Colors Live will turn your Nintendo Switch into an actual art tablet thanks to this innovative new pressure-sensitive stylus.
Some of you might remember the game Colors! for the Nintendo DS. It was a game about art–or a game that teaches you how to art. Or maybe both. It used the DS’s dual screens and built-in stylus to let you always make beautiful art on the go, wherever and whenever you wanted.
The original Colors! was downloaded 1 million times, which led to the follow-up game of Colors! 3D on the Nintendo 3DS. That game would eventually become the 10th best-rated game on the platform, and now series creator Jens Andersson is bringing Colors to the Nintendo Switch.
He originally didn’t want to. Due to the Switch’s complete lack of a stylus, Andersson thought that it just wasn’t possible to turn Nintendo’s new semi-mobile console into an art game. But then he got in touch with a Hong Kong inventor who was making a pressure-sensitive stylus that would plug into the Switch through its headphone jack. The two paired up, successfully funded the game via Kickstarter, and now Colors Live is on its way to the Switch.
Like previous games, Colors Live is a single-player art game where the player is tasked with making some new art every day. The game works for all skill levels and is built with the intention of causing the budding artist to improve over time. The Joy-Con buttons are used as shortcuts to pan the screen or bring up the color palette, while the touchscreen operates like an actual art tablet.
The key technology is the Colors SonarPen, a pressure-sensitive stylus that reads how hard the artist is pressing down in order to determine line thickness and transparency. Those are key attributes for getting the Switch to behave like a real art tablet.
Colors Live’s Kickstarter has already ended and backers can expect to receive their digital download and SonarPen later this summer (Japan will have to wait until fall/winter for localization). However, non-backers can pre-order the game thanks to GameFound. Regular copies are $40, and you can upgrade to the Patron bundle to get a snazzy pouch and your preference in SonarPen cable color.
Source: Engadget, Kickstarter, GameFound
