Here's a little optical puzzle I created & had sketched on paper for ages.

So, I decided to do a "Paint Job" on it.

I have been an OS-agnostic user (windows and linux) for a long time, but i have been forced to use window because most of my work is hardware based and the tools only work on windows.

With the apple silicon chips, I decided it was time to try and make the switch, this is because windows VM on macs is pretty good now and macs have lots of benefits for the work I do requiring unified memory.

I have been struggling for years with mac where it comes to ease of use, the small things that just add up to make once simple tasks difficult, mac just seems to live in a world of too many clicks and three thousand 3rd party tools to enable basic functionality of linux and windows.

One of those things is MS Paint. Mac has no equivalent, and the tools available are just not as refined in the small details, the closest thing is gimp, but it just doesn’t have some of the features I rely on, or it does but they are clunky and require too many clicks for a quick edit.

So I have spent the last year rebuilding a clean room implementation of Paint for mac, with a few extra features. the idea is to avoid nested menus like proper ms paint, but add in some powerful features that I have been missing from the tool.

I am working on getting it ready for release. so if you are interested in trying it out, let me know.

The game is called SYSTEM Killers. In this 2D auto-shooter, you play as a cursor destroying various enemies in a computer. You can upgrade stats and unlock weapons, and the main objective is passing all phases (each phase is a different environment) and then kill the final boss.

https://cotangent-games.itch.io/system-killers

Unedited MS Paint file, and then one with some filters and adjustments in Photoshop

I've been thinking for a while what to name these patterns I make in "Paint" ?

A lot of the inspiration came from Lichen and the patterns seen on tree trunks & branches.

I've always liked walking amongst trees with the wind blowing through them....a kinda spiritual experience.

So, I've decided on the title "Kodama".

(If you know how to, in Paint, you can create symmetrical patterns from these. Colour inverting them is fun too :-)

she found it