Painting a city, one block at a time
How the world blooms into color — twelve hand-tuned hues, region by region, as you walk.
The single most important decision in Rainbow Wander is also the smallest: what color does this block become?
Get it wrong and the map looks like a clown threw up on it. Get it right and your neighborhood becomes something you actually want to look at — a soft, warm, hand-painted version of the streets you already know.
Twelve hues, gently tuned
The world blooms into one of twelve colors — poppy, coral, marigold, sunshine, meadow, fern, lagoon, sky, cornflower, iris, orchid, bubblegum. They’re vivid, but never harsh. Every one was nudged warmer and a touch softer than its “pure” version, so the whole map feels like a storybook instead of a screen.
Regions, not pixels
Color isn’t assigned block-by-block at random. The city is divided into regions about 445 metres across, and each region commits to a single hue. Walk a few streets and you’ll notice a neighborhood of color forming — a marigold quarter, a lagoon stretch by the water. It rewards wandering, which is the entire point.
The bloom
When a block finally fills in, it doesn’t just snap on. It blooms — a little pop, a breath of glow, sometimes a drift of petals or a tiny festival lantern. It’s the payoff for showing up, and it had to feel like a small, good thing happening. Because that’s what a walk is.
Next time: making Gatsby a real, three-dimensional dog.