screen compared to doing it on regular paper. A line tool would really help with city buildings, walls, windows, etc. A fill tool isn’t too much wanted, but it can save time if I want to get a lot of pictures done. Personally, I do not care for “pure painting”, as long as the picture is done, but I won’t complain. The current set up is fine, I just wish there is at least a line tool for cleaner and smoother lines.

    Will there be a possibility of more layers coming? Not that I really want more, I am fine with the current amount of layers, but just wondering if it is possible to update the software with more layers.

  8. could you make a colors update in the future that adds stuff like water color/oil brushesa? like stuff in artrage studios how you can use water, blending, actual paper textures, etc

  9. i saw you say that blur tool will be added, can a “sharpen” tool be added too? all it basically does is darken the transparent pixels until its dark. i have a bug to note (idk if it has been fixed though): when i get a random color (that isnt black, gray, or white) and copy it onto it self until its opaque (its how i sharpen my lines), the transparent pixels turn a darker shade than what i chose. idk i kind of llike it but some times a color like black will appear even though the line is yellow or some othe bright color

  10. I would like to thank you for sharing this information with us. Hopefully, Nintendo has reviewed the update. I also hope that there won’t be many bugs on this update, although, I think every game has glitches or bugs. lol.

  11. Glad you all are working on the update! Any chance of news for Colors on Wii U? Surely you all are aware of the prevalence of artwork that is everywhere on Miiverse! I can’t wait to draw stuff with the GamePad.

  12. I noticed the first picture in that blog post. Thank you so much for adding the option to disable stylus scaling! That feature got to be very troublesome for me, and inaccuracy was a noticable issue, and in order to make it work correctly on the app, I had to mess up the regular 3DS touchscreen calibration.

    Now that that’s fixed, the 3DS really will be my favorite handheld device I’ve ever owned. ^w^

  13. Nice job Jens! Its well apreciate the effort, dedication and time that you and the colors development team put into this update. :D

  14. Those new abilities seem to be great! I can wait til the update comes out so take your time!

  15. Thanks for letting us know, I can’t wait for the release! It’s worth the wait, so it won’t hurt for a little longer. :)

  16. Jens, something to ask:
    1: When viewing certain images on the gallery via the app, it randomly stops loading and sends me to the home menu. After that, a message is displayed saying ”An error has occured. The system must now shutdown…” I was wondering if it was a problem on my end or the app’s.
    2: Could you increase the limit of the viewable paintings app-side? I’d rather like to see my own paintings, even when I post so much it goes off the gallery. Perhaps you could set up some sort of numerical page system?

  17. @Vandal: I was thinking about the numerical page system as well. My favorites is cutting off on the 3DS and I have no way to view the older ones unless I use the website. Having multiple pages would be a real blessing to every gallery, from the user’s own paintings, and his/her favorites, to especially the “newest paintings” category.

  18. I was also thinking about the numerical page system. My oldest favorites always get off the screen and so I can’t check them out. By the way, I can’t wait for the update!

  19. Just a few questions/considerations:
    1) I was thinking that, because some people on Colors3D have a comic series, that there could be a seperate page design specifically for that (which may imclude pattern-paints used in graphic novels and easy access to change the square template).
    2) A prompt saying if we want the playback data when downloading a painting would be nice, right? It takes a long time to download good paintings, and sometimes, the painting will not be in its finished form. If we just want the painting image, itself, that would be a great add-on.
    3) Profie pages availible on the app.
    4) For the advanced people on here, why not make advanced tools?
    5) This is for the website: When I try to hit download on the Colors website, it hits Report instead. It gets kinda annoying after a while, so please space those a bit further away from eachother, please.
    6) Text box? Maybe this could go with the Graphic Novel Template previously mentioned.
    7) The screen when painting will get dark when using dark colors in a zoomed area, and this becomes a problem when using gray or white, because the white BG looks gray.
    8) Different tools such as blur, sharpen, chalk, coal, pastel, etc.

    That’s it… thanks!

  20. the update’s really cool and all, but it won’t let me upload the paintings that i made. it says that i used the reference tool (which is true, i copied it from my sketchbook) and that they won’t accept it.

  21. @HatsuneMiku, just make sure you remove the reference image before you try to upload it, and it should work fine.

  22. it won’t let me freakin upload any pictures and we’ve already hit the activation e-mail it sent to our i pad

  23. Hey, I know it’s probably a hassle to ask this of you. But, would you consider adding more brush types for the app, like brushes for fur, and other types? Also, I think a lot of people would enjoy the playback limit being lengthened or removed for offline, as it does take some pieces more time than the playback limit allows, which then leads to having to export the image from where it stopped, and restarting. There’s also another suggestion I had, which involved the zooming ability, as I wondered if that could be made to go in further, and also if it could be made so users can go smaller than currently, when drawing in certain details that require a very small brush size. Anyways, thank you for your time, I ho[e to hear back.

    ~ Yggdrasil Amatsu

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