What good is a painting, even a 3D painting, if no one but you gets to see it? Several features of Colors! 3D demoed at GDC centered on directly addressing that need to create a sense of community and connection in the upcoming 3DS painting application.

For instance, players do not need to leave the game to view the online gallery. With an active Wi-Fi connection, players can simply navigate to a menu option and connect to the online gallery. They can upload their own 3D creations, search for and view other works, and even enjoy a constantly updating slideshow of thumbnails featuring randomly selected works. The images shown in the 3DS game are created within the 3DS version of the title, but users will also be notified if an artist they're viewing has additional non-3D images available on the external Colors! gallery website. Following a convenient link will open the 3DS browser and automatically take the user to the complete Colors! gallery website, which includes artwork created on other platforms. Each piece of art is credited with the handle of the registered user who uploaded it, but it was neat to see that artists could and often would add their own custom signatures to their pieces.

Asked about more risqué artwork uploaded to the gallery, developer Collecting Smiles explained how their existing gallery system lets users tag mature content as 18+. Collecting Smiles periodically reviews these ratings to make sure they're accurate, and the end result is that only users who've created official gallery accounts and who've logged in will be exposed to works categorized as 18+.

Another innovative feature setting Colors! 3D apart from other painting programs is collaborative painting. Through local wireless, two 3DS users can work on the exact same canvas. With access to all the same 3D tools available when painting alone, the mode is almost like a cooperative multiplayer form of painting. After the painting session is done, both players end up with an auto-saved copy of their work, but only the player who initiated the multiplayer session has the rights to publish the actual painting to the online gallery.

This mode almost invites a really close sense of collaboration, something that reminded me of how it feels to be in a team match with my brother in Smash Bros. with team attack on. Of course, I'm much better at Smash Bros. than I am at painting (even after completing the game's painting and game interface tutorial), so my painting session with Collecting Smile's Jens Andersson produced a horrible 3D mess of color and smudges that I'm happy will never see the light of day.

According to the developer, players can use Swapnote as an additional way to share artistic talent with the world. I didn't get to see this in action, but Colors! 3D lets users save their 3D images to the SD card, after which they should be fair game for attaching to Swapnote messages sent to friends.

These abilities to share one’s work may appear daunting, but another new feature offers a way to ease into the process of painting in Colors! 3D: a new coloring book mode. In this mode, players have access to a small set of pre-designed lined scenes in which it is impossible to color outside the lines. Color the entire scene, and hidden visual details and Easter eggs appear where there were previously boring blank spaces. For those not yet ready to share their painting prowess with the world, this mode could serve as a light-hearted and stress-free way to get used to the tools and techniques the game affords them.

As previously reported by NWR, Colors! 3D features a varied feature set for solitary painting: five paintable 3D layers, the ability to manage brush size and opacity, and a timed playback feature (à la Swapnote), along with other capabilities. But above and beyond that core experience, it looks like Collecting Smiles is also integrating new ways to let users display and store their work, collaborate with other artists, and ultimately find a way to transform the previously singular experience of painting into an avenue for connecting with others.