Do you own one? Download it here!
What is an NPG?
In 2016 Julian had the idea of making a painting that could live and evolve on its own. The thought was that if he learned how to make a video game, he would have the knowledge to create this living painting with AI. The idea then extended to physical arts, meaning maybe there could be only one of them. He thought that he could put the "game" on a small single-board computer (e.g. Raspberry Pi) and then cast it in resin and destroy any copies. While an almost definite way to lose all of it, it was not the best solution to create a single instance of a digital work.
In 2021 Julian and some old friends had the idea that they would try to buy-sell a work of physical art with an NFT. While the experiment was interesting, the main idea to come out of it was using NFTs to create the single instance of a digital work, thus solving the problem for his NPG idea. He could tie the NPG to an NFT, and access to the NPG would only be available after verifying ownership directly through the NPG. And even better, you can add royalties to an NFT, i.e. if the work is sold again a portion of that sale will go directly to the artist, something that is lacking in physical arts.
After more than four years of learning c-sharp and Unity3D, Julian started A look into... in April of 2020. Although it started as a video game, as time went on it became apparent that this was a perfect project to finally start creating a living and evolving painting. This is a very simplified version of the final dream, but all the base mechanics are there.
Now Julian works on both the player game and the non-player game when he can.
Below is a live version of the NPG. Please keep in mind that this is a "web-build", which comes with some complications (most notably the sound). By clicking on the demo the sound will activate. The actual paintings are applications run directly on your computer and do not have these problems.
Julian streams the process of making A look into... on twitch.
You can also download the playable version of the project on itch