Concept
Well, for my project, I have always been really inspired by the Japanese art of Kintsugi (金継ぎ). What I love about it is the philosophy of it that, instead of hiding the cracks in broken pottery, it highlights them with gold. It treats the breakage and repair as a beautiful part of the object’s history, and I find that to be incredibility interesting. This is why I want to bring that idea into a digital space.
For now, I think I’ll call my project the “Kintsugi Canvas.” I don’t intend it to be a typical drawing tool; I want to build an interactive artwork where your first action is to break something. You simply shatter a digital canvas with a click, and then watch as the program algorithmically mends the damage with simulated gold, creating a unique piece of art from the flaw you introduced. Of course, this is the base idea for now, but I’ve been thinking about the kind of object that I want to be fixed; is it a bowl that the user breaks and then repairs again? (as seen in the photo below). Well, I’m not decided yet, but pretty sure it’ll be among those lines. Of course, my goal is to make it like a game, so I want to fit all these elements together.
Gameplay Loop
The core gameplay loop is a simple, two-step journey that puts the player in the role of both destroyer and observer.
*** Shatter: The player’s primary action. A single click on the blank canvas triggers a fracturing process. Cracks spread dynamically from the point of impact, breaking the canvas into unique polygonal shards.
*** Mend: The game’s generative response. Once shattered, the system automatically traces the new cracks with an animated golden seam, “healing” the canvas. The player watches as a beautiful, final artwork emerges from the damage they initiated.
For now, till I decide on the actual technicalities of the game, I’ve decided to keep controls are minimal and intuitive: click to start a new round, press ‘S‘ to save your creation, and ‘R‘ to reset the canvas. These, of course, will increase once I have decided on the idea completely.
So, to state it simply, the game will give the users places to go to and from there they can shatter or mend. For now, I’m planning on a museum, bedrooms, personal times, etc. Some examples I’m planning to incorporate as the base are:
You simply choose an object, and you can shatter it, mend it, etc!
The Core Design Challenge
For the game to be compelling, the act of breaking the canvas has to feel satisfying and organic. The biggest technical and design challenge is probably generating crack patterns that look natural. A static or predictable pattern would make the core mechanic feel repetitive and robotic, ruining the player’s experience. The entire project hinged on making this moment of destruction feel alive.
The Solution
To brainstorm, I’m planning a concept focusing entirely on this procedural generation, a system of agents I call “growers.” Each grower is a point with a position and direction that carves a path. By giving these agents a simple set of rules—move, wander slightly, branch occasionally, and die on collision—complex, organic patterns emerge, which is totally needed for the project.