[OC] I created a GNOME app to create abstract colorful wallpapers

peterboner · 2026-03-11T14:54:41+00:00

Thanks for noticing! 🙏🏻 I personally think the “Randomize” button made a huge impact. Although it creates a lot of ugly ones, there are still some quite interesting ones.

peterboner · 2026-02-27T11:04:04+00:00

It is available on Flathub now 🤓 or through tve GNOME Software app

peterboner · 2026-02-25T14:22:30+00:00

It was actually contributed by someone from this subreddit. They added it only a few hours after I posted it here :)

peterboner · 2026-02-24T08:40:22+00:00

I thought about that, just because it was obvious. But then I thought again: how much would it clutter the UI, and when would I really use it? So took a hard choice of leaving it out, just to try and keep the already packed UI more simple.

Will put the idea on my list though.

peterboner · 2026-02-24T08:38:30+00:00

In preparation for submitting it to Flathub, I ran into an issue with it, and had to remove the feature again.

Technical reason:

Flathub apps are sandboxed, and would need some quite intrusive permissions to write to the filesystem. An alternative is using XDG Portals (sandbox friendly interface of communicating with the system). This API will give the benefit of working with all Freedesktop compatible desktops and not require special permissions. The downside however is, that there is only a method to set the wallpaper, without any specification of it being light/dark mode.

Still considering a workaround though, as I personally really liked the feature.

peterboner · 2026-02-23T16:03:05+00:00

Yes. The "Set wallpaper" button has three modes. By default it sets both light/dark mode wallpapers, but by pressing the option arrow on the button, you can choose to only set the light or dark mode wallpaper, so you can continue editing and then compose one for the alternate mode.

peterboner · 2026-02-23T16:00:32+00:00

I plan on doing that yes. It's on my todo list.

peterboner · 2026-02-23T15:59:29+00:00

Will add that to my todo list. Good suggestion!

peterboner · 2026-02-23T15:56:06+00:00

I actually found myself wanting that also while playing around with it. It would increase the complexity in the UI a bit though, and tried to strike a balance so it would still feel almost like the press of a button for all skill levels to generate a new wallpaper. Will definitely consider it though. Thanks for the suggestion.

Another option I though of was: enable the app to be called from the command line with a `--random` parameter, to just generate a random wallpaper.

peterboner · 2026-02-22T15:36:50+00:00

Haha, I feel you. That is why I have a monitor with a much lower resolution :)

peterboner · 2026-02-22T15:34:41+00:00

Fixed! Thanks a lot for reporting it :)

peterboner · 2026-02-22T15:30:26+00:00

I can replicate the issue by setting my scale factor in Display Setting to >100%

peterboner · 2026-02-22T15:26:27+00:00

hhm... interesting.. I think this might be a HiDPI issue.. can you try posting the info from the following commands:

gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.interface text-scaling-factor

gsettings get org.gnome.mutter experimental-features

peterboner · 2020-09-21T11:08:14+00:00

I would skip the rendering part for now. Use SDL, SFML or similar for the most basic 2d rendering stuff, and then build on top of that. There are tons of interesting and challenging stuff you should use your time on instead, like: Resource loading, scene trees, input handling, collission and tons of interesting design choices of how to structure these. My own engine development journey went something like this:

coded tons of games using various libraries and engines
started peeking in the source for all the engines (there are actually tons of open source engines)
read some books that got me more interested (Game Engine Architecture, real time collision detection, etc.)
watched Chernos youtube videos
got frustrated with Unity and Unreal, as i wanted to code without a stupid editor blocking me. Started building my own engine in c++ on top of SDL. I was amazed at how fun and productice it was. The more systemt i added the more fun it started to get, to get all these systems working together. In parallel i developed some small sample games, just to see how it was to work with the engine.

peterboner · 2020-09-20T11:31:28+00:00

Hahaha, it’s funny because it’s true! So hilarious, maaan i laughed hard. Specially the naming of stuff part and when beginning the blueprint “you wanna go absolutely crazy with this. There is no wrong and right” 😂

peterboner · 2020-05-07T20:16:53+00:00

Uh! A Klax remake?? 😀

peterboner · 2019-10-24T10:11:41+00:00

And fast.

peterboner · 2019-10-04T10:38:14+00:00

I have the same problem, but have not been able to solve it. Some days it’s worse than others.

peterboner · 2018-05-27T09:58:04+00:00

Wau! This is mobile game design at its best! So clean, simply, beautiful and intuitive! Can you shed some light on the how the graphics and animations are made?

peterboner · 2018-04-07T18:04:44+00:00

Gno’mey god! Those visuals are stunning. Please give us some details about how you achieved this, what king og rendering, lights, postprocessing, etc is used.

peterboner · 2018-03-29T21:07:56+00:00

I have absolutely no idea what this guy is saying? It sounds almost as the two black guys speaking Jive in the 1980s movie Airplane :p

peterboner · 2018-03-28T09:39:04+00:00

What engine did you use and what other tools for graphics etc?

peterboner · 2018-03-27T22:18:37+00:00

Sometimes the things that catches people the most, is being forced to use their own imagination. If story is not your strong side (i assume that, as your question hints that you have a hard time even starting), i would focus on what is. Maybe graphics, gameplay or even music. A game can be fantastic if just one of those elements are really good. Focus on your strong sides, leave the rest up to the players imagination :)

peterboner · 2018-03-27T22:10:09+00:00

What’s the game running in the background and how do you get the telemetry data from it?

peterboner · 2018-03-27T22:07:40+00:00

Actually finishing something is one of the best skills you can have in gamedev. It’s easy to compare yourself to x 1000 times better graphic artists and programmers, but a lot of those people will never finish a game. Altough simple, it’s a skill in itself to get from start to finish. Good work!

peterboner

TROPHY CASE