Collecting Smiles
Collecting Smiles is a boutique independent game studio founded in 2007 by Jens Andersson, developing the Colors! digital painting app series across handheld and mobile platforms, the custom SonarPen stylus hardware, and the BAFTA-winning game Yoku's Island Express.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2007
- HeadquartersSan Francisco, United States
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2C
- OfferingSoftware
What Collecting Smiles does
Collecting Smiles is a boutique independent game studio founded in 2007 by designer Jens Andersson, operating primarily as a solo-founder venture with occasional collaborators and a total headcount of approximately eight. The company is headquartered in downtown San Francisco and has operated continuously since 2010 after Andersson left LucasArts, where he served as Lead Designer. Its business is organized around two distinct product lines. The first is the Colors! franchise of digital painting applications, which began as a Nintendo DS prototype in 2007 and expanded to Nintendo 3DS (Colors! 3D), iOS, Android, PlayStation Vita, and ultimately the Nintendo Switch. Colors Live, the Switch flagship, integrates a custom SonarPen pressure-sensitive stylus that connects via the device audio jack and was funded through a 2020 Kickstarter campaign. The second product line is original games, most notably Yoku's Island Express, an open-world pinball adventure co-developed with Villa Gorilla and published by Team17, which won the BAFTA Games Award for Best Debut in 2019.
The underlying technology stack centers on a custom low-latency painting engine optimized for 60fps stylus responsiveness, stereoscopic 3D layering on the 3DS, and integrated social gallery infrastructure hosting approximately 4 million user-created paintings with followers, hashtags, search, comments, and a 'Paint with Friends' local collaborative mode. The Colors! applications share a unified community layer across platforms, creating a content flywheel that compounds with each successive release. SonarPen represents the company's first hardware product and was developed in partnership with a Hong Kong inventor friend; physical distribution of Colors Live is handled by Nighthawk Interactive across North America and Europe.
Commercially, Collecting Smiles operates a self-publishing, product-led go-to-market model. Revenue derives from one-time app purchases (typically $2.99–$6.99 per platform), hardware unit sales of SonarPen, and a developer royalty share on Yoku's Island Express via publisher Team17. The company has never raised institutional capital beyond the 2020 Kickstarter, is founder-owned, and distributes exclusively through third-party digital storefronts (Nintendo eShop, Apple App Store, Google Play, PlayStation Network) and physical retail. Customer segments are horizontal — primarily hobbyist digital artists and indie game enthusiasts — with no enterprise contracts or recurring SaaS revenue.
Collecting Smiles firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Collecting Smiles
- Legal name
- Collecting Smiles
- Website
- https://collectingsmiles.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2007
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- Collecting Smiles is a boutique independent game studio founded in 2007 by Jens Andersson, developing the Colors! digital painting app series across handheld and mobile platforms, the custom SonarPen stylus hardware, and the BAFTA-winning game Yoku's Island Express.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Where Collecting Smiles is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- San Francisco
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
Collecting Smiles business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2C
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Supply Chain, Operations, Marketing or Sales
Revenue model
- App sales - Colors! series: One-time purchase model for Colors! apps on various platforms including Nintendo 3DS, iOS, Android, PSVita, and Nintendo Switch
- Hardware sales - SonarPen: Sale of custom pressure-sensitive stylus bundled with Colors Live for Nintendo Switch
- Game sales - Yoku's Island Express: Sale of the open-world pinball adventure game Yoku's Island Express across multiple platforms
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| One time/ perpetual license | Pay-as-you-go | Colors! 3D - $6.99 in US eShop |
| One time/ perpetual license | Pay-as-you-go | Colors Live - Sold via Nintendo eShop with physical retail release |
| One time/ perpetual license | Pay-as-you-go | Colors! mobile apps - $2.99 sale price |
| One time/ perpetual license | Pay-as-you-go | Colors! for PlayStation Vita - $6.99 |
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels5 records
Marketing channels5 records
Collecting Smiles product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Collecting Smiles is an independent studio that develops and sells the Colors! family of digital painting applications across Nintendo DS/3DS/Switch, iOS, Android, and PlayStation Vita, plus original video games such as Yoku's Island Express. The flagship Colors Live pairs the painting app with a custom SonarPen pressure-sensitive stylus. Revenue is generated primarily through one-time app and game sales via first-party digital storefronts, with physical retail distribution of Colors Live via Nighthawk Interactive.
Product overview
Collecting Smiles is a boutique independent game studio founded and operated by Jens Andersson, a former LucasArts and MachineGames designer. The company develops two distinct product lines: (1) A suite of digital painting applications under the Colors! brand spanning multiple platforms (Nintendo DS/3DS/Switch, iOS, Android, PlayStation Vita) with the flagship Colors Live for Switch featuring custom SonarPen hardware; and (2) Original games including Yoku's Island Express (an open-world pinball adventure built with Villa Gorilla) and experimental titles like Rorschach and Hyena. The Colors! ecosystem is unified by an integrated social gallery platform where users share, browse, follow artists, and replay painting videos. Colors Live represents the company's evolution into hardware products and Kickstarter-funded development.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Colors!: Digital painting application with social gallery features, originally launched for Nintendo DS and later ported to iOS, Android, PSVita, and Nintendo 3DS.
- Colors! 3D
- Colors Live
- Yoku's Island Express
Products and services
- Colors Live A social painting application for Nintendo Switch featuring the custom SonarPen pressure-sensitive stylus, layer support, an integrated online gallery, and a new game mode; Collecting Smiles' first Kickstarter-funded project and first hardware product.
- Colors! 3D A stereoscopic 3D painting application for Nintendo 3DS featuring five fixed-depth layers, collaborative Paint with Friends local multiplayer for 2 players, an integrated social gallery, internal resolution of 854x512 with export up to 1600x960.
- Colors! for PlayStation Vita A pressure-sensitive painting application for PlayStation Vita sharing core features with Colors! 3D, including gallery integration and layer support.
- Colors! for Android A painting application for Android devices supporting pressure-sensitive stylus input, video export (Android 4.1+), and layers functionality, with shared gallery features.
- Colors! for iOS (iPhone/iPad) A painting application released as a universal app for iPhone and iPad supporting active stylus input and reference photo features, with gallery features including followers, search, tags, and notifications.
- SonarPen pressure-sensitive stylus A custom pressure-sensitive stylus that connects via the Nintendo Switch audio jack to enable pressure sensitivity on a console without a native stylus; bundled with Colors Live and produced via Kickstarter funding.
- Yoku's Island Express An open-world pinball adventure game developed with Villa Gorilla and published by Team17, released on Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC; built using a proprietary engine; winner of the 2019 BAFTA Games Award for Best Debut.
- Rorschach A detective-adventure game for PC and PSP created in collaboration with artist Ida Rödén, featuring procedural Rorschach blot generation based on usernames and exhibited at art festivals.
- Hyena An AudioGame player/book application combining audiobooks with gamebooks, supporting automated game testing due to its basic controls; released for Nintendo DS and PC in 2008.
- PuffTris A Tetris clone released in 1995, listed as one of the earliest projects on the Collecting Smiles website.
Quantifiable outcome
- One of the best rated 3DS titles of all time - Colors! 3D
- +1 more outcomes
Companies that use Collecting Smiles
Customer profileNamed customers2 records
Segments2 records
Ideal customer profiles2 records
Collecting Smiles technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Feature5 records
Collecting Smiles partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Four partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.
- Nighthawk InteractivecorePartnership for physical retail distribution of Colors Live across North America and Europe. Nighthawk Interactive handled the manufacturing and distribution of physical copies to complement the digital eShop release.
- Team17corePublisher for Yoku's Island Express, providing publishing support and helping get the game into players' hands worldwide.
- Villa GorillacoreCo-development partnership for Yoku's Island Express - an open-world pinball adventure game. Jens Andersson built the game together with Villa Gorilla for release on Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC.
- MachineGamesminorJens Andersson joined as Design Director to work on Indiana Jones and the Great Circle (released December 2024), then returned to independent development in July 2025.
Scale indicators3 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights5 records
Collecting Smiles competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Moon Studios: Austrian indie studio behind Ori and the Blind Forest/Will of the Wisps. Comparable as a small independent studio producing critically acclaimed, multi-platform action-adventure games with strong art direction.
- Supergiant Games: US indie studio behind Bastion, Transistor, Hades, and Pyre. Comparable as a small independent studio with critical acclaim, multi-platform releases, and BAFTA-tier recognition.
- Playdead: Danish indie studio behind Limbo and Inside. Comparable as a small, founder-led independent studio producing critically distinctive, art-forward games with multi-platform releases.
- Villa Gorilla: Swedish indie studio that co-developed Yoku's Island Express with Jens Andersson. Direct comparison as a small independent game studio with co-development, publishing, and platform relationships of comparable scale.
- Yacht Club Games: US indie studio behind Shovel Knight. Comparable as a small independent studio producing a distinctive IP with multi-platform distribution and dedicated fan base.
- Mode 7 Games: UK indie studio behind Frozen Synapse and Frozen Endzone. Comparable as a small independent studio with a niche but loyal following and multi-platform strategy game releases.
- ibis Inc. (ibis Paint): Developer of the popular mobile digital painting app ibis Paint. Direct overlap as a cross-platform digital painting application with social/community sharing features on mobile devices.
Broad incumbents
- Team17: UK-based indie game publisher (Worms, Overcooked, Blasphemous). Direct prior relationship as publisher of Yoku's Island Express; broader incumbent with established indie publishing infrastructure Collecting Smiles has leveraged.
- Procreate (Savage): Developer of the dominant iPad digital painting app, Procreate. Direct overlap in the digital painting/creative tooling space, but operating at substantially larger scale with a tablet-native (rather than handheld) focus.
Emerging players
- Krita Foundation (Krita): Steward of the open-source Krita digital painting application. Direct overlap in the digital painting software category, though free/open-source rather than commercial, and desktop-focused rather than handheld.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
Collecting Smiles social profiles
Digital presenceCollecting Smiles financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Collecting Smiles leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles1 record
Collecting Smiles funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Collecting Smiles M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Collecting Smiles
What does Collecting Smiles do?
Collecting Smiles is an independent studio that develops and sells the Colors! family of digital painting applications across Nintendo DS/3DS/Switch, iOS, Android, and PlayStation Vita, plus original video games such as Yoku's Island Express. The flagship Colors Live pairs the painting app with a custom SonarPen pressure-sensitive stylus. Revenue is generated primarily through one-time app and game sales via first-party digital storefronts, with physical retail distribution of Colors Live via Nighthawk Interactive.
Is Collecting Smiles a public or private company?
Collecting Smiles is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was Collecting Smiles founded?
Collecting Smiles was founded in 2007. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is Collecting Smiles based?
Collecting Smiles is headquartered in San Francisco, United States, in the North America region.
How does Collecting Smiles make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. App sales - Colors! series are the primary driver. The others are hardware sales - SonarPen and game sales - Yoku's Island Express.
Who are Collecting Smiles's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Moon Studios, Supergiant Games, Playdead, Villa Gorilla, Yacht Club Games, Mode 7 Games and ibis Inc. (ibis Paint). Broad incumbents are Team17 and Procreate (Savage). Krita Foundation (Krita) is listed as an emerging player.
Does Collecting Smiles have an API?
No public API is recorded for Collecting Smiles.