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[polycube]

I made a spirograph-style pattern generator which you can try out here:

http://www.kongregate.com/games/polycube/spirostudio



changelog for v1.03 (08/12/13):
- implemented slider control
- added slider controls to all numerical inputs
- made symmetry affect slider increment for speeds and smoothness
- added rgb sliders to palette
- fixed reverse layers loading
- added “randomize all” button
- increased draw limit
- changed “opacity” label to “alpha” for consistency

changelog for v1.04 (09/12/13)
- added reset all button
- added draw limit input
- added draw limit saving and loading
- added licensing information to about window
- decreased default draw limit to 10000
- fixed jpg saving to use reverse layers
- fixed smooth lines not loading
- rearranged some parts of the interface
- made symmetry affect keyboard increment/decrement for speeds and smoothness inputs
- made randomize set the smoothness to nearest multiple of symmetry if using symmetry


I'm mostly looking for feedback on the usability of the interface and any bugs that need to be fixed.

Some of the feedback I've received so far:
- the settings interface obscures the drawing too much
- suggestion for a grid mode where you can compare variations
- suggestion for undo/save state functionality
- the palette is lacking in colours

Also if you want to see more spirograph art you can check out my generative art tumblr.

[niorad]

Wow that's really fun, I could go on for hours!

- the settings interface obscures the drawing too much
I think that's part of the fun, to explore the settings and their effects. Also it's a good idea to keep it hidden on start so you can get used to the basic idea.

- suggestion for a grid mode where you can compare variations
Yes! I'mm seeing n slight random variations of a spiral. Then you click the one you like most and then this one gets randomized n times, and so on. Evolutionary methods.

- the palette is lacking in colours
You could add themes as a basic setting, like "fire" with warm colors and so on. Then have a Photoshop-Style color-picker for the advanced settings.

What I'm missing most is a way to adjust the speed-values by drag & drop. The less you have to use the keyboard the better!

[polycube]

Thanks for the feedback niorad! I decided to implement sliders on your suggestion, and they turned out to be pretty fun to play with. If you set the draw speed to at least 360 you can basically animate the pattern by dragging any slider.

The new version is up now:

http://www.kongregate.com/games/polycube/spirostudio

Here is the changelog for v1.03:

• implemented slider control
• added slider controls to all numerical inputs
• made symmetry affect slider increment for speeds and smoothness
• added rgb sliders to palette
• fixed reverse layers loading
• added “randomize all” button
• increased draw limit
• changed “opacity” label to “alpha” for consistency

[Cbear]

it's cool! ^_^
 I enjoyed using it. It actually gave me some ideas on making my own art, which is pretty cool.

[William Chyr]

Hey, this is super cool. Really nice to see something different like this on the forums.

Regarding sliders - why don't you just have them right underneath the numerical values? Feels like an extra unneccessary step to have to click and have the slider drop down. On the hand, it might make the UI more convoluted, and it's pretty packed as it is.

For the numerical values, I noticed some of them you can enter values greater than 1, even though they're strictly 0 to 1 values (like alpha). Of course, it doesn't really make a difference to the program if the player sets a value larger than 1, but the number remains after the player hits enter. I would just set this to 1 if the value is greater, so that the player isn't confused.

Other than that, really great work. I've bookmarked the page and intend to return and play around with the game some more.

BTW, really love the work on your generative art tumblr. Beautiful stuff. Were they all made with SpiroStudio?

I've done a bit of proecedurally generated art myself. Here's a couple of 3D fractals from about a year and a half ago.

[Slader16]

This is so awesome, you could sell it 

[Manuel Magalhães]

this is cool, i've gotten some pretty patterns with it.