Pimp My Shot

The Pimp My Shot prototype explored how we might allow players to paint, possibly as a civilian profession, while limiting the ability to make inappropriate content — or at least making it so difficult that it could be policed downstream. I refer to that concept as “Mean Time to Penis”, and obviously we wanted to increase that MTTP as much as possible.

This prototype attempted that by abstracting the painting controls such that it’s not possible to paint individual pixels or even to choose specific colors. It does that by using a “backing” or sampler image from which the painter’s brush selects colors automatically.

The brush then emits “painter particle bots” that take the color they’ve been given and wander around the canvas following relatively simple but combinatorically complex rules and behaviors. As the little paint particle robots roam around, they splat their color onto the canvas using a number of little tintable sprites. They also can reevaluate their color as they roam combining their sampled color with the color they’ve wandered over in various ways.

Brush particles also have a rack of configurable particle-like parameters: size and color over time, speed, damping, lifetime could be varied per brush. Most importantly, each particle could be configured to “follow” existing colors in various ways. The result is a really dynamic feel to painting — particles could still be swimming around long after you stop painting — and feels crazy creative and encourages experimentation.

While the finished result could occasionally fall into a “photoshop filter” bucket, the act of painting was oddly playful and compelling. It feels like a living canvas flowing with paint that takes your cues but has a mind of its own.